On them that we see today. Booksedores 2011 an illustrated guide to virginias Civil War Monuments is the First Complete catalog of virginia from monuments. It is more than a catalog. It is this that he of ideology and meaning and provides a window of what the people who erected them were thinking at the time and wanted to say. Has finished a similar study of tennessee monuments and is working on another one about mississippi. His wonderful wife patricia is a morehat she monuments and more states than anybody else in the union [laughter] rawls i think that the two of them have seen more monuments in any of the states than any of the residents of the state. Remarks today are entitled words, breath, text and landscape virginia Civil War Monuments in the context of tennessee and mississippi monumentation. Dr. Timothyan, sedore. [applause] gentlemen, dr. Tim othy sedore. [applause] dr. Sedore good evening. Im very pleased to be here to speak to you about monuments, specifically monuments in context with tennessee and mississippi. Area has taken me to Civil War Monuments from the Atlantic Coast to the mississippi river, from norfolk, so, to memphis, to west, andst from the Potomac River to the. Ulf coast in the south salt water. So, we have moved county to county to county to battlefield cemeteries to warehouses to waysides two city parks and to state capitals. I wanted a text. Relieve relive the monuments of virginia, mississippi, and tennessee, all of it, together. I researched and identified some 400 monuments, union and Confederate Monuments in , some 400 new you Confederate Monuments in tennessee, and most recently, some 800 monuments, union and confederate, and mississippi. Least two deputy patients when we drove down the appellation valley into tennessee the first time. First, i assumed these states would yield similar results, that the collected text would be essentially the same from one state to another. This assumption was not borne out. The monuments in the states have striking regional distinctions. The second preconception that each monument is different sui true. S is the idea of the standard Confederate Monument is a myth. There are no types. The main goal of the same they may look the same, but they are not. They are different. They can be cryptic, descriptive, axing, mysterious, banal, and provocative. They can be seen or sentimental or defiant or restrained or effusive. They can be for an ocular and burn practically ocular and obscure, practically unknown, as well as prominent and majestic. It becomes a matter of taking the code. They are telling us something and we are missing it. It comes down to this. What is the message . Hat are they trying to tell us the process reminds me of the servicemen and women who work to break the secret codes of nations opposing us and world war ii. The Bletchley Park minimum women who broke the enigma code who would cipher a text the men and women who broke the enigma code, who would cipher a text like this or this, and this was according to one in the u. S. Navy. He said you would sit there and stare at it until you see what it says and then he put it down. You look. You look at it until you see something that attracts your attention, your curiosity. Maybe you dont see anything at all. You go on to something else. The next day, you come back and look at it again and again. And i am not breaking codes of other nations, but im, and we im and we are, looking at a vast, complex, fragment text. Words, breath, image, landscape. Monuments are singular. Lee je bue of robert e. Stewart preside over the j. E. B. Stewart. Richmond still looks like a national capital. However, beyond monument avenue, virginia monuments frequently defined the war in ofnationalistic terms virginians who fought for virginia, not for the confederacy. For example of virginians who fought for virginia, not for the they do not mention the confederacy. Even the war is not mentioned. Of the focus is on quote. Sun tzu gave the cause of their native state and the south. Who gave the cause of their native state gave their life because of their native state in the south. Many monument inscriptions deliberately avoid the use of the word confederate. Many do, many do not. At Stonewall Cemetery in winchester, the virginia old k remembers old lisk fought remembers they for virginia, virginians fighting for virginia. Furthermore we speak of the lost cause, but the monument makers do not. Only two mentions of that phrase among 400 monuments i studied in virginia. Theund none at all of among 400 in tennessee, and i found only one in the. Did they lose i found only one in mississippi . Did they lose . , of all things, arguably, it is irrelevant. The issue. Is not even the cause is not the issue. The greenville courthouse monument declares that. Soldiers fought in defense of rights they believed sacred. They took up arms against invaders of virginia. I love that phrase, because im one of them. [laughter] dr. Sedore invaders of virginia. And the grief is passed. Use the term the American Civil War to define 1861 to 1865, but the monument makers define the conflict as the war between the states. The civil war is rarely used in the virginia money is. A few times in tennessee, a very few times in mississippi. The official term is the war of the rebellion. As you might imagine, this and never this never occurs on a Confederate Monument. War as second war of independence is a declaration itself. Calling it a war between the states is kind of a foreword sermon, if you will. River describes a conflict between citizen