For many, today means the last day at the office before a long weekend goes into effect for Independence Day. However, Civil War buffs and historians recognize July 2nd as day two of another important event in American history – the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

map courtesy of PBS

In the three hours of fighting on this evening 146 years ago, roughly 10,000 casualties were totaled for the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac each. Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet said, “best three hours’ fighting ever done by any troops on any battle-field” with regards to his divisions’ performance. Notably, these divisions did not include the 26th North Carolina Regiment – so many members had been taken on July 1st that they were allowed to rest on the 2nd. After the third and final day of fighting, only 90 of the original 800 men made it out of battle. If that 11 percent survival rate seems small, consider that by the end of the war, only 131 of the almost 2,000 men  (6.5%) to serve in the 26th NC were still in service.

Two titles from UNC Press – both by Gettysburg expert Harry W. Pfanz – deal specifically with the fighting on 2 July 1863. Gettysburg – The Second Day is the comprehensive study in exactly what happened that day and the implications for the Confederacy’s Robert E. Lee and the Union’s George G. Meade. Pfanz explores the action in greater detail in Gettysburg – Culp’s Hill and Cemetary Hill.

- Matt

Looking for an inexpensive get-away this summer? Well, you’re in luck. Now through July 5th on the National Mall in Washington DC is the annual cornucopia of world culture–the Smithsonian Folklife Festival! The best part about it? IT’S FREE!

This year one of the festival’s three themes is Wales which, of course, reminded me of the engaging new book by Ronald L. Lewis, WELSH AMERICANS: A HISTORY OF ASSIMILATION IN THE COALFIELDS. This book describes the more than 100,000 Welsh-born immigrants that resided in the United States in 1890. A majority of them were skilled laborers from the coal mines of Wales who had been recruited by American mining companies. In the first history of this exceptional community, Lewis explores how Welsh immigrants made a significant contribution to the development of the American coal industry and how rapid and successful assimilation affected Welsh American culture.

Wales (Cymru in Welsh) is the nation where mile-long words abound, with g’s and w’s and y’s in unexpected places. Famous Welsh Americans include John L. Lewis, legedary leader of the United Mine Workers of America, Hollywood actors Catherine Zeta Jones and Christian Bale, and–at least by name–UNC Press editor Sian (”Shawn”) Hunter. The festival highlights contemporary Welsh handcrafts–like building a dry stone wall, making baskets, carving wooden clogs, industries–like mining, bookbinding, printing, as well as an abundance of good food, beer, wonderful Celtic music, and much more!

If you haven’t been, find an excuse to get to Washington DC and check out the Smithsonian Folklife Festival–it’s free, fun and fascinating for people of all ages.  And, if you haven’t already, read up on what the Welsh brought to America here.

-Kate Torrey, UNC Press director

For those of us of a certain age (read: Old Folks) reading has a deep association with many of our senses that the current trend towards e-Readers simply do not provide.  Books, those physical collections of bound pages provide us with a certain weighty heft that lets us know we are reading something substantial.  There is the tactile satisfaction that comes with turning individual pages and hearing those pages as they move from the right side of the book to the left with a gratifying visual sweep across our field of view.

And then there is the wonderful smell.  Be it a new book or an older book, opening up a book brings forth such an identifiable scent that even if we were blindfolded a true book-lover would recognize it as a book — and with that would likely come a flood of wonderful similar-scented memories.

Now, I’m not about to equate the smell of a book with the bouquet of a fine wine or the perfumy essence of heirloom roses.  I merely point this out because the e-Reader manufacturers have gone to great lengths to address the way their e-Books look, but no one has addressed how they smell.

Until now! Read more »

Located on the Virginia-North Carolina border, directly above Forsyth County, is Stokes County, the next stop on our Tar Heel Trek. Historically, Stokes is best known for tobacco production and stringband music. More recently, it is getting attention for being the home of baseball standout Dustin Ackley. However, as a Stokes County native, I feel like some of the lesser known features need a light shined on them.

