The 150th anniversary of President-Elect Lincoln‘s tense arrival in Washington has provoked several evocative blog posts.

Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, provides a comprehensive decscription about Lincoln’s travels for the “Disunion” blog at the New York Times. Through several posts (see especially 2/10, 2/21 and 2/22) Widmer traces the route from Springfield to Washington and illustrates the ups and downs of the emotional journey. Though Lincoln never wrote about this trip, his secretary John Nicolay conveyed the following:

“It is hard for anyone who had not had the chance of personal observation to realize the mingled excitement and apprehension, elation and fatigue which Mr. Lincoln… underwent… during this memorable trip from Springfield to Washington.”

Historian Harold Holzer also authored a vivid post for “Disunion” on the anniversary of the President-Elect’s arrival in Washington. Holzer gathers inspiration from the close parallels between Lincoln’s trip and President Obama’s recent pre-inaugural journey. However, he says, “Most Americans overlooked a critical historical irony.” President-elect Obama enjoyed record-breaking crowds on the way to his inauguration while president-elect Lincoln was met by a single friend. “Lincoln made the final leg of his journey in total secrecy,” Holzer writes, “in the dead of night, disguised to avoid detection and at one point sleeping near a woman who was not his wife.”

In a news feature by Brady Dennis re-posted within their own Civil War blog series, The Washington Post compares the nation’s capital from 1860 to city it is today.  See  “President-elect Lincoln arrived to a less-than-monumental Washington.”

Lincoln re-enactor Fritz Kelin actually took the train ride again from Springfield to Washington.  See the article “Abraham Lincoln”  here with a funny video account here.

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest

The Sons of Confederate Veterans’ recent proposal for a Mississippi state-issued license plate in honor Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was also an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan, has become the issue of considerable national attention. This controversy has been heightened with the refusal of Governor Haley Barbour to publicly denounce the group’s proposal.

Forrest is a controversial figure in American history; praised by some as a military genius and vilified by others for leading an 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, and for his position as the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan following the war.

When he was asked about his stance, Governor Barbour replied: “I don’t go around denouncing people. That’s not going to happen. I don’t even denounce the news media.” He went on to add; “I know there’s not a chance it’ll become law.”

On Penn State’s blog of the Civil War Era, Sean Trainor, weighed in with a passionate response. “This should not be, and it cannot be,” he said, “We cannot allow [the] approval… of remembering so odious, so miserable, so unforgivable a figure as Nathan Bedford Forrest.” Trainor characterizes Forrest as a man who earned his fortune in slave trade, who led a massacre of surrendered African-American troops, and the person who ended his “illustrious personal history” as the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

He went on to say: “Forrest’s memory is… offensive… to all Americans. No amount of military ‘genius,’ no feat or maneuver on a battlefield near or far will make Forrest anything more than what he was: a grim manifestation of America’s most hateful legacy and the author of countless sorrows.”

Bloggers who defend the Sons of Confederate Veterans have shared their opinions in defense of the proposal. In a blog posted on “The Confederate American” website entitled “Nathan Bedford Forrest: Civil Rights Pioneer,” supporters express the belief that Forrest’s name has been unjustly tarnished by the evolving impressions of the Ku Klux Klan and false accusations about his actual involvement.

“As usual, the NAACP and the news media are attempting to shape opinions rather than impartially relay facts.” These supporters state that Forrest distanced himself from the Klan once it became a purely racial organization, and went on to embrace a “radical” doctrine that was “light years” ahead of other measures of the day, even in the North. They support this with quotes from a speech that Forrest is said to have made to a prominent civil rights group at the time.

“The good name of General Nathan Bedford Forrest should not be allowed to be falsely demeaned by those with a leftist ‘politically correct’ agenda. On the contrary, he must be remembered as a civil rights pioneer who tried his best to head off the over 100 years of racial strife that followed the War Between the States.”

Noted blogger (and teacher) Kevin Levin recently had a feisty post about Abraham Lincoln on the president’s 202 birthday that complained about a BBC plug for yet another a forthcoming Lincoln documentary.    Quoting from the press materials –“150 years after the war his reputation is being re-assessed, as historians begin to uncover the dark side of his life and politics” — Levin responds, in mock disgust, “Give me a break.”  He points out that Henry Gates did the same sort of video a few years earlier and “did a much better job.” The next day in his “Civil War Memory” blog, Levin asked the provocative question:  “Should Descendants of Confederate Soldiers Celebrate Lincoln’s Birthday?” His answer … yes.

Ted Widmer provides an elegant account of Lincoln’s actual 52d birthday on February 12, 1861 in the New York Times blog “Disunion.”  President-Elect Lincoln began the day in Indianapolis and ended up in Cincinnati where he received “a magnificent ovation.”  Widmer calls it a “good day,” before noting poignantly that on that same day, Lincoln friend and political advisor Norman B. Judd received a letter from detective Allan Pinkerton warning  that there was “a plot on foot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln” in Baltimore.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum has a relatively new blog about Lincoln and his times called, “From Out of the Top Hat,” and while they somehow skipped an entry on Lincoln’s birthday (huh?), scholar / bloggers Richard Wrightman Fox and Tom Schwartz had two excellent posts this past week about Lincoln’s “boyishness” and a little known sketch from the pre-inaugural train ride.

