Well, with what were studying right now in the class, the turn of the 20th century in North Carolina, the tumultuous 1890, but im sure youve heard me call every time period in North Carolina history tumultuous. But this is no exception. So todays lecture is called worth bagley, the Southern Confederate christ masculine messiah. And were actually going to dive more of the topic memory making. And so there are two types of memory and ill you may not be familiar with these terms yet. Go ahead, brian. The pause. So official memory and vernacular memory. Vernacular, i think, is that right . Okay. So what do you think official memory is. I dont expect you notes and it gets to be great. Yeah. So its accepted by the government. Very good. So you use the word the state. Its, its a state narrative, its the official narrow div of the story. Like theres an official story of america and you know 1776 the constitution and oftentimes these are used for consensus building and in order to do that you have to erase whats called a vernacular memory. And so the word vernacular is chosen reason. What do you think this is . We think vernacular memory, trauma, im sorry, cultural and cultural memory cards like everyday people remember something or a common kind of whether its true or not, its a common thought. Absolutely. Absolutely and its informed by personal experiences. So the way that we all see the world is theres not a consensus we can it we can look at an event and all have different of that event. Right. Same thing is true for people who lived through the civil war, North Carolina. They had different views. I mean, weve talked about class, how divided carolina was. There wasnt a consensus on what they even fought for. Thats continue through the modern day. So but so were going to talk about is the crafting of an official memory of worth bagley that embraces vernacular of the civil war reconstruction. Its fun all, right . Well, lets go ahead and begin. So you may be wondering when worth bagley was killed on may 11th, 1898, he was recognized as the first southerner to die for the stars and stripes in the United States in a war against a foreign power. The time the United States had officially been at war with another country was in 1846 1848, when they fought a mexicanamerican war. Okay, you have to think about this is decades decades have passed and bagley becomes a symbol for reconciliation between the north and the south and redemption. Thats why i call him the southern savior, the confederate christ, the redemption for, the south bagleys blood washed away, which washed away the sin of secession. Restoring the honor of the south within the union and. So moving along just the kind of, you know, this is the thats the end of the story right there. Okay. This he becomes this this great hero that restores southern within the union. Now, he was born on april six, 1874, in raleigh, raleigh, North Carolina. To william. Bagley in adelaide and worth bagleys the north were two very prominent North Carolina families. Now William Bagley had served as a major in the Confederate Army and was appointed by andrew after the war as to be the superintendent of the u. S. Mint in charlotte. However, bagley refused the post because the required loyalty oath a lot of southern men refused to give this loyalty oath. And thats why they were excluded from government positions. War, however, he did later serve as the clerk of the north supreme court. Now bagleys mother was the daughter of jonathan werth, who was the state treasurer. He had been in the General Assembly for a long time before the civil war and he was the first elected governor of North Carolina after the war, of course, defeated William Holden in that election. Now, bagleys brother, William Bagley jr became the coowner and the editor of the raleigh morning post on may 10th, 1898. Turns out thats the day before bagley was killed. So his brother is a newspaper man. You think thats going to play a role in how he is remembered . Absolutely furthermore, bagleys brother in law was josephus joseph. So Josephus Daniels, the the owner and editor of the news, and observer, which was the most widely newspaper in North Carolina. It was also the the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party that daniels whole just down the road was named after him. So it was just changed. Daniels, of course, played very big role in starting the racial violence of november 98. Wilmington massacre. And he played a big role in the that racist campaign that saw the fusion fist swept out of power in 1898, which, of course, when the the democrats came back to power, they changed the laws and erased a lot of the the progress of the fusion movement, which is the of course, the unprecedented lines between black and white and see after 1900 why people cant really vote in North Carolina. So Josephus Daniels plays a big role in that. So bagley, you simply stated bagley is comes from a very prominent North Carolina family and hes a man with a future. All right. Hes got it all laid out in front of him. Hes a man who has opportunity based on who he is, who his is. Okay. Now he was appointed to the u. S. Naval academy in 1889 at the age of 15 years old. At the accounting academy, he was a standout on the football team. He was a man amongst boys. Theres a theres a really good story about him. We played football for navy. Thats picture right there during a game against ymca. They didnt have Intercollegiate Athletics like we do today, so they played the ymca. He stopped a ball carrier from crossing the end zone, stood him up, took the ball from him and ran 100 yards to score two touchdown in one play. I mean, that make it that would make espns top ten no problem. And the mans senior quote in his Naval Academy yearbook was quote, i am not in the role of common men, unquote, very sure of himself. Of course, you might recognize that quote from your english class in high school, but thats Shakespeares Henry the fourth. Now, he graduated from the academy in 1885 at the age of 21. And after his two year cruise, he was