soldiers. Virginia infantry and its citizens taking up arms and defeating soldiers, citizens, from pennsylvania and new york. Because is not mentioned. The war is not mentioned. The outcome of the war is not mentioned. Tennessee was a kind of border state. The war is understood in contrasting ways. One might expect to find many Confederate Monuments in tennessee. And, of course, we do. Nashville, dresden. Close above the dresden monument. Atxander p stewart chattanooga. There are many Confederate Monuments. Most to be found in tennessee towns and cities. , on two of the major battlefields, shiloh and , the Union Monuments vastly outnumbered the Confederate Monuments there. On the shiloh battlefield in chattanooga let me show you shiloh there are 150 orimental gun battle monuments to union forces. Backattanooga lets go over there union battlefield monuments line this narrow bridge and are scattered across of lookoutand crest mountain. Look at that up on that hill in the woods. There they are. Cravens house on the terraces. Toally it is all donated union soldiers. In fact, there are more Union Monuments in tennessee than there are Confederate Monument. At the same time, there are almost no tributes to Tennessee Union soldiers, just this one at the Nashville Cemetery and this one at the county courthouse in east tennessee. The tennessee Civil War Monumentation reflects the same divided tennis the divisions that divided tennessee during the war and theres continuing ambivalence to this day, including monuments such as this one in cumberland, county attributed to union and confederate soldiers. There is ambivalence that prevails. It is in tennessee. Tennessee. Mississippi. Monumentation describes an embattled state which embarked on a course which is leadership voted for and its citizens three its citizenry largely supported. They paid a heavy price for doing so and mississippi monumentation reflects that legacy. Mississippi soldiers, of course, fought bravely and well. They turned back union forces at fort pemberton and rolling rock. They stopped sherman at chickasaw bluff. They stopped grants. They wanted chickamauga. They won at chickamauga. Victory ofe confederate arms over union forces. In spite of these victories and others, Confederate Forces were defeated at fort henry, tennessee. They lost for tomlinson, tennessee. They lost at shiloh, tennessee. They would lose tennessee altogether, and they lost at current, mississippi. They lost the sixmonth campaign at vicksburg. They surrendered natchez without a fight. They would not give up, and i am summarizing and i am painting in broad strokes. The war was, in short, a death grind for mississippi. By 1864, confederate mississippi compass longer movements across its territory. Civil government was no longer effective. The general order of war could no longer be avoided. The general writedown of order could not be avoided. Nevertheless, mississippi was one of the last Confederate States to surrender. Has not ceased to affect the people and the landscape. The people of mississippi did not forget. But the way in which the war has been remembered in public space is complex. As early as 1906, the Mississippi Legislature appropriated funds for the resurrection of state funds for every county in mississippi to have a monument of its own. This promise was not fulfilled. Many counties do, but fewer in virginia and fewer than in tennessee and many do not. Elsewhere, mississippi juxtaposed lifeanddeath. They offered tribute. They express affection and sentiment. They show the flag. But they are not celebratory and they are not triumph. There are 80,000 graves of confederate soldiers in mississippi. Approximately 27,000 of the missive he to went to war did not return and many who did return were physically or emotionally crippled for life. One historian writes proximally a quarter of the white male population of the state that were 15 years of age and older in 1860 were no longer live five years later. The evidence for this legacy may be found across mrs. It be. For example, there are excellent military histories of the battle of shiloh. But the unexamined aftermath of the battle is that thousands of Wounded Soldiers could not be properly cared for. Hundreds of wounded men were loaded onto railroad boxcars. They went south and west to small towns in mississippi. The soldiers came from many states, but many of them never left mississippi. They are still there. Client,y, monuments at macon, meridia, i you could, utica,ille, brooksville, columbus, enterprise, canton, oxford, markssprings, and natchez the hospitals or military grounds for the sick and wounded worker for and the dead were buried. Despite the notoriety associated with the county, courthouse, or state capital monuments, there is an implicit theme of tragedy and morning, and this certainly affects the way i understand the meaning of the Confederate Monument. Tragedy and mourning. Example, the figure of a woman in morning in mourning, this young woman, think of it ning isan in mour arguably the centerpiece. Similarly, the figure of a confederate soldier there is the closeup. Figure of a confederate soldier surrounding the has berg monument hattiesburg monument has the look of a veteran facing north, ready to take on north and aggressors if and when they come again. However, a second figure, a young female in classic greek garb is clearly in mourning. So, they justified it or at least they sentimentalized it. You see a Confederate Flag the confederate battle flag. There we go. Yes, theto closeup. The courthouse at clark