We were proud here at House Divided Project on Thursday when another image from that ride appeared in the Washington Post‘s Civil War blog series.  They used a vivid Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper image of Lincoln meeting New York politicos on February 20, 1861 courtesy of our research engine.

On a less scholarly note, many blogs devoted to Hollywood noted this past week that actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured above) has signed on to play Mary Lincoln in the forthcoming feature film, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”  No doubt, Todd family descendants are pleased.  Not sure how Lincoln himself would have responded.

News coverage of the Civil War anniversary spiked this week as various groups commemorated 150 years since Jefferson Davis’s swearing-in as Provisional President of the Confederacy on February 18, 1861.  USA Today offered a thoughtful overview of the tensions underlying the impending anniversaries in a piece entitled, “Across the South, the Civil War in an Enduring Conflict,” February 17, 2011.  After noting that Davis’s parade route in Montgomery, Alabama in 1861 was also near the spot where Rosa Parks refused to accept segregated bus seating in 1955 and thus helped spark the modern-day civil rights movement, USA Today correspondent Rick Hampson calls the area, “the Jerusalem of Southern memory.”  Hampson then solicited a wide range of provocative comments from scholars such as David Blight and James Loewen and activists such as Mark Potok from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Tom Strain from the Sons of Confederate Veterans before reaching the startling conclusion that, “In some ways, Americans are more divided by the war on its 150th anniversary than they were on its 100th in 1961.”

Bob Martin, editor of the Montgomery Independent, provided a commentary on this division in a column that was published online by a local newspaper in Alabama.  In the column, “We can’t change history, but can attitudes,” Martin argues against what he calls attempts in the South to ignore the painful conflict, pointing out, “those who want to honor the history of their ancestors who served their country from 1861-65 are due the same respect as those in the union states who wish to do likewise.”

From the other side of the country, the Colorado Statesman, a weekly non-partisan newspaper, launched a sesquicentennial column this week by amateur historian Patrick Teegarden (and self-described “expatriate of the Border State of Maryland”).  Teegarden also commented on the ongoing divisions over commemoration and announced his plans to sketch out the history of the conflict on a regular basis.

The BBC provided their own summary of this unfolding debate in an online feature from February 18, “Civil War: Southerners Remember Confederate President,” that quotes historians such as Eric Foner and Joshua Rothman, analyzing the continuing arguments over slavery and its role in causing the war.

On a local level, the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg celebrated its 10th anniversary on Wednesday evening, February 16.  Former mayor Steve Reed received an award from The Pickett Society for his “devotion to historical correctness” and the Patriot News reported that the “media came loaded with questions.”  The focus, however, was not on the historical Civil War, but rather on the modern-day conflict that has ripped Harrisburg apart during the previous year as the city teeters near bankruptcy.  Reed refused to comment on the struggles of current mayor Linda Thompson, trying his best to steer the attention to the wonderful museum which he helped found.

Soldier Studies is a free online database that contains over 1200 Union and Confederate soldiers’ letters between 1860 and 1865. Each soldier has a profile with key biographical information and links to all of their letters in the collection. Some profiles also include photographs and short essays about the soldier. For example, Soldier Studies has four letters by Henry H. Hitchcock, who served in Company A of the 12th New York. In June 1861 Hitchcock’s regiment was in Washington DC. After he saw the “post office, treasury building, White House, Smithsionian Institute, [and] the Washington Monument,” Hitchcock explained that he “never saw too much before in so short a time” and “had no idea of the splendor of the public buildings here.” You can also browse this collection by subject, search by keyword, or see the full list of soldiers’ who have profiles. Check this page for the latest updates to the site. In addition, Soldier Studies has several resources available for teachers, such as the “American Civil War Soldier WebQuest.” The site also has a collection of articles on a number of different topics, including “Caring for the Men: The History of Civil War Medicine” and “Civil War Pensions.” Soldier Studies was created by Chris Wehner, a high school history teacher in Colorado, and Devin Watson.