promoted to the rank of ensign and assigned as a captains clerk on the uss maine you all recognize name that ship the one that blew up. But he was no longer on the named he was he became the executive officer of the torpedo boat winslow picture there in december of 1897, about two months before the main exploded. All right. If this works. All right. So the battle of cardenas now this is a map from a book by a. B. Feuer about the spanishamerican war. Great book there. A lot of really good books on this topic. Thats a thats a really one. If you like, narratives, battle narratives. This is a good one. Okay. So it kind of gives you a picture that ill talk about briefly. And this is the telegram that announces bagleys death to his family because they didnt have phones and, you know, texting this was texting through morse code anyway. So the battle took place on may 11th, 1898, in cardenas bay, cuba. The mission was eliminate spanish vessels. They they had encountered three days before in the harbor. So the following information about to tell you is from the official naval reports because remember this lesson about crafting a public memory. This is what the official navy record is. There are three channels the cardenas bay and intelligence revealed that one of the three entrances was mined. Not sure which one. Now the winslow, a small torpedo boat was sent in to make sure that it was safe for the larger uss wilmington to follow through. Okay. They were joined by the uss hudson and a three pronged attack on the harbor. The winslow took the flank of the Eastern Shore and the hudson on the west to prevent any type of escape from the spanish vessels that they had to encounter the day before, the days. All right. As winslow closed in, the sailors noticed several red buoys in the water. They thought they were for navigation purposes they were wrong. Turns out that they were guide buoys for artillery, heavy artillery. And so its kind of like theyre going in. Its a trap. And so that with the aim, with the winslow coming in here, theyre the ones they got lit up first. And you can see they tried to backtrack to that little island. The winslow was, severely damaged in an initial assault. And they lost one of their engines and their rudder. And its a literally a rudderless ship. They cannot move there. Theyre just kind of adrift. And they can they have one engine. So they could kind of hobble. But this is almost dead in the water they were able to hover, hobble pull backwards, but the problem, they were drifting. They kept on drifting right into the wilmington the line of fire. So theyre getting fired on by the spanish and theyre coming across fire from their own friends. So not a great situation. Bagleys during this fight was to go back and forth to communicate between the the deck in the engine room, to coordinate the ships movements, try to keep it out of the way of the wilmington. Now, while he was on one of his return trips in the torpedo boat is a big boat so this takes just a few minutes to go from the deck, see where you are, and then go back down and give orders on how you know, how how hard to fire the engine and on one of the return trips, he stopped to look at this hell hellish fury thats being unleashed by the wilmington like theyre theyre bombarding the harbor and hes like, wow. And he also starts to talk to his Commanding Officer, jb bernard did. And he says to him, captain, im sorry that you were wounded. Im lucky in these things to which his Commanding Officer replied, well, old man, weve been in a fight for sure. This time the two shook hands and they turned directions back. We went back to walk to the fort area of the ship within a few seconds. Bell, a spanish shell strikes the deck of the winslow, hits a seam in the rivets, goes up in the air and explodes, killing bagley instantly. All right, i see here some images from that were in the media afterwards. Now, the immediate aftermath of bagleys deaths, the newspapers, the circumstances of his death to make it appear more of a manly hero. This was also during, again 1898. Its the height of the newspaper wars, yellow journalism hearst versus pulitzer. In fact, you could argue that this war got started over yellow journalism with, um. With the sensationalized story of the us army. So its not unusual for the media to embellish it. Still, today. But so there are inconsistencies in the story. Okay. How bagley died and what he was as he died. Now keep in mind, during this era, the 19th century, especially during the civil war, theres this obsession with whats called ars, ending the good and or the art of death. And then you have in having a good death, being able prepare yourself to die with dignity, to face god. And the problem isnt war. Sometimes you get killed without, the ability to prepare and so this was this played a really big role in the civil war and the culture of the militaries like you know, give my right a letter to my folks back home. Be sure if i fall tell my family where you buried me and whatnot. And so the problem is bagley, have this and this is not a tradition that can continue through the spanishamerican war so badly, doesnt have the time to prove his manhood before his death. Right. And so the the news gave him that opportunity. Right. So some of the myths surrounding bagleys death. Okay, one of the myths was, as after the shell exploded, he staggered by being struck by the blast. He grabbed on to the flag. The stars and stripes and his blood got on the flag and clutched it as. He died, and as he was dying, he whispered, mother and my country. Okay. And he was. His grip was so hard on the flag that his comrades had to literally pry it out of his cold, dead hands. Its a great story, right why . Why come up with a story like that . Lets think about that. Were going to were going to come back to. Okay, of course, though, that contradicts barnardos official report and the letter that he wrote to bagleys brother that said that bagley was killed instantly by the blast. He said that he was the first to reach bagley and that he opened up his shirt