county, mississippi declares the noble men who marched north beneath the flag of stars and bars and were faithful to the end. Killed, the men who were or disabled died of disease on a regular basis. As for the women, the state capital monument in jackson testified, quoting Jefferson Davis that calamity was their touchstone. Of the men, i am drawn to historian max hastings description, all war rich with paperless, treasury, or absurdity. As is so often, brave men were called upon to do fine and hard things in pursuit of a national illusion. Which brings me to vicksburg. Troopshere that federal commended by ulysses commended by ulyssess. Grant vicksburg was surrounded by Confederate Forces july 4, after. Sixmonth battle vicksburg is the southernmost city, the National Battlefield park of the civil war. The size of central park in new york city. It has been called the art park of the south with an inventory markers, tablets, monuments, and blacks. It may be the Largest Museum of sculpture and commitment tablets, monuments, and plaqu es. It may be the Largest Museum of monuments. Nd there are irreplaceable sculptures. Ainre was one gated m entrance like this. There is a second entrance to the national cemetery. This is the main gate. Several lines of symbolism to this as well. First, the monumentation marks the siege lines that continue to surround the city with all of applied by perpetually surrounding the city of vicksburg with commemorative federal siege lines. To this day, unless you go west, across the mississippi, you have to pass through the siege lines. Is heldthe landscape apart, it is sanctified. As happens, you must enter the park through the arch. But the arch is the point of entry into a temple. Theaterhe elements of and drama are present. Almost all of the dates and narratives terminate in 1863. The participants have no life afterwards. The drama is centered on siege and surrender. These participants, the dramatic personae are commemorated in profuse narrative detail. Names, numbers, and details are inscribed with copious, scrupulous thoroughness on hundreds of monuments or wayside tablets. I noted earlier, there are more monuments in tennessee there is the detail there are more Union Monuments in tennessee than Confederate Monuments. There are more Union Monuments in vicksburg and in mississippi than Confederate Monuments. Bergct, because of fixed Vicksburg National union park there are more monuments. Uniqueippi offers a point of contact between northern and southern interpretations of the war. First, several Confederate Monuments at vicksburg are very dramatic. This depicts an utterly confident figure as if he is saying to the yankee boys, come again. He is, waiting period and monuments like the Alabama State sculptor titled this the death stand. Four soldiers i will give you a closeup. Four soldiers are firing weapons. To get our wounded. One is wounded near death. The one near the second bears the confederate battle flag. The group is surrounded. It does not look like they will last long, but they will not give up either. Also, this was a union victory. The elements of triumph are clear. The rhodesuch as island common soldier, the new york obelisk offer clear testimony. In the end, the north won the victory. There is another dimension to this space. A temple sacrifice in the most literal sense. It is an explicit place of sacrifice or sacrament. The illinois monument is the largest and most elaborate. You have to walk up 47 steps of this monument on a hot summer day. No, you go up, you go up, and similarly from street level, the state monument looks like an largesive, but simple column surmounted by an eagle. But you have to walk up. There are broad tablets, you can see their. 9000splays the name of soldiers who served at vicksburg. You walk up. You walk up. And you walk up the state of mississippi for monument. 1906, a bill in the Mississippi State legislature, receiving a very mixed response. Opposition was strong for state funds going to what one Legislator Terms i yankee park. The legislation passed right one vote. When the monument was finally april, 1912, it was the first confederate state monument in the park. It looks impressive. Architecturally speaking, it has this, the and get central female figure is cleo, used in history, seated above the greek temple floor with the granite obelisk rising 70 feet above her. As large as as large and impressive as it appears, there are several features to this monument having more subtle symbolism, if you will. First, although bronze relief bronze relief but me go backward. Soldiers in valiant, desperate combat. Nothing on theis fourth side, the back facing the river. It is blank. Apparently funding was lacking for a bronze tableau. One was proposed. They left it might. There is no inscription on this monument. There is no statement or testimony. Ofhing apart from the seal the state of mississippi. It does seem muted. Third, architectural critics is note quality of work as big as other monuments in vicksburg. It has been difficult to observe for this reason and the gaps and seams are apparent in bronze work that would not be present in work of better craftsmanship. It looks good. It looks incomplete. What is the message . Breezelesson a hot summer, the temple floor seems like nothing more then hot stone on a july day, but there is something vexing, elusive about the vicksburg battlefield. In the case of the mississippi monument, it seems to me this vacancy has meaning, that this if you will. I can only conclude that this monument represents an