On July 13, 1865 P. T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York City burned down and the Lost Museum’s interactive online exhibit allows you to figure out who is responsible for the crime. Before you start the investigation, it helps to watch the video introduction or at least read this overview of the exhibit. (You can also just skip the mystery part and explore the 3-D museum). The American Social History Project at the City University of New York Graduate Center launched the site for use in the classroom and teachers can pick from a number of different activities, such as “The Path to War?,” “John Brown, Violence, and Social Change,” and “The Debate Over Women’s Roles in Public.” In addition, the Lost Museum Archive has a number of different types of primary sources available – these include those related to the “Sectional Crisis,” “Amusement Devices,” “Civil War in New York City,” and “Tom Thumb.” The essays are also important since they help put Barnum’s museum in context – see especially “Barnum’s American Museum,” Ann Fabian’s “Women in P. T. Barnum’s New York City,” and Peter G. Buckley’s “Urban Popular Culture in the Age of Barnum.” Each essay includes links to relevant primary sources. This website was produced in collaboration with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, which created other digital history resources such as “Exploring U. S. History,” “Virginia 400,” and “Historical Thinking Matters.” You can learn more about the city in Ernest A. McKay’s The Civil War and New York City (1990).

One way to keep up with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is through the Washington Post’s Civil War twitter account. Every day they tweet details on events that occurred 150 years ago. As Mississippi seceded on January 9, 1861, the Washington Post noted “Miss secedes: ‘Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.’” Unfortunately the tweets with quotes are not linked to any sources. The Washington Post also has created several other features for the 150th anniversary, including a “Timeline: The Road to Civil War” and a photo gallery on “Washington, D.C.: 1860 and today.” In addition, the Washington Post’s “A House Divided” blog includes posts by Civil War historians on a variety of topics as well as announcements on events related to the 150th anniversary. Harold Holzer, Chandra Manning, and Frank Williams have discussed in recent posts the reasons why President-Elect Abraham Lincoln was silent after his election. Other interesting posts include Gary Gallagher and David Blight on “Could the war have been prevented?” All of the Washington Post’s features on the Civil War are available on this page.

James Oakes and Matthew Pinsker will lead a seminar called “Lincoln and Emancipation” at New York University this summer from July 10 to July 16. The seminar will “will explore Lincoln’s evolving views on slavery, from his earliest anti-slavery expressions in the 1830s and 1840s to the development of his presidential emancipation policy during the Civil War.” Other information about this seminar is available here. If you want to attend, check this page for details on applying . The deadline is February 1, 2011. Oakes is a Professor of History at The City University of New York and received the Lincoln Prize for The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics in 2008. Pinsker is the Pohanka Chair for Civil War History at Dickinson College and Director of the House Divided Project. You can watch Oakes discuss Lincoln and Race and Pinsker lead a discussion about Lincoln and the election of 1860 for a class at Dickinson College. The Gilder Lehrman Institute also offers a number of other seminars this summer, including The South in American History (June 26-June 30, 2011), The American Civil War: Origins and Consequences (June 19-25, 2011), and Reconstruction (July 17-23, 2011). A complete list of seminars is available here.

To help honor the start of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and to publicize the launch of a wide-ranging effort to help America’s classrooms learn more about this pivotal conflict, the House Divided Project at Dickinson College will host a weekend of entertaining and educational events, free of charge to participants:

1. Documentary Film Festival – Friday April 15, 2011, 7pm to 9pm

• Watch a fascinating collection of short documentary films about the Civil War and its impact on ordinary Americans and small communities such as Carlisle, Pennsylvania.  Open to the public.

2. Teacher Workshop – Saturday April 16, 2011, 9am to noon

• Learn about the extraordinary range of free resources available online through the House Divided Project and other leading digital content providers.  Advance registration required –open to K-12 educators and home-schooling parents.

3. Civil War Tours – Saturday April 16, 2011, 1pm to 3pm

• Experience Civil War walking tours as never before. Students and staff from House Divided will lead visitors around Carlisle using the latest digital tools to help create a truly unique glimpse into the past.  Reservations encouraged.

4. David Blight Lecture – Saturday April 16, 2011, 7pm to 8:30pm

• Yale historian and author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2001), David Blight will explore the meaning of the conflict at the beginning of its 150th anniversary.  Book signing to follow.  Open to the public.

All events are free

Questions? Contact Don Sailer at hdivided@dickinson.edu or 717-245-1525

Charles Hammer recently wrote a new novel entitled Of Love And War: 1864: A Civil War Novel For The North. As Hammer describes,

“The typical Civil War novel usually features a Confederate cavalier, often served by a loyal slave sidekick, who battles gallantly—for what? Actually, battling gallantly is all the South requires in such a book. Forget why we fought. “Of Love and War: 1864” strongly counters that view. It sends up the South of that era with, among accurate historical facts, a little-known verse the U. S. Colored Infantry sang in marching to war:

Away down South in the land of traitors,
Rattlesnakes and alligators,
Right away, come away, right away, Dixie land!
Where cotton’s king and men are chattels,
Union boys will win the battles….

In my story a peckerwood Georgia Militia deserter searches for the escaped slave girl he loves. He blunders into a firefight and gets captured by her. Now disguised as a man and enlisted as bluecoat sergeant in the U. S. Colored Infantry, she leads a wildcat black squad on one flank of Sherman’s march from Atlanta to the sea. They aim to emancipate slaves at plantations the army itself will not reach.”

You can learn more about this book on Amazon.com.