Civil War Historians

This past weekend, I attended the Society of Civil War Historians' conference down in Chattanooga. The experience was something of an eye-opener and still more of a disappointment. 

I began by driving down early. After the month in Sacramento, I really wanted just a little pampering time. I checked into the beautiful Chattanoogan Hotel on Wednesday afternoon. My room on the 5th floor had a gorgeous view of the north end of Lookout Mountain. More importantly, it had a nice bathtub with endless hot water. After dinner and a couple of beers in the hotel bar (and a disappointing loss for the San Jose Sharks), I submerged into that tub and got through another chapter of Jacobson's Barbarian Virtues. The bed was quite comfy, and I turned down the thermostat so I could snuggle under the big white comforter. 

The next morning, after sleeping in deliciously late, I boarded the bus for the conference's special tour of the Chickamauga battlefield. The guide was a guy named Jim who was the spit-and-image of the great Chuck Roebuck. It was uncanny. Sadly, he did not have a beach ball like Chuck, but you can't have everything. 

The tour was amazing in terms of its comprehensiveness  Jim, along with a guy from the conference, took we tour participants through each day of the battle. I liked the way that Jim used the people on the tour as props--and I'm glad I was always a part of Union troops. Throughout the tour, the sound of thunder stood in for the sound of cannons, and we stood in the rain at various stops as we moved along chronologically and spatially through the battle. 

Jim apparently does a lot of work with the Army, teaching officers the history of the battle as a lesson in what to do--and not to do--in similar situations. I learned that although the Rebels won militarily (they captured the battlefield), the Union was actually the strategic and tactical victor (they held Chattanooga, which was  their actual objective). I also learned that Rosecrans suffered from exhaustion and made mistakes because of it and that Bragg was just a dumb-dumb. The Rock of Chickamauga, Gen. George Thomas, did not actually start the brave Yankee stand on I-forgot-the-name Hill, but he did get up there eventually to oversee things. And, finally, I learned that the men of Thomas' corps were very loyal, even 30 years later. When the battlefield was preserved and monuments were built, the various regiments who served under Thomas made damned sure that they were remembered as his men, not Sherman's who later incorporated Thomas' corps into his army. The regiments did so by putting acorns as design features in the monuments, an acorn being the symbol of Thomas' corps. 

There was one thing that disappointed me on the tour. Not once, no matter where we went on the battlefield, did I get that tingly history feeling. One of the joys of going to historic spots is that feeling, that emotional connection with people of the past. But that didn't happen here. I don't know why. 

The tour, as it turns out, was one of the high spots of the conference. At the opening plenary session, the initial speakers were all terrific, especially F. Brundage, who spoke on the Confederate memorials still being constructed in North Carolina to this very day. But, when the floor was opened to questions and comments, the discussion disintegrated into two main topics. The first was on how to teach grade-school and undergrad students their Civil War history. The ideas mostly focused on tying the war to recent history--like Ferguson. Apparently, students can't learn history for its own sake and post hoc ergo proctor hoc is the rule of the day.  The second path of conversation focused on how to get people of all kinds  to understand that good things came out of Reconstruction, that it wasn't all corruption and carpetbaggers. The general consensus seemed to be that nobody has come up with a satisfying narrative arc for Recon. This caused a guy named J. Downs to hop up and down in defense of his mentor Eric Foner, who did write a wonderful book on Recon. This same Downs fellow would show up at two of the panels I sat in on the next day--and he couldn't get over the presumed slight to his idol. 

The panels were OK, but many papers presented were unremittingly dull. Dr. H. actually gave a good presentation, mostly because he's a dynamic speaker. Another guy on his panel also gave w good presentation on the way in which the town of Alton, Illinois, remembered the life and death of an early abolitionist in their midst. 

This brings me to the critiquing part of the conference. Damn, these people probably eat their young. Some people, especially a certain elder stateswoman, critiqued everybody's work that happened on her path!  The arrogance was nearly suffocating. I know that's how these things are supposed to go, but some of the commentators seemed just mean-spirited and way too sure of their own infallibility. To his credit, Dr. H. took his criticism graciously--his arrogance actually seemed diminished in this setting!  Seriously, I couldn't believe my eyes and ears 

The highlight of the conference for me was the grad student luncheon. The attendees were seated at tables headed by scholars who represented various themes in Civil War history. I sat at the memory table. Not only did I sit at the same table as the great C. Janney, but I sat right next to her. My fan girl crush was only increased by seeing her in person. She's completely gorgeous as well as sweet, funny, and wicked smart. The conversation at our table was very stimulating, probably the most stimulating piece of the conference.

So, this blog has been a bit of a downer, but the point of this blog is to record my journey through life, particularly as I work toward the goal of being an historian. And, in this instance, the experience was not wholly positive. However, tomorrow Tricia comes to Tennessee, and we head off on a mini road trip. And I've got to clean the Tiny Flat because there no way Tricia approves of dishes in the sink or an unmade bed. 

Getting my cleaning lady on....