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The article discusses the significance of the Confederate States of America Medical Department and the periodical the "Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal" in advancing Confederate nationalism and identity during the U.S. Civil War, particularly concerning what is referred to as a Confederate intellectual independence.

This paper uses the donors' register of the Zurich Bürgerbibliothek ('citizens' library') to explore how the collection of the city's first public library developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The donors' register records over 3,000 gifts from some 900 local and foreign benefactors between 1629, the year of the library's founding, and 1769. Unlike a standard library or auction catalogue, the donors' register allows us to observe engagement with the Bürgerbibliothek over time and reveals that, while a remarkable influx of patrons in the first decade of the library's existence secured its position in the cultural and intellectual fabric of Zurich society, international interest in the institution dropped significantly by the end of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, the Bürgerbibliothek's consistent growth across the period attests to the popularity of the library and its accessible collection at a local level as well as its benefactors' belief in the reciprocal value of patronising this new type of civic institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The summer of 2020 saw a global mobilization protesting the murder of George Floyd, during which statues glorifying white supremacy were toppled. Drawing on the narratives surrounding the removal of the Colston statue in Bristol and the Confederacy statues in New Orleans and Charlottesville, the paper examines the role of statues in the construction of political identities and social fantasies through Lacan's theory of anxiety. For Lacan, anxiety tells us what subjects identify as threatening or familiar is not a reflection of objective circumstances but individual desires. By proposing the concepts of working against anxiety and working with anxiety, the paper examines (1) fantasies that aim to re-establish the old narratives and identities that were challenged in the process of statue removal and (2) practices that dwell in the moment of anxiety in an attempt to repair historical violences. The paper makes three contributions: firstly, to the literature on anxiety, the paper shows why anxiety is not an emotion but a building block of subject formation. Secondly, to the literature on commemoration, the paper demonstrates how statues affirm some identities while negate others, re-producing (racialized) violence; and to the literature on resistance, the paper demonstrates how deeply entrenched anxieties continue to constrict social progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, steps made toward full enfranchisement of African Americans, competitive elections, and representative democracy in the former Confederate States collapsed. White "Redeemers" established a subnational authoritarian regime that encompassed nearly the entire formerly Confederate South—reasserting the rule of political and economic white supremacy. This paper aims to understand how racial threat affected the political decisions made by disfreanchisers. Methods: Analyzing an originally constructed data set of congressional elections returns and demographic data from 1870 to 1920. Results: I find evidence that racial threat, properly specified, explains why democracy deteriorated in particular pockets of the South faster and more completely than in others. Conclusion: I argue that racial threat, despite its contemporary limitations, is a useful theory for understanding the political development of the American South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students and community members forcefully tore down a confederate monument known as Silent Sam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018. This action unleashed brutal retaliation and ongoing strife. The toppling of Silent Sam should be celebrated as an antiracist milestone that can inspire deeper reflection, racial reckoning, and institutional accountability locally and in other North American higher education institutions. While the Jim Crow era monument's massive concrete plinth held aloft an armed confederate soldier, a brass plaque on its base vividly depicted white women's moral authority in encouraging militarism. I argue that white supremacy is deeply rooted at UNC, the oldest public university in the country, and is reinforced by layers of official lies such as the invented historical narrative of the Lost Cause, celebrating an idyllic slaveholding past that never existed. In order to build on this moment of rupture, scholars must begin to think of themselves as cultural and intellectual workers and endeavor to build collective power through labor unions, creative activities, American Association of University Professors chapters, professional and antiracist organizations. Only in this way, can scholars protect themselves, their colleagues, and students. Signing petitions is not enough! In this paper, I discuss a few ways antiracists built collective power on our campus in recent years. I also analyze the visual lessons of the confederate monument that was erected at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill more than a century ago during an earlier period of brutal white supremacist backlash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"A CIVIL WAR IS A BATTLE BETWEEN THE SAME CITIZENS IN A COUNTRY. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR WAS FOUGHT FROM 1861 TO 1865 TO DETERMINE THE INDEPENDENCE FOR THE CONFEDERACY OR THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNION. BY THE TIME ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT IN 1861, IN THE MIST OF 34 STATES, THE CONSTANT DISAGREEMENT CAUSED SEVEN SOUTHERN SLAVE STATES TO THEIR INDEPENDENCE FROM THE UNITED STATES AND FORMED THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. THE CONFEDERACY, GENERALLY KNOWN AS THE SOUTH, GREW TO INCLUDE ELEVEN STATES. THE STATES THAT REMAINED DEVOTED TO THE US WERE KNOWN AS THE UNION OR THE NORTH. THE NUMBER ONE QUESTION THAT IS NEVER COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR IS WHAT CAUSED THE WAR. THERE WERE MULTIPLE EVENTS THAT LED TO THE GROUNDBREAKING, BLOODY, AND POLITICAL WAR. IN THE 19TH CENTURY THERE WAS A POPULAR DOCTRINE OR BELIEF THAT THE WESTWARD EXPANSION OF THE UNITED STATES NOT ONLY COULD HAPPEN, BUT THAT IT WAS DESTINED TO STRETCH FROM COAST TO COAST."[1] THIS PAPER IS DEVIDED INTO TWO MAJOR PARTS CLOSELY CONNECTED. THE FIRST PART PRESENTS THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR AND INTENDS TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: 1. WHAT WERE THE REASONS BEHIND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR? 2. WHICH WERE THE MAIN FIGURES, AND BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR? 3. WHICH WERE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR? THE SECOND PART OF THE PAPER PRESENTS AN EMBLEMATIC FIGURE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY: THE PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN. HERE ARE PRESENTED HIS LIFE, POLITICAL ACTIVITY, ASSASINATION AND HIS ROLE IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. THE CONCLUSIONS ROUND THIS PRESENTATION. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of battlefields and associated conflict sites provide tantalising hooks upon which to hand tapestries of grand narratives relating to regional and national identities, often defined by what the identities are not. This paper examines the unlikely connection between Jacobite and Confederate romanticism, and how battlefields, conflict related sites, and symbolic material culture are mobilised through active commemoration by some heritage groups in support of a created, mythic identity of a ‘Southern Celt’. Furthermore, it examines the production of a mythic history that whitewashes and recasts the Confederacy, the reality of the Civil War, and the Confederate Flag, while at the same time minimising, hiding, or ignoring competing narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the aesthetics of presenting various historical artefacts, cultural documents, and ideological narratives at three museums in the United States of America: one tied to the African-American experience, one to the Confederate States of America, and the last one to the Old West, namely the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio; the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia; and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. All three sites are clearly representative repositories and exhibits of 'a nation's memories'. The paper asks how these fascinating exhibits activate, echo, or fabricate the myths that cast the Civil War and its aftermath during the Reconstruction as a 'second founding' of the USA in an ongoing nationalistic 'singing of the nation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which discusses the legacy of the U.S. Civil War from the point of view of the former Confederates and the way they presented it in the pages of the magazine "Confederate Veteran" from 1893 to 1932. Topics include the term "Lost Cause," the magazine's vision of the truth, and its interpretations in textbooks aiming to protect the upper class of the South. The Southern Historical Society Papers that documented veterans' and eyewitnesses' memories are discussed.

