Civil War

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Black Spies Helped Union Cause in Civil War

Historians say they deserve greater recognition

(Newser) - With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War upon us, experts on African-American history are hoping that a group of under-appreciated spies will finally get proper recognition for years of dangerous service, reports the AP . Some of the most useful intelligence-gatherers during the Civil War were black men and women...

Confederate Group Wants Flag on 3 More States' Plates

Opponents say states shouldn't support offensive statements

(Newser) - With an eye to the American Civil War’s sesquicentennial, a Confederate organization wants the Confederate flag to adorn license plates in Texas, Florida, and Kentucky—and critics aren’t happy about it. Sons of Confederate Veterans has already adorned plates in nine states with the flag; the group says...

Robert E. Lee Is No Hero
 Robert E. Lee Is No Hero 
OPINION

Robert E. Lee Is No Hero

It's time we honor the ones who were right: Richard Cohen

(Newser) - Robert E. Lee was a brilliant general, but he "commanded a vast army that, had it won, would have secured the independence of a nation dedicated to the proposition that white people could own black people and sell them off, husband from wife, child from parent, as the owner...

Civil War's Lessons Still Relevant 150 Years Later

Failure to compromise nearly destroyed the nation: Ken Burns

(Newser) - Today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and Ken Burns thinks modern America is still learning its lessons. We like to boast of a post-racial world, for instance, but "we are continually brought up short by the old code words and disguised prejudice of...

25% of Us Have More Sympathy for Confederacy

And 40% of white Southerners feel the same way

(Newser) - Today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and it looks like the conflict is still dividing the country. In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released today, roughly 25% of Americans said they sympathized with the Confederacy more than the Union. Among white Southerners, that figure...

Another Teacher Blasted for Mock Slave Auction

And this time, all the black students told to play slaves

(Newser) - Note to teachers: Perhaps it would be a good idea to skip the mock slave auctions while covering the Civil War. Parents are in an uproar after yet another elementary school engaged in such a lesson, this time in Norfolk, Virginia, on April 1. Jessica Boyle told all the black...

Battlefield Recounts May Rewrite Civil War History

Virginia could overtake North Carolina in number of soldier deaths

(Newser) - With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaching, North Carolina and Virginia have commissioned official recounts of how many soldiers each state lost in battle. What sounds like a humdrum exercise is producing surprising results, reports the Wall Street Journal : North Carolina has long laid claim to losing the...

Mississippi Considers Plate Honoring ... KKK Leader

Sons of Confederate Veterans want to honor general-turned Klan leader

(Newser) - The Sons of Confederate Veterans have rustled up some controversy in Mississippi, by proposing a specialty license plate honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the earliest Grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan. The group wants the state to issue a series of plates commemorating the 150th anniversary...

Historians Battle Wal-Mart Over Civil War Site

Local officials have approved new store location in northern Virginia

(Newser) - Renowned historians and preservationists are primed to take on Wal-Mart in a legal battle over the placement of a new store: in a rural northern Virginia town next to the site of a key Civil War battle. Wal-Mart won approval for the location from a local board in 2009, but...

Stop Denying It: the Civil War Was About Slavery

As anniversary approaches, EJ Dionne says we too often skirt slavery issue

(Newser) - We’re approaching the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s beginning, and at a time like this, we can’t afford to forget its real cause. “There remains enormous denial over the fact that the central cause of the war was our national disagreement about race and slavery,...

Civil War Mystery Message Revealed
Civil War Mystery
Message Revealed

Civil War Mystery Message Revealed

The 147-year-old note reveals no help for a Confederate under siege

(Newser) - A tiny, 2-inch bottle containing a 147-year-old coded message, a bullet, and white thread was a mystery dating to the siege of Vicksburg, but at last the message has been decoded, reports the AP . The bottle, which never reached its Confederate general recipient, sat on a museum shelf for more...

Civil War Sesquicentennial: South Will Celebrate Secession, Not Slavery, on 150th Anniversary
In South, How to Celebrate Secession, Not Slavery?
civil war sesquicentennial

In South, How to Celebrate Secession, Not Slavery?

150th anniversary events include mock swearing-in of Jefferson Davis

(Newser) - How do you celebrate the Confederacy and secession without implicitly celebrating slavery? The South is attempting to do just that, as it plans to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the four-year-long Civil War over the next four years. Events include “secession balls,” re-enactments, a parade, and a mock...

Textbook Says Thousands of Slaves Fought for South

Author Joy Masoff read about it on the Internet

(Newser) - A Virginia 4th-grade textbook has come under fire for claiming that thousands of slaves fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War—something an overwhelming majority of historians say isn’t true. The book’s author, Joy Masoff, isn’t a trained historian, and says she did most of her...

Guess Which War Has the Best Movies

 Guess Which War 
 Has the Best 
 Movies 
HINT: it's not WWII

Guess Which War Has the Best Movies

A look at Rotten Tomatoes gives the crown to the Civil War

(Newser) - The new Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks series The Pacific got the folks at New York magazine's the Vulture blog wondering which war has produced the best movies. They looked up every one they could think of at Rotten Tomatoes, then averaged the scores. The winner: the Civil War. Here are the...

Best War Movies Ever
 Best War Movies Ever 
VETERANS DAY

Best War Movies Ever

Watch clips from Patton to Glory to Full Metal Jacket

(Newser) - In honor of Veterans Day, the Huffington Post runs down the best war movies of all time:
  • Apocalypse Now: Vietnam War
  • From Here to Eternity: Pearl Harbor
  • Patton: World War II
  • Braveheart: Scotland’s battle for independence
  • Lawrence of Arabia: World War I
  • Band of Brothers: World War II (and,
...

Ben Stein to Wal-Mart: Hands Off Civil War Battlefield

(Newser) - Ben Stein loves Wal-Mart—just don’t put one smack-dab in the middle of a historic Civil War battlefield in Orange, Va. The 1864 Battle of the Wilderness was a turning point in the conflict, Stein writes in the American Spectator, and the “battlefield is incredibly important environmentally and...

Lost-and-Found Letter Shows Lincoln's Terse Side

Embattled prez had more to deal with than Civil War

(Newser) - A handwritten note dated just a few days before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has finally made its way back to the National Archives, the Washington Post reports. The terse communication from the president to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase addressed corruption charges against a Lincoln appointee. "Even though this...

Woman Won 'Male Rights' Fighting in Civil War

Soldier remained in her disguise for better jobs, voting rights

(Newser) - A veteran of 40 Civil War skirmishes and battles kept one secret under wraps: her breasts. Union Army soldier Albert Cashier was really Jennie Hodgers, one of hundreds of women who fought in the war. "The country needed men, and I wanted excitement," Hodgers said. She also benefited...

Time to Stop Fighting the Civil War in History Class

Obama means 'honest' discourse on race

(Newser) - Ask a Northerner what caused the Civil War and he'll say slavery, while Southerners are likely to say states’ rights, or economic differences. That self-justifying shorthand is reflected in what's taught in schools, too. But with the election of Barack Obama, historians say new ground has been broken in the...

Book Missing Since Civil War Returned to Virginia School

(Newser) - A Virginia college has a missing library book back—145 years after a Union soldier stole it during the Civil War. An Illinois man who inherited the book from friends tracked down the original owner and returned it to Washington and Lee University in Lexington, reports the Washington Post. The...

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