When I went to college, I made friends with a guy who was training to be a boxer.  A big part of that training meant he was trying to take in over 4000 calories a day – twice as much as a normal diet. When my fighter friend learned I had grown up in Stokes County, he had one thing to say: take me to Hillbilly Hideaway. The appeal was twofold – not only is the food at the Hideaway extremely good, but every meal they serve is all-you-can-eat. Guests are served ‘family style’ – which means unlimited bowls of cinnamon apples, pinto beans, green beans, creamed potatoes, corn, and slaw are placed in the middle of the table. You help yourself. Some nights, they might even include chicken gravy. Other than those sides, fried chicken, country ham, biscuits, and cornbread (not either/or for any of those, all of them) are served. Depending on the day of the week, you’ll also get fried fish, BBQ spare ribs, or homemade meatloaf. Breakfast works the same way, except with eggs, biscuits, bacon, sausage, ham, tenderloin, two types of gravy, apples, hashbrowns, and Moravian sugar cake.

Wait here until a table's open

Hanging Rock

North of Hillbilly Hideaway, one can take in a day at Hanging Rock State Park – the best hiking and mountain trails in the Piedmont. During the fall, go for great views of leaves changing the Sauratown Mountains and even into Winston-Salem on clear days. In the summer, go to play in the waterfalls and swim in the mountain lake. Spring is perfect for long hikes up to Tories Den, a cave deep in the mountains where British loyalists hid during the Revolutionary War.

Lower Cascade Falls

By far, the most important piece of literature associated with Stokes County is White Christmas, Bloody Christmas, M. Bruce Jones & Trudy J. Smith’s in depth look at the Lawson family murders of 1929. The story, with many parts still remaining a mystery today, takes place in Germanton, North Carolina, where Charlies Lawson killed six of his children, his wife, and finally himself on Christmas day.

It caused such a national sensation that John Dillinger was rumored to have shown up to the funeral and the Carolina Buddies had a hit record with their  1930 ballad, ”The Murder of the Lawson Family.” Here’s a recording of Doc Watson performing the song, and here’s a version by the Stanley Brothers that includes an interesting, though slightly incorrect, introduction. Recently, a documentary, “A Christmas Family Tragedy,” was produced on the events, and profiled by Frank Stasio on WUNC’s The State of Things.

And that is just a little bit about the place! If you’re curious about any of these things, as well as anything else to do in Stokes County, just ask in the comments and I’ll gladly fill you in.

- Matt

Reunited and it feels so good; okay, so maybe 1868 wasn’t as smooth as a pop song.  There were a few kinks to work out.  How would secessionist states regain self-governing status?  How would newly freedmen be integrated into southern society?  What would become of the leaders of the Confederacy?  Reconstruction proved to be one of the most trying times in U.S. history, but out of this struggle came the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.  Oh yeah, that fightin’ stuff slacked off, too…at least on the battlefield.

To read more on the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, check out these titles:

• Paul D. Escott’s North Carolina in the Era of the Cvil War and Reconstruction collects work by well-known and up-and-coming scholars on key issues during the reassembling of North Carolina as an independent state and the branding of NC as a free state.  Wayne K. Durrill  writes, “This volume very effectively shows how North Carolinians fought amongst themselves–over land, labor, family, and control of the state government…”
• Mark V. Wetherington’s Plain Folk’s Fight: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Piney Woods Georgia examines the lives of common men and women, primarily yeomans, farmers, and craftspeople, in southern Georgia.  Though widely believed that this class of people fought for ideals of the the southern elite, Wetherington asserts that “plain folk” fought for issues that affected their own lives.
• Richard M. Reid’s Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the Civil War Era tells stories of the more than 5,000 slaves who escaped to serve in the Union Army.  John David Smith writes, “This well-researched and well-argued book should stand as the definitive history of North Carolina’s four black regiments in the Civil War.”
• William Blair’s Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914 explores the history of commemorating the Civil War in both black and white communities in the South.  W. Fitzhugh Brundage writes, “He [Blair] reveals the grief, pride, and pluck that southerners, black and white, displayed as they tried to impose order on their region’s recent past.”

