Abstract
The American Civil War, which occurred over 150 years ago, changed the social, economic, and political nature of the United States. Over the past century, the United States commemorated the Civil War with the development of many national historical battlefield parks. However, the struggle between the different interest groups continue to plague a unified vision of the event. It became clear that commemorating the Civil War is not only about the past but also about the present and the future. Identifying the events that shape the dominant memory and recognizing the undercurrents that challenge the official memory of any event are important for understanding the dynamics in memorialization. What we see on the commemorative landscape today is only one frame of a long filmstrip of changing memory and meaning – one that will be very different a decade or two from today. Understanding the concept of memory is an important vehicle for answering this question.
TopMemory
Immediately after the Civil War Confederate sympathizers began to create memorials to mourn the dead. Confederate cemeteries were established and monuments were erected in them. The “Confederate dead became powerful cultural symbols within the New South -- gave power, in other words, to the ghosts of the Confederacy” (Foster, 1987, p. 37). Many of these early Confederate memorials contained funerary designs (Foster, 1987, p. 41; Shackel, 2003b). Decoration Day, where the graves of the fallen are marked with a flag, became a national tradition in both the north and the south (Kammen, 1991, p. 103; Shackel, 2003b).
By the late nineteenth century, southern towns increasingly placed Confederate monuments in places like public squares and courthouses. Memorialization in the south was no longer about morning, but rather it was about upholding the Confederate tradition. Monuments of a soldier with a rifle resting on the ground were being mass-produced and found their way into northern and southern communities (Foster, 1987, p. 129). The majority of Civil War monuments erected in the United States occurred between 1900 and 1913, many for the preparation of the 50th-anniversary commemorations of the war (Foster, 1987, p 158; Shackel, 2003b).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Black Lives Matter: A decentralized political and social movement that developed in the United States protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.
Lost Cause (of the Confederacy): An American mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans.
American Civil War: This war was fought between the Union (states that remained loyal to the federal Union, or “the North”) and the Confederacy (southern states that voted to secede from the Union) between 1861 and 1865. The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, especially and the expansion of slavery into new territories acquired by the United States.
Civil Rights Movement: A campaign by African Americans and their allies to end legalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement, and racial segregation in the United States.
United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC): Founded in 1894, this neo-Confederate hereditary organization for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers is engaged in commemorating those who fought for the Confederacy.
Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV): Founded in 1896, this organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers are engaged in commemorating their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.