Tag: American Civil War

Immigrant ‘Concentration Camps’ on the Southern Border?

U.S. immigration policies are very much in the spotlight recently with reports on conditions at some of the southern border detention camps and fresh…

U.S. immigration policies are very much in the spotlight recently with reports on conditions at some of the southern border detention camps and fresh concerns about children being held apart from their parents.

Recently, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called these facilities “concentration camps” and was swiftly rebuked by people on the right and left. To be clear, the U.S. government holds immigrants — who have entered the country illegally — while they’re being processed. The question is: what do we call these places?  Are they Detention centers — as the government refers to them? Detainment camps? Is Ocasio-Cortez misinformed and perhaps, hyperbolic when she injects a loaded term like “concentration camp” into the discussion?

To get a better perspective on this, Trey thought it’d be a good time to check in with author Andrea Pitzer about her book, One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.

Listen to an extended version of Trey’s interview with Andrea Pitzer:

Flowers and Loss: A Memorial Day Snapshot

On Monday, Americans will celebrate Memorial Day. The holiday came to represent the unofficial start to summer. But for many, the day also reminds us to take a few moments to stop and remember a loved one who fought and died for our country on the battlefield. The holiday is steeped in rich history dating back to the American Civil War.

The exact beginnings of this federal holiday are debated, but most scholars say Memorial Day began after the end of the Civil War as a way to remember the vast numbers of dead. It’s recognized during springtime, because that’s when flowers bloomed and could be placed on gravesites.

Berkeley County Council member Elaine Mauck is a retired schoolteacher and lover of history. She spoke about the holiday at a recent Berkeley County Council meeting.

“Memorial Day started, more or less, as the families were reinterring their members that had been killed during the Civil War, and they were going from different battlefields and bringing their family members home,” Mauck said.

There were 750,000 casualties during the American Civil War, according to the National Park Service — and around 3,000 Union deaths in West Virginia, and more than 30,000 Confederate deaths in Virginia, according to the American Battlefield Trust.

Mauck said there was never an official Memorial Day recognized before the Civil War, because there had never been that sheer number of dead before.

“It was the massive numbers. I mean, Antietam, there was 25,000 killed. It was massive numbers.”

The National Park Service reports the battle of Antietam left 23,000 people dead, wounded or missing, and it lasted for just 12 hours.

Mauck also describes the importance springtime played in the creation of Memorial Day, and how today, we ended up having the holiday at the end of May.

“It was because the flowers in the South were available in April, and then it became, for regular Memorial Day, on May 30; your flowers in the North; your peonies, and the lilacs and things were more available May 30. So, the date was kinda changed to work for everybody.”

Today, our nation’s more than 130 national cemeteries often provide a place to celebrate Memorial Day. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports the first national cemeteries were also created as a result of the Civil War.

In 1971, Memorial Day was officially recognized as a federal holiday.

May 14, 1910: Businessman W. D. Thurmond Dies in Fayette County

Businessman W. D. Thurmond died in Fayette County on May 14, 1910, at age 89. He was born in Virginia and came to Fayette County as a young man with his…

Businessman W. D. Thurmond died in Fayette County on May 14, 1910, at age 89. He was born in Virginia and came to Fayette County as a young man with his family in 1845.

During the Civil War, he served as a captain with Thurmond’s Rangers—a Confederate guerrilla force commanded by his brother Philip, who was killed in Putnam County in 1864. According to his family, W. D. Thurmond remained an “unreconstructed Rebel” the rest of his long life.

In 1873, he was commissioned to survey land on the north side of the New River Gorge. In exchange, he accepted 73 acres as pay and built the town of Thurmond. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was completed that year, and his town prospered while developing a reputation for rowdiness. Ironically, W. D. Thurmond himself was a strict Baptist who banned drinking and carousing in his town. However, to his dismay, the area just outside the town limits became known far and wide for decadent behavior—and everyone referred to the whole area as Thurmond—“Hell, with a river through it.”

New Civil War Focused Program to Be Offered at Shepherd University

Undergraduate students from any college or university in the United States can spend a semester immersing themselves in the study of the American Civil…

Undergraduate students from any college or university in the United States can spend a semester immersing themselves in the study of the American Civil War here in West Virginia beginning next year.

Shepherd University announced a new history program that begins in the fall of 2019, according to a news release.

The Civil War Semester leverages Shepherd’s relationships with nearby National Park Service, state, and local historic cultural resources to offer students an immersive opportunity to earn 15 to 18 college credit hours.

Dennis Frye recently retired as chief historian with the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Frye is among the professionals who will help teach the program.

He said the program is an opportunity to live “the Civil War in Civil War country.”

To apply, students must have a 2.0 grade point average, and already earned 45 credit hours from their institutions.

October 29, 1861: General Lee Ends Three-Month Campaign

On October 29, 1861, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee departed present-day West Virginia, near the end of his ill-fated western Virginia campaign. The rest of his Civil War career would rank Lee among the greatest generals in history. However, his first campaign was a total calamity.

He had been dispatched to the region to regain territory for the Confederacy. His plans came to a head in September 1861 atop Cheat Mountain in Pocahontas County. Lee’s attack, though, fell apart. His troops made a hasty retreat, and he soon abandoned the effort.

Lee’s three months in what would become West Virginia were marked by flooding rains, muddy quagmires, inexperienced officers, and diseases among the troops. An editorial in the Richmond Examiner said that Lee had been “outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outgeneraled.” Another newspaper mocked him with the nickname “Granny Lee.”

But there was one upside for Lee during his disastrous adventure. While at Sewell Mountain in Fayette County, he first set eyes on a grey American Saddlebred that would become his faithful companion. He later acquired the horse, which he would name Traveller and ride throughout the war.

October 16, 1859: John Brown Captures U.S. Armory

On the night of October 16, 1859, a band of antislavery men under John Brown captured the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry. Earlier in the year, Brown had settled into a western Maryland farmhouse, where he trained his 18-man army in military tactics. His goal was to seize weapons from the national armory at Harpers Ferry and arm slaves, who would then overthrow their masters.

The raid, though, was a fiasco. Brown’s first victim was a railroad night watchman who was a free African American. The raiders also killed the town’s mayor. Infuriated—and mostly drunken—townspeople grabbed their rifles and trapped Brown’s men in the armory’s fire engine house. On the morning of October 18, U.S. Marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee captured Brown and the eight raiders who had survived the ordeal. Brown was convicted of treason and hanged in nearby Charles Town six weeks later.

More than any other event, the raid divided the nation between North and South. With his last words, Brown predicted that slavery would lead to civil war. Less than a year-and-a-half later, his words would come true.

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