-Rachel

*Dates of readmission according to the New York Times*

I set out on a bright June day, heading south to retrace the path of William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1865 march through the Carolinas.  I’m currently working on a project about the way Americans have remembered Sherman’s March, and I had already driven across Georgia the spring before.  Now it was time to work my way from the Bennett Place in Durham, NC to Columbia, SC and then as far south as Barnwell, SC to see what traces of the march remained, which events were commemorated or highlighted, and which have disappeared.   Perhaps this path would also give some sense of the place of the Civil War in the modern South.   Although I wound up following the march in reverse order, from north to south, this allowed me to go deeper into the South, and further back into the past

What I came to realize over the course of several days and visits to about two dozen sites, is that what we can see of the march today are the exceptions.  If the story was that Sherman and his men burned everything they could, few buildings would have survived at all, much less lasted for another 140+ years.  I came to realize that it’s easier to commemorate a battle or a skirmish, than simply the movement of an army across a landscape.  Thus the places that are highlighted on Civil War Trails and set off with historic markers are disproportionately sites of military importance—clashes of troops, rather than places were civilians and soldiers interacted for a moment in time.  But most of the march was the reverse:  small-scale moments, played out with a limited cast and leaving few traces behind.  Too, one can hardly expect the landscape itself to have remained unchanged since 1865.  Where Sherman’s men once saw plantation homes and broad fields, we now see tangles of timber interspersed with dollar stores and gas stations.

With all of this in mind, lets begin at the end:  The Bennett Place State Historic Site, in Durham, NC, which bills itself as the “location of the largest surrender of the American Civil War.”  The surrender at the Bennett place, which officially took place on April 26, 1865 (after several days of negotiations) is often overshadowed by the surrender at Appomattox, and what is striking about the Bennett Place is the degree to which its small museum and reconstructed farm buildings seem to acknowledge that.   The most striking feature at the site is the Unity Monument, erected in 1923 by the Morgan family (members of whom eventually dedicated the land that became the park.)

The monument describes the surrender on a low tablet, literally overshadowed by two pillars (representing North and South) supporting a crosspiece reading UNITY.  Thus, it would seem, the significance of the Bennett Place lies in it not as a commemoration of the end of the war, with winners and losers, but as the beginning of peace.

The other places I visited, in both North and South Carolina were much less about reunion, and much more about emphasizing white Southern resistance or defiance.  The battlefields of Bentonville and Averasboro in North Carolina and Rivers Bridge in South Carolina all stress military history—troops movements and the like, while downplaying the causes and results of the war, the people of the area and Sherman’s destructive ways.  Interpretations at all three sites, to varying degrees, emphasize the degree to which Confederates were able to slow Sherman’s men, though in the end never for long. Bentonville and Averasboro both have several monuments to fallen troops.  I found the small Chicora cemetery at Averasboro to be a poignant spot, with the expected monument to the Confederate dead flanked by rows of markers to unknown soldiers, identified only by their states.

Averasboro actually has a monument to Union troops—listing the regiments in the 20th corps, but set so far back from  the road as to be virtually invisible.

I found very few sites, or even historical markers, attesting to the destructiveness of the March.  Perhaps it was naïve to expect to find ruins still standing so many years later.  Certainly very few destroyed private homes have been left as reminders or testaments. Two sets of striking ruins remain however:  the remains of the Fayetteville Arsenal, in Fayetteville, NC, and the ruins of the Saluda Factory and Saluda River Bridge in Columbia.  The Fayetteville site (part of the Museum of the Cape Fear complex) is bisected by a highway now, but piles of rocks and some foundations can still be seen, along with a metal “ghost tower,” erected to give some scale to the ruins.   They reminded me of an ancient civilization, for the layout of the actual building can still be seen.

All that remains of the Saluda River Factory are some walls and stones that made up part of the millrace.   It’s deep in the woods of Columbia’s Riverbank Zoo and Botanical Garden, and it was an unusual experience to have to turn left at the baboon cage in order to do my research!  Here the feeling was less of an enduring civilization as one slowly being retaken by nature.