unfinished and incomplete ritual. This space is symbolic of a valeant, but doomed sacrificial offense. The southerners at vicksburg had nowhere to go. They had their backs to the river. They were assaulted repeatedly, starved out, and ultimately, forced to surrender. They did not want a monument in a dinky park. A final war. Want they got what they wanted. The war ended. The war was lost. Continues. T reconstruction, segregation, civil rights. But i must say another civil war attribute tos one africanamericans from mississippi who fought for the union. They could not see the future any better than we can. But they wanted more than a surrenders light. This, they want for better or for worse. It is surely curiously appropriate these civil war the civil rights leader and vicksburg is, he wrote, one of the states most beautiful spots. I note the tense, it is, present tense. The landscape seems fixed, but it is dynamic. It does change. Soldierent mississippi the mississippi inicanamerican woman, and the process of this journey that we took, somewhere i realized, there is a pattern here, that the monuments are telling this is not over. The war was not lost because the fighters going on. Thece, for example, numerous monuments on the petersburg value, marking the defense lines of the confederate army. There are no statues. There are no sentiments. The descriptions are terse. Gre fort gregg is here, this says. Present tense. And the dam, part of the defense line, it is here. According toort this description did not fall during the siege, it was part of the earth. If i may add. Ed, [laughter] timothy but it did not fall. The cliche about bringing history alive is a myth. We are it. We are part of history. We are part of them, of all things, and they are part of us. We are connected for better or worse. The filmmaker describes his work has an emotional archaeology. Maybe that is too sentimental, but it has truth in it. The wartime generation could be sentimental too. It helps us to bring the war down to a mortal conflict between citizen soldiers that also got alone, who might have been friends, who were friends and relatives, who fraternize to between the lines and traded tobacco for newspapers. They often shared the same religious faith. Lincoln declared both sides read the same bible and pray to folksme god, and each is the same his aid as his enemy. We may find it comforting to think of war as a true can federate soldier, coming to the aid of soldiers at fredericksburg. Confederatey the soldier shaking hands. The imagery is true. It sounds quite positive. I would like to end right here on a positive note, but that would not do justice to the dead. Writes that the civil war is a vivid but ungraspable story that still confounds interpreters. That is a mercy. Boy. Xample, look at this does this boy look like a killer . Not to me. I can see him in one of my classes as college freshmen, a little awkward, spells my name wrong [laughter] timothy keeps his hair combed, as it you can see, but will look a little bit bewildered by life. He passes my class. He gets his work done. That is not the kind of life he lived. He has a weapon. Imagine when some of his buddies look like they are going to break and run, he doesnt even notice. He finds his weapon and fires again. His buddies stay because he stays. Maybe hes revived he survived the war. Was it a war over slavery . He may not even thought about it. Standards, virtually all white americans were racist in the mid19th century. Oy shotme yankee b Richard Kirkland at this battle site. I am certain that Richard Kirkland, who was merciful to union soldiers, aimed and fired his weapon at will. Walt whitman was a witness to the lord, and witness to the war, and a great war writer. Was. Knew how ugly it they knew its better than we do. That theciful landscape covers the dead, but they are just below the surface. A historian writes of the unions older and future garfield, whos a told William D Hamill after the war that at the site of other dedman other dead men, something came out of him that will never come back again. An impossibility of destroying it. You can tear these down if you want, but it is not that simple. Do we take down half of the monument at vicksburg . What about the state of kentuckys monument at pittsburgh, which is at vicksburg, which is a tribute to both confederate and union. Maybe we dont just go for the symbols. Maybe we bulldoze the graves as well. William tyndale was murdered by his opponents and his body was burned. Another reformer was executed on charges of heresy, his body burned and ashes thrown into the river. Maybe that will bring us peace and reconciliation. I do not think so. We are confronted with an offense. The wartime generation of soldiers is dead, and the women speak too. They made the monument into a local and cultural phenomenon. Veterans had a role. Women were crucial to the monument movements vigor and success in the south. Eventuallyups, controls all aspects of the monument movement, inception, financing, design, and dedication ceremonies. The idea that history is written by the victors is untrue, at least in this instance. The women tell the story. They play a priestly rule during the war. They shaped the way the war is understood today. Women played a key role in erecting monuments like this, an d this. And, this. No matter what stands you take on the subject, the monument t they do a disservice. They spare us. A silentnt is preacher, austere, preaching in audible lessons. The landscape demands a preacher. The monument is an inarticulate