Camp Songer Encampment

Civil War Reenactors

Visitors to Camp Songer will be able to see and talk with reenactors portraying the men who fought the Civil War. Camp Songer contains an artillery battery, an infantry company, a lone Confederate, a doctor, and an embalmer. There will also be displays of cooking utensils, Civil War era money, and children’s games and toys of the period.

10:30 AM

DEREK MAXFIELD

Sherman: Man or Monster II

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman is a fascinating and complex man who found himself in the flames of war. Yet, he struggled throughout his life with his own identity.  And even when the war ended in 1865 and he found himself one of the acclaimed architects of Union victory -- essentially the number two hero of the republic (Grant was, of course, number one) -- Sherman struggled with his identity. I will explore this idea through the events from the Battle of Shiloh to his death in 1891. 

1:30 PM

HAROLD KNUDSEN

James Longstreet and the American Civil War: The Confederate General Who Fought the Next War

The American Civil War is often called the first “modern war.” Sandwiched between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I, it spawned a host of “firsts” and is considered a precursor to the larger and more deadly 20th century wars. Confederate Gen. James Longstreet made overlooked but profound modern contributions to the art of war. Initially, commanders on both sides extensively utilized Napoleonic tactics that were obsolete because of the advent of the rifled musket and better artillery. Some professional army officers worked to improve tactics, operations, and strategies. On the Confederate side, a careful comparison of Longstreet’s body of work in the field to modern military doctrine reveals several large-scale innovations.

Longstreet understood early that the tactical defense was generally dominant over the offense, which was something few grasped in 1862. Longstreet’s thinking demonstrated a clear evolution that began on the field at First Manassas in July 1861, developed through the bloody fighting of 1862, and culminated in the brilliant defensive victory at Fredericksburg that December. The lethality with which his riflemen and artillery mowed down repeated Union assaults hinted at what was to come in World War I. Longstreet’s ability to launch and control powerful offensives was on display at Second Manassas in August 1862. His assault plan at Chickamauga in Georgia the following September was similar, if not the forerunner to, World War II tactical-level German armored tactics.  

10:30 AM

CAMERON SAUERS

Free Produce: The Abolitionist Dilemma of Consumption in the Age of Slavery

In 1811, Elias Hicks, a Quaker minister, published a pamphlet that transformed American anti-slavery. Hicks, in Observations on the Slavery of Africans and Their Descendants, argued that slavery continued to grow because consumers purchased goods produced by enslaved peoples. Hicks challenged Quakers to abstain for consuming slave produced goods, arguing “If we purchase the commodity, we participate in the crime.” 

Hicks’ pamphlet became the foundations of an American movement dedicated to “free produce” – a political philosophy and consumer strategy that meant abstaining from purchasing any goods produced by enslaved labor. Supporters of the movement created organizations to create “free labor” goods and encourage other anti-slavery sympathizers to strike at the institution of slavery by challenging its financial strength.

This talk will explore the rise, fall, and eventual resurgence of the free produce movement in the decades before the Civil War. Free produce ideas both united coalitions of abolitionists and splintered others. What Frances Watkins Harper felt was “a means of proving the consistency” of her abolitionist politics was viewed by William Lloyd Garrison as an impractical strategy for achieving the downfall of slavery. The free produce movement illuminates the array of abolitionist philosophies and practices utilized to challenge the economic and political power of southern slaveholders. The free produce movement urged contemporaries to consider the power of the consumer – and their money 
– in charting the future of the nation.

1:30 PM

WILLIAM ALAN BLAIR

Why Didn’t Any Confederate Rebels Hang?

Despite treason charges filed against thirty-some Confederates in high places, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, as well as thousands of indictments at the state level, no one in the Civil War was hanged for waging war against the United States. The reasons why involve a strange, twisting tale that begins with the fears that secession would be proven constitutional, and that ends in a fresh appreciation for how framers crafted the Fourteenth Amendment to punish the Rebels.