The further south I went, the greater the emphasis on the devastation Sherman’s men left in their wake.  In part, this may be a function of the claim that Sherman’s men took the gloves off in South Carolina, and put them back on again when they entered North Carolina.  Certainly, those sites that I visited in South Carolina seemed to take the war, and Sherman’s part in it, a bit more personally.  The displays in the Cheraw Lyceum museum, complete with tiny dioramas, described the Cheraw region as having been “ravished” by Sherman’s men , but conceded that the explosion which destroyed the business district was a pure accident.  Indeed, places that survived, whether a town like Cheraw or an individual home or church along the way seem to take pains to explain why they were spared:  a Masonic emblem left out, a church used as a stable (in Barnwell, SC) or a shared last name.

The city of Columbia, at least immediately after the March, seemed to take a perverse pride in having been the target of so much Yankee wrath, and the question of exactly who set off the fire that burned the town has never quite been settled.  Like many places through which the march passed, Columbia has a bit of a contradictory identity as far as Sherman is concerned.  On the one hand, there is the sense of victimization at the city having been bombarded and burned.  On the other hand, however there’s an element of pride or defiance in having survived and thrived.  This juxtaposition can best be seen on the grounds of the South Carolina state house.  You can see a marker commemorating the original state house (which was being replaced by a new building) which was “burned by Sherman’s troops.”

But turn around and you can see six stars on the walls of the state house, marking dents in the stone from Union cannonballs.  Devastation and survival coexisting in the same spot.  Perhaps the lesson we should take from the remains of Sherman’s March is that the past can’t be completely erased.

-Anne Rubin, professor of history (UMD), author of  A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868

Some exciting news  regarding UNC Press…

AAUP meeting:

Several folks from UNC Press traveled to Philadelphia, PA last weekend for the annual AAUP meeting–Joanna Ruth Marsland, our Director of Development had this to say about the meeting:

“…The sessions focused on “best practices” for the various departments and activities within university presses, and the ones I attended were very good. Of course there were so many that sounded worthwhile and it was difficult to pick and choose which concurrent sessions to attend. One that was particularly informative was an update on the Google Book Search Settlement moderated by Linda Steinman who is a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine. She gave the best overview and explanation of the issues and the suit I have heard. She also laid out some of the options and possible settlements. Before the session started, Peter Givler, former director of AAUP asked all non-AAUP members to leave the room. A Google person, a vendor, and some others sheepishly headed out.”

From the sound of things, there were less people at the meeting, which was to be expected. However the mood was upbeat and attendees seemed enthusiastic about the various sessions and new ideas for how to exist in the ever-changing market.

“As you know, the theme was “Only Connect….” and there were some interesting plenary sessions on connecting with other institutions through collaborations and connecting with readers through new digital technologies… it was very interesting to have people in related fields (librarians, e-vendors) share there thoughts on how faculty and students are accessing information and what the options are,” says Marsland.

In this economic climate, nothing is going to be the same as it was in years past, but overall the AAUP meeting was still exciting, informative and very worthwhile for university presses.

Nortin Hadler, abcnews.com, President Obama:

Diane Sawyer will be interviewing President Obama next Wednesday, July 1 at 10pm to air live on ABC–I know, I know, what does that have to do with UNC Press? Well, our very own UNC Press author, Dr. Nortin Hadler, has been asked to prepare some questions in regards to health care and to be present at the interview should they need to defer to him! We are so excited–Dr. Hadler is definitely the right person for the job. Hadler, author of Stabbed in the Back: Confronting Back Pain in an Overtreated Society and Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America, is a regular contributor for abcnews.com. Check out his latest op-ed here. Don’t forget to check out the interview!