and realized very quickly that he had ceased to live right. There was no staggering. There was. No, my country. He was just dead. Okay. Another interesting story. A man came forward and the press sent a letter. Josephus daniels, 18 years after the battle and said that he had caught worth bagley and kept him falling over the side of the ship and that as bagley was dying. He put his hand on his shoulder and said, thank you. The gentleman that he was right and he could. And he died with no cry of pain or complaint. Okay, so there was some discrepancy about the injuries that bagley received. I mean, injuries to the other casualties were very gruesome. A man, elijah tunnell, who was africanamerican, cook on the ship, reportedly had his legs blown off, according to some sources. However this is disputed because the newspapers of the day claimed that he had no wounds. Edward austin johnsons book about black americans participation spanishamerican war claims that his legs completely blown off. And john had his windpipe severed. John dempsey had his shoulder torn open by shrapnel. Now, the newspaper claimed that bagleys face had been completely blown off. Imagine being his mother and hearing that before before seeing him, when they brought him, that was not the case. And they actually brought his body home to his house. He had a scratch on his his face and that was it. Okay. And because he didnt have any other like visible wounds, we can assume that he was killed by the concussive force. The blast is not its not if youre not killed by the shrapnel of a blast, youre killed by the concussive force. The air pressure going and just messing up your organs. All right. So that that cannot be true. All right. The lets were going to believe bernardos report. All right. Another another controversy is what was he doing . Okay, well, what was he ordered do . He was ordered to go back and forth between the deck, the engine room, to coordinate the movements of the hobbled movement of the winslow, to keep it out of the line of fire. Thats a very important job. Well, we agree about that. Were going to make sure that we dont drift into the water and get lit up by our own allies right. Very important job. Okay. Is the most manly job is it the most heroic job . Well, lets look at some of the myths. Okay. So some of the myths that were printed in National Media said that bagley fell at his gun, while bravely resisting attack of the enemy and expired the fold of the flag, he had sworn to defend. All right. So this account was printed, you know how like they have ap articles that are in all kinds of newspaper articles. Somebody wrote it. Staff writer and they just send it out. Same. They just had to you know the telegraph, the wire reports. So let me im going to read this one to you. Take it says up to this time with the exception of one shot which had disabled the boiler of the winslow, the firing of the spanish gunboats had been wild. But as the winslow lay rolling in the water, the range glue closer and the shells began to all around her. It was difficult for the hudson to get near enough to throw a line to the winslows. So terrible. The fire her finally after 20 minutes, the hudson approached near enough to throw a line and sandbag and six men were standing in in a group on the deck of the winslow heave her heave her heave shout at bagley as he looked toward the hudson and called for a line dont miss it, shouted the officer from the hudson, and with a smile, bagley called back, let her come. Its getting too hot for comfort. The line thrown and the same at the same instant shell burst in the very minutes of the group of men aboard winslow bagley was instantly and a few others dropped also about him, half a dozen more fell, groaning on the bloodstained deck one of the dead men pitched overhead along the side of the boat. His feet caught the arm rail and he was hauled back. Bagley lay stretched on the deck, his face completely torn away and the upper part of his body shattered. All right. Well, lets unpack this. Okay. So hes been ordered to go communicate between the deck and the engine room so that where was and this is this the photo of the alleged gun that he was at the battle taking place on this side of the boat. So if hes at this gun, what does he have to do . He has to shoot a cross the deck on that little gun. Its not really effective use of his time if he fired his gun, it was in vain, right. But again, that would mean that wouldve been a dereliction of duty, according to bernard, to his Commanding Officers or through his official account. All right. So we have that. We also have this story where he is killed trying to catch the tow line right. But that contradicts what the official report says. Why do they have this story about and when chuck todd, you think about this, why we have the story being printed that shows him at his gun killed it. His gun are killed trying to catch a tow what do you think about that. Any thoughts. He gives them more heroics, right . More heroics dory. You better do in a better death. Very good more harrowing story. Better. Okay. Very good. Very good. So well, regardless of whether these accounts are deliberately romanticized or not, its what the public concern. In 1898. Theres no google no way to easily fact check right. So this is what the public consumed is how they knew that bagley died. All right. So lets talk about what were crafting and you can see here. Yeah, the torpedo boat is small, but its not that small. Its not as well. Okay. Again, you see the you the killed by the blast and hes gripping the flag right . That image, the imagery was created by design. Okay. All right. So talk about if youre wondering what this is. This is the boat that you see this daniels printed. He you know, hes a hes a very good journalist. Hes good writer. And he basically wrote the biography of his brother in law shortly after his death. They sold it. And its these copies of this book were sold all over the country. But immediately after his and youre going to find them. The majority of what makes bagley story i