The Crater: its air is the thing

PBS revisits the ACW. I like the angle but trust the context will be mangled beyond belief.

Two approaches to heritage toursim

(1) Spend it and they will come: Manassas.

(2) Spend nothing, make them come: Horseheads.

Note: Horseheads are more intelligent than generally thought.

How to count your chickens in heritage tourism

Apologies to Mad magazine, but when they say

Civil War enthusiasts spent roughly $244 million in visiting Civil War battlefields across the country in 2007

What they really mean is

Civil War enthusiasts spent roughly $243.999 million and 99 cents visiting Gettysburg in 2007.

Focus

What are the chances that sixth grade moviemakers can create films "that will be used as learning tools for anyone who visits historic [ACW] sites"?

This project is a $400,000 extravaganza designed to amuse the teachers more than the students (note the quotes in the story - everyone talking about the excitement of the students, except the students).

The great thing about using sixth graders is that - historiographically - they don't talk back. Whatever you tell them happened, it happened.

The movies will be used at the battlefield [centers] and be streamed through other outlets.

It's a "science is settled" version of history and definitely a culmination of every evil trend since the Centennial.

Come here child. Take this camera and document the insights of a Pulitzer winner. That's a good little scholar.

Perhaps, through countless experiments like these, we may eventually come up with some Sesquicentennial offering the student of history might be interested in.

The explosive "cannonball"

Another potentially explosive "cannonball" - don't think we'll ever be rid of these stories.

McClellan's "typhoid fever"

This is more of a matter for Jim Schmidt's blog. nevertheless the news regarding Florida's dengue fever reminds me of my discomfort with the legend of McClellan's typhoid relapse in late '61.

I call it a legend because it is one of those endlessly repeated items that needs scrutiny. McClellan himself refers to the illness of December '61 as typhoid fever and as a relapse, which suggests he heard his own diagnosis from contemporary medicine. But contemporary medicine knew nothing of bacteria, which is how typhoid is transmitted.

Dengue is spread by mosquitos and the symptoms better match what we know about his "relapse." Dengue also reaches a dead end with the victim, unlike the "Typhoid Mary" effect which would fell some of the victim's cohort.

Let me suggest McClellan had dengue fever as we now define it. I cite recurrence; the nature of the symptoms; the duration of the December outbreak; the lack of contagion.

Here is a quick read on dengue fever and another on typhoid fever.

Farragut and his easy answers, updated

One-star Admiral David Farragut, USN: "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" (1864, entering mined Mobile Bay under fire)

Four-star Admiral Mike Mullen, USN: "There’s no easy solution, and there will be no quick fix." (2008, on Afghanistan)

"If there was an easy answer, we would’ve picked it off the shelf." (2010, on Iran)

"... there are no easy answers there and it takes a considerable amount of study, participation and engagement to get your arms around what the challenges are." (2010, on Pakistan)

"... tough questions with no easy answers." (2009, on formulating national military strategy)

"Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday that there are no easy answers." (2009, on rising military suicide rates)

McClellan visuals (cont.)

This is a photo I have not seen before used to illustrate a not very interesting website. The late Brian Pohanka shared with me his great collection of McClellan CDVs and this pose - almost a three quarter view - does not match anything therein. In its dimensions (unless it has been cropped) it is likely not a CDV at all.

I notice a moire pattern in the background that suggests the fine screen used in book publishing - or is this an illusion?

And the big, fat thumprint on his cheek - very distinctive.

Clues welcome - send them along.

CSA vs. USA intelligence - a problem shunned (1/4)

It is a staple of early war history that McClellan thought the Rebels knew his plans or could easily learn them if he shared too much.

This is generally presented as "McClellan thought" never as "McClellan knew." The most-prized historians offer it as yet another tile in their colorful mosaic of paranoid schizophrenia.

The publishing wave of Civil War letters and diaries that began in the 1990s validate McClellan. The oddity of prizewinners not understanding the impact of these letters and diaries upon their own doctrines is a deep subject covered here in postings past. Suffice it to say, the big men at the top are not reading contemporary stuff carefully enough, nor do they seem able to process what they are reading.