threedimensional fixture on landscape. It is a mercy that the landscape covers the dead, but the monuments are a stake in the ground reminding us of their flaws. Eo quote shakespeare th natural shocks they work air to the geo group was real sense, the north fighting the country itself in its struggle to overcome the south. He can justly speak in terms of geography. It is right to say that the south was fighting the same landscape. In a larger sense, we are fighting the same landscape. It took two of us to do the research for this project. One person to drive across the present tense landscape traffic lights, and escapes the second, a spotter to survey that landscape of the past for at least 4000 years, monuments have been erected to mediate the tensions between them manmade and natural. At issue is the meaning of a landscape. At issue is the value of deeds done. The sacramental value of deeds done. I was born and raised as a yankee. I am northern born, and i and a percase on the u. I passed Yankee Stadium on the 4 train. [laughter] timothy i get off at burnside avenue, named for a civil war general, my office looks out on frederick avenue, another civil war general. The legacy of the work is very much part of the landscape. For better or worse, i would not be here if not for world war ii. My mother from the north met my father at the south at a u. S. Senate dance at a u. S. O. Dance. No one will mistake me for a southerner, although i have southern roots. Give the moral high ground to one side or another. Different least four conclusions to this talk, but i only choosing 1 it is this there is a moral issue here to walk this ground, to truly walk this ground, whether on hollywood avenue, or petersburg, sometloh one mus at level confront the tension by straining to discern the yield about deeds done or not done that will not be removed. That is too deep. Personally i prefer this image. Herman melville lived with the war, who wrote of storms behind storms in his poem misgivings, based on this painting. More specifically storms behind the storms that we feel. This painting and melvilles poem and lady macbeth and the Civil War Monument allude to something both ordinary and repugnant, something deeper, a days in a corruption a base inner corruption of the soul that would give way to the civil war and its aftermath. This is not just american it is not ethnic or racial or institutional it is an immorality that every generation bears. All of them have gone astray. All of us have gone astray. In my judgment, the Civil War Monument represents an insufficient sacrifice, a perpetual disequilibrium, life, andth, word, sacrament, landscape. I thank you for listening. [applause] first i want to thank you very much for a really excellent presentation. Thank you. [applause] work puts you in a really unique position to help us understand the monuments here in richmond, particularly at monument avenue, in context. You have seen them all. Monuments about those relative to what you see that makes them different . What do they say that is different from what others say . Or perhaps what is important, what does this suggest with future . Lets stick with monument avenue for the time being. Timothy you are confronted with this humanity. Robert lee is a man. And steward, and davis. They are such complex figures. They have certain virtues, integrity, and enormous flaws. We have to judge them in that kind of context. To be fair to them, you have to recognize what their great strengths are. You recognize the enormous gap orethics or morals, misjudging the times in which we live. Are, leerand as they is taller than washington by eight inches or something. There is an effort to make them great. I know we have great men and women in this room. We also recognize the humanity that they possess. My favorite monument in virginia is less than five feet high. Very few people know where it is. Those are the dead. That is what we recognize. Or should. Go ahead. Thanks so much. Real quick question about technical and historical accuracy. Monumentia there is a to a confederate wearing his cloth cartridge belt and rifle, and there are other instances of that both markers in places where troops werent, as well as technical inaccuracy. How does that impact that memory you are talking about . Timothy it depends on who is doing the design. Very scant correspondence on how they decide what and how. The correspondence i read is that they are very conscientious, unless they are in action. They are very serious about that, the kinds of weapons. They are drifting toward world war i. These figures start looking more like that. The confusion about ethnicity the norfolk monument 2006 looks surprisingly asian, because it was crafted by asian craftsmen. They had to reconfigure it. It is looking at the time and context. Some groups were more or less conscious. They want to remember rather than the accurate to the time. They want to remember them, but accuracy is less the focus. Thank you. [applause] you are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. Something was born in maryland in 1822. To theaped, but returned area to assist her family and others maintain. The Maryland ParkService International park service have created the Harriet Tubman underground Visitor Center located in the county where tubman was born. Next, the opening of the Harriet Tubman underground Visitor Center. We hear from state and local officials in commemoration of the abolitionist, humanitarian, and civil war spy Harriet Tubman. This is over one hour. Good afternoon. I am dr. Adwoa tano,