-Rose

Gary R. Bunt, senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Wales, was kind enough to share his time and thoughts on the events surrounding the 2009 Iranian presidential election, the protests, and the deeply entrenched tensions between politics and religion. His most recent book, iMuslims, sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community. Drawing on more than a decade of online research, Bunt shows how social-networking sites, blogs, and other “cyber-Islamic environments” have exposed Muslims to new influences outside the traditional spheres of Islamic knowledge and authority.  Here is what he has to say regarding Iran, politics, religion and the internet:

The significance of the internet as a tool for mobilizing discourse and activism has been brought into sharp focus in the ongoing events surrounding the 2009 Iranian election. As I write, I am also monitoring Twitter feeds from Tehran and elsewhere:  in the time it takes to write this article, thousands of new tweets will have emerged in Farsi and English. These tweets in turn link to other social media, and form part of the public politics and protest following the disputed election results. Now I’m checking Google Maps: this mashes up the points of origin in YouTube clips, and positions them in Tehran. This included a clip from YouTube of Mir Hossein Mousavi: the technical quality was poor, reflecting its cell phone origins – but it’s there, on the streets, happening in real time. Perhaps the starkest application of Web 2.0 technologies in Iran was represented by the killing on June 20, 2009 of Neda Agha Soltan, a victim of Basiji militia gunfire; her death was captured on cell phone footage, circulated on Twitter, uploaded to YouTube, and broadcast on media channels worldwide: within 24 hours, Neda was one of the most prominent subjects on Twitter.

Twitter is also pointing me to photos from earlier protests. They’ve been put into a gallery on Flickr, and include bloody images from student protests in Iran. They, in turn, are linking to Facebook. I’ve been watching the Facebook pages from opposition groups for a while, with their content in Farsi and English. Both Facebook and Google introduced Farsi translation tools earlier than scheduled, in part as competition for some for the Twitter audience. A number of sites have been uploading blog posts and tweets from all sides in the election, including pro-Ahmadinejad web content, in order that readers could require an overview of perspectives. Ahmadinejad supporters and Iranian governmental agencies are also blogging, tweeting, and sending out SMS texts in attempts to galvanize domestic and international support, and derail opposition social networking activism.

Many have been describing the events as part of an internet revolution. This may be true, in part, although what we are seeing is a transition in the technologies being used, rather than simply a rapid, mass adoption of internet technologies in 2009. Iran has been “wired” for a long time, and has a relatively high level of internet access, although there remains issues of access outside of major conurbations. The emphasis in current discussions on social networking tools such as YouTube, Twitter & Facebook has often been made without the acknowledgment that this is part of a longer process in which technology and Islamic expression have combined in Iran. In 2009, a significant difference was the immediate availability of information feeds generated through Twitter, whose required brevity (of 140 characters or less) was effective enough to synthesize content from diverse media (video, audio, etc) and to link into domestic and international mainstream media. For reporters whose movements in Iran were restricted, they found themselves reporting on online content, which became a significant element of media output. Participants in demonstrations posted immediate tweets, SMS texts, photos and film, which were picked up by international media. Facebook was used as a social networking resource and information exchange portal, where observers and participants could meet together and exchange data in Farsi, English and other languages.

Prior to the Twitter evolution, the blogging revolution was ongoing in Iran and elsewhere, helped in part by the promotion of Farsi blogging by Hossein Derakhshan. (Although he was not the first “Iranian blogger,” Derakhshan’s user-friendly guidance resulted in tens of thousands of Iranian voices emerging into cyberspace.) Blogging has been a critical element in Iranian discourse, given the tens of thousands of Iran-centered blogs in the blogosphere, with diverse subject areas and interests, not all of which connecting directly or indirectly to political issues – popular culture being one driving factor.

In iMuslims, I discuss how there are still issues of internet access for Iranians, but that the how there are still issues of internet access for Iranians, but that the exponential growth of cell phone usage has led to alternate portals for internet discourse opening up. The Iranian government had encouraged the development of cell phone and internet services. The motivation for this has more to do wtih business and enterprise, than accessing religious content online-which forms a micro-area of the range of online services available and usage made. As access increased, so did the issues for security forces and censors: the Iranian internet structures have included the development of censorship and filtering technologies, with the assistance of international techonology companies, although the effectiveness of this system has brought into question, given the aptitude of many, to get around internet blocking through the use of proxy servers.