The overwhelming pattern in AoV early war memoirs and letters is an awareness of Union plans deep in Rebel ranks - down to company level in places. This is not consistent across all documents but it is persistent even if intermittent.

I read for this - used to actually log examples in a database that is no more. I invite you to do the same. What does the diarist or memoirist know? How does he know it?

The studies of Civil War intel I know of number only two, they are Union-centric, and they are feeble at best, to put it kindly. It may be a measure of Confederate excellence in this field that no studies have been written about their intelligence gathering (I set aside biographies of individual spies here).

It seems to me that historians generally fail to note that Southerners know Northern plans without Northerners knowing Southern plans. (Exception: McClellan's foreknowledge of Jackson's move from the Valley to turn his flank on the Peninsula; but this exception seems also unknown to historians.) Those who note the disparity don't care enough about it to investigate or filter their analysis accordingly.

A new biography of Stephen Dodson Ramseur, CSA, contains comments elaborating in detail on McClellan's Peninsula strategy made while Ramseur was a regimental grade officer. These will bear a closer look in later posts.

Your Antiques Roadshow moment has arrived

The oil painting described here is a color rendering of Alonzo Chappel's work (seen here). Looked familiar, eh? I had seen the engraving before.

Here's the neat part. Chappel ran something like Andy Warhol's art factory. His assistants created engravings from oil painting originals. They were all based on Long Island. This painting was found on Long Island.

Is this Chappel's original painting from which the engravings followed? It is not known to the web compilers of his art. It is a find but is it Chappel's work or a rendering of one of his engravings by a student or third party? Answer that question and your Antiques Roadshow moment has arrived.

Chappel did many nice pieces. This Scott graced an Eisenhower book cover. Gather clues by comparing and contrasting the level of technique in Scott's face and horse with GBM's face and horse.

And have yourself a nice Civil War browse.

Ezra Carman in spades

Tom Clemen's presentation of Ezra Carman's unpublished opus is nearly upon us and I want to take some space comparing it to Joseph Pierro's later this week.

McClellan visuals (cont.)

More McClellan visuals from recent research: this by the eminent and collected artist Robert Ball Hughes believed to have been done in 1862. The savagery of the attacks on GBM's reputation seem to have stimulated an outpouring of artistic expression.

This is "pyrography" and you can find another Hughes portrait burned into wood here (scroll down).

Idiosyncratic!

McClellan visuals

Hunting up the sources for the recent painting post has produced a bumper crop of imagery seeking exposure. This piece is irresistible: "George Brinton McClellan, c. 1862, Painted wood relief by Unidentified Artist; this wood carving was reputedly removed from the stern of a ship built in Thomaston, Maine." More to come.

A discovered McClellan painting

Meandering through Ellicott City (MD) this afternoon, I popped into Joe Parr's Historic Framing and Collectibles shop, where in the back he had a magnificent McClellan painting encased in a wide gilded frame. Most but not all of the picture is in this detail. Click to enlarge.

You see here the result of a $100 flatbed reading a photo printed from a slide, so the colors are washed out - especially the tents in the background.

Joe spent $2,500 restoring the piece with an expert who dated it 1860-1880. My quick and dirty reading of the piece puts it early on that scale. It has many naive touches where the artist ran out of technique. Perspective in particular is charming, with the tents looming like mountains.

For instance, look at this circa 1841 mother and child (right). There's a genius at work here (click to enlarge), but it's not technical. Compare it to this sophisticated 1888 McClellan by Julian Scott, now in the National Portrait Gallery.

Not all the earlier portraiture is naive - Christian Schussele's famous 1862 equestrian portrait is brimming with European mastery. But a great deal of the idiosyncratic art dates earlier.

Here's a famous image - also 1862 - from our late friend Brian Pohanka's collection of mcClellan images. Again, the depth is delightfully two-dimensional.

And here's one more from '62 (right). What it adds on the technique side of the ledger, it subtracts on the idiosyncratic . What gang signal is GBM making with his hand? Who is the rotund planter? Why is there a prominent heavy chap in the background?