Leading up to the 2008 U.S. election, pundits wondered whether Whites, particularly in Southern states, were ready to vote for a Black president. The present paper explores how a common Southern symbol-the Confederate flag-impacted willingness to vote for Barack Obama. We predicted that exposure to the Confederate flag would activate negativity toward Blacks and result in lowered willingness to vote for Obama. As predicted, participants primed with the Confederate flag reported less willingness to vote for Obama than those primed with a neutral symbol. The flag did not affect willingness to vote for White candidates. In a second study, participants primed with the Confederate flag evaluated a hypothetical Black target more negatively than controls. These results suggest that exposure to the Confederate flag results in more negative judgments of Black targets. As such, the prevalence of this flag in the South may have contributed to a reticence for some to vote for Obama because of his race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses manuscripts, maps, and cataloged items owned by the Georgia Historical Society. Items mentioned include the papers of journalist and author Steve Oney, a print of Confederate Army Generals Stonewall Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, and Robert E. Lee, and a photograph of Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. Maps include a map of the city of Savannah by John R. McKinnon, a map of Georgia's Sapelo Sound by A.D. Bache, and a map of the southern U.S. states published by C. Dilly.

Roman Catholic Irish nuns formed a large part of the American Civil War nursing experience in both the North and the South. In fact, when Confederate President Robert E. Lee beseeched the assistance of Irish-born Patrick Lynch, then Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, to provide nurses for his hospitals, Roman Catholic sisters from a local convent were pressed into service. Sister M. De Sales (Brennan), born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, became instrumental in establishing two hospitals in the Virginias. During the war years she penned over 1000 pages of letters to him. Initially, the paper provides an overview of the cultural milieu and medical knowledge that existed prior to the onset of the conflict. Attending to soldiers whose wounds changed both the nature of medicine and the approach to it, women willing to move beyond the confines of predominantly private and family-oriented care assisted on battlefields and in field hospitals of various kinds. In these settings, widows, adventure seekers, good-hearted women and Irish Catholic nuns alike offered many kinds of on-the-job training. Their duties ranged from the more traditional tasks of setting up kitchens, organising laundries and writing letters, to the more daunting services of 'cupping', administering anaesthetics such as whiskey and chloroform, and surgically removing limbs. By virtue of the sheer magnitude of the suffering, the experiences endured by these women altered their confidence in their abilities to minister, changed their perspectives on public life, and ultimately redefined their futures in organisation and administration. De Sales' letters serve as a case study by which to examine how, as a result of the American Civil War, the Roman Catholic Church gained ground and its Irish nuns acquired a stronger foothold in American nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 20,000 Irishmen served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. As a result, they left behind, in various Southern towns and cities, large numbers of friends, family, and community leaders. As with native-born Confederates, Irish civilian support was crucial to Irish participation in the Confederate military effort. Also, Irish civilians served in various supporting roles: in factories and hospitals, on railroads and diplomatic missions, and as boosters for the cause. They also, however, suffered in bombardments, sieges, and the blockade. Usually poorer than their native neighbours, they could not afford to become 'refugees' and move away from the centres of conflict. This essay, based on research from manuscript collections, contemporary newspapers, British Consular records, and Federal military records, will examine the role of Irish civilians in the Confederacy, and assess the role this activity had on their integration into Southern communities. It will also look at Irish civilians in the defeat of the Confederacy, particularly when they came under Union occupation. Initial research shows that Irish civilians were not as upset as other whites in the South about Union victory. They welcomed a return to normalcy, and often 'collaborated' with Union authorities. Also, Irish desertion rates in the Confederate army were particularly high, and I will attempt to gauge whether Irish civilians played a role in this. All of the research in this paper will thus be put in the context of the Drew Gilpin Faust/Gary Gallagher debate on the influence of the Confederate homefront on military performance. By studying the Irish civilian experience one can assess how strong the Confederate national experiment was. Was it a nation without a nationalism? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]