Previous elections saw the use of developing web technology, as a way to encourage votes: during the 2004 Iranian general elections, Farsi and English blogs gave “eyewitness” commentaries of events. This included actuality, as contributors conveyed their personal experiences of visiting polling booths, and provided a sense of the mood on the streets. The 2005 presidential elections saw candidates offering voters pre-paid cards for free net access, and using websites and blogs to publicize their campaigns. Having introduced an email the president features on his website, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad subsequently positioned himself as a blogging president in 2007, although his posts were limited, and he was making efforts to control the media (although not necessarily going towards full closure and censorship). Political-religious identities were reinforced by net exchanges & dynamics of discussions simulated by all parties through integrated online media. Read more »

Today, the UNC Press blog is happy to offer a guest post from William A. Blair, professor of U.S. history and director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University. In November, UNC Press will be publishing Lincoln’s Proclamation, a collection of essays coedited by Blair and Karen F. Younger that offers new perspectives on the 16th president’s most famous words. In this post, William Blair explains the origins of Juneteenth and the tradition of Emancipation Day celebrations throughout the United States.

- Matt

Popular practice has deemed Juneteenth as the ultimate black festival. The day commemorates June 19, 1865, when slaves in the Galveston, Texas, area heard a proclamation of freedom read by Union General Granger. There are several ironies about the occasion but perhaps the largest is that Juneteenth had been only a regional observance until its revival in the last several decades of the twentieth century. Before then, it was remembered primarily by residents of Texas and the southwest. Today’s popular practice obscures a much more vibrant and diverse calendar of commemorations of freedom by African Americans, which lasted at least into the middle of the twentieth century.

Juneteenth is only one of many Emancipation Days tied to Lincoln’s proclamation. Beginning with the issuing of the proclamation in 1863, African Americans in the Union-occupied Sea Islands near South Carolina and Georgia gathered in ceremonial events to mark what they hoped was the destruction of slavery. With the end of the war, the pace picked up on these celebrations until Emancipation Day became arguably the most important holiday in black communities throughout the United States.

Wherever African Americans constituted significant proportions of the population, business (at least black-owned ones) stopped for the day as African Americans conducted a parade. They listened to orations from prominent members of the community. A central ritual was the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, a duty considered as a special honor by the reader. Orators used these occasions to highlight the contribution of black people to American civic life and, consequently, press the case for the advancement and protection of their rights.

One historian of these practices counted that at least fifteen different celebrations thrived in black communities around the country. For instance, Lincoln’s proclamation offered two choices: September 22 for the preliminary version and January 1 for the actual. Then there were the days held as sacred—times when black people in a particular region won their liberation. These were often tied either to the appearance of the Union army or the defeat of the Confederate military. Richmond residents marked April 3 when Lee’s army fled the capital, while others preferred April 9, when that army surrendered at Appomattox. And, of course, there was June 19, 1865, when the enslaved at Galveston learned about their freedom.
Read more »

Continuing along the North Carolina piedmont, Davidson County is worthy of a pitstop. Founded in 1822 and named for Revolutionary War General William Lee Davidson, Davidson County is home to many unique and historical sites.

North Carolina is well known for it’s barbecue, but none is quite like the kind you get in Lexington–defining its own category, “Lexington-style barbecue.” Home to many of the great barbecue restaurants –Stamey’s, Speedy’s, Lexington BBQ,  Troutman’s–Davidson County knows its ‘que. In fact, since 1984, Lexington has hosted the Lexington Barbecue Festival, one of the biggest barbecue celebrations in the state, which sees more than 100,000 visitors every year.

Thomasville, known to many as North Carolina’s “Chairtown,” is a national furniture-making center and comprises one of the major industries in Davidson County, accompanied by textiles and tobacco. The town, named for legislator John W. Thomas,  welcomed  its first chairmaker, David Westmoreland, when he moved his shop from Forsyth County in the mid-1850s. He began the first chair factory in 1879, soon followed by many others. The importance of the industry to Davidson County was symbolized by the construction of “The Big Chair” in 1922. Thirteen feet tall–the world’s largest–it was later replaced by an 18-foot-tall steel reproduction in 1949. The oversized chair in Thomasville, symbol of Davidson County’s world famous furniture industry.

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