But back to Joe's painting. It's large, at least 5' x 4' and some inches. It engages us at 3/4 scale.

The horse, Joe says, is Arabian. It does not resemble Dan Webster, so I wonder if this is Kentuck or some fantasy beast.

The painter took some care with GBM's hair color. Note, however, he's been given a third star. Now, the third star can mystically represent Mac's standing in for Scott. However, that would be asynchronous if this is a Maryland Campaign setting at which time Halleck is standing in for Scott.

Joe thinks the picture depicts September 13, 1862. GBM may be holding the Lost Order in his left hand, scribbling orders with his right, his eyes envisioning Lee's dispositions . I agree with this analysis.

The painting was rescued from an above-the-fireplace location in what appears to have been a private New York veteran's club. This location argues for a postwar commissioning.

If you have any insights on this piece you can write Joe an email - Histfram at aol.com. If you are in the neighborhood, he is at 8344 Main Street conveniently located between two bars and a wine shop.

And if you buy the thing, drop me a line so I can buy it from you when you tire of it.

A legacy of "professionalism"

Updated from 1861-65:

Lieutenant Sam Nuxoll, a platoon leader posted in Iraq, told military website Company Command how he spent most of his time making PowerPoint presentations. 'I have to make a storyboard complete with digital pictures, diagrams and text summaries on just about anything that happens,' he added.

I worked on a project last year with a retired USMC colonel who had served closely with the current Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Casey, when Casey commanded in Iraq. His comment on Casey was

He would spend hours personally fiddling with a single PowerPoint slide.

My impression of American civilians is that they have a fantasy picture of contemporary military forces "informed" by the history they read, including ACW history. The only correction comes if they or a family member joins the services.

They're not entirely at fault in this. At the dawn of VOLAR when the last tranches of WWII and Korea vets were retiring, I got sick of them telling me, "Don't worry, all this BS goes away the moment the balloon goes up." They were probably envisioning a draft, a massive influx of civilian sanity to put checks on the out-of-control "professionals." Doesn't look like that's ever going to happen.

General Lee, I hope you enjoy this PowerPoint presentation General Longstreet and I have prepared for you.

This is the fruit of the "professionalism" Grant, Sherman, Schofield and others struggled for postwar and it anticipates the criticism of "professionalism" made by the radical Republicans, by Butler, Sickles, Logan, and many others.

"Rethink the role that slavery plays in historical tourism"

Two professors agree, "While slavery has been a vital topic for scholars for decades, it remains the third rail of the historical tourism industry. "

They then urge, " As the commemorations get underway, slavery must not be pushed to the 'margins of our public explorations of the Civil War. In short, it should not be just 'okay' to talk about slavery—it should be essential."

Do they think that if enough venues touch the third rail, the electricity goes away?

Book trailers

One of the odd things about talk and news radio in the NYC market is (was?) the frequency of ads pushing new book releases, usually blockbuster novels. The announcer acts out a passage or reads the dust jacket copy in a dramatic voice. Can a radio buy pay for itself in book sales? I found this media mix baffling.

When I moved to DC, by contrast, the talk and news radio ads were easily understood. There seemed to be just three at the time, in endless rotation: Viagra, Mervis Diamonds, and Hummers. Sounds like a blue joke on the governing class, but it persisted from 2002-2004 and never a book ad have I heard on these airwaves. I don't miss being puzzled.

Savas Beatie is doing book trailers. The idea confuses me as much as radio ads for books. Do they work for you? How? Let me know.

Update, 4/29: Ted Savas explained them as high quality, low cost persistent advertising that provides much more value than a comparable print media ad buy in periodicals.

A Sesquicentennial prediction

The believers continue to believe:

"What I'm seeing is there's an effort to organize and get ready for what's predicted to be a tsunami of tourism."

Heritage tourism is a cult.

It's a Sesquicentennial perk

You head the commission, you get the speaking engagements.

The soldier's level of culture

Modern reality can be found here. This is an echo of what was, 1861-1865.

The sick fantasy we adore is here. When will we stop this desecration?