#confederate
General James Longstreet(Confederate)
One of the most prominent generals of the war, and later one of the Confederacy’s most controversial figures, this picture of Longstreet was taken at some point after the war had ended. We find him looking well-fed and distinguished, with his salt-and-pepper beard perhaps betraying a touch of artificial help in his very dark hair.
Longstreet was one of the best generals on either side, a senior corps commander in General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia for much of the conflict. His finest moment came perhaps at the Second Battle of Bull Run, when he led 25,000 men in the largest mass assault of the entire war to rout the Union Army’s left flank. After the war, Longstreet became the most senior Confederate to join the Republican party during Reconstruction, supporting his old military school friend Ulysses S Grant’s bid for the presidency 1868. Longstreet later served the US government in a variety of roles, including Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Derided as a traitor by many in the South, Longstreet was blamed for the defeat at Gettysburg and much else besides, and his reputation has only recovered in recent times.
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Brigadier General James Lusk Alcorn(Confederate)
Beards being so popular during 1860s America, prominent individuals explored a variety of styles in their attempts to look both fashionable and distinguished. Here, Alcorn shows off a bushy beard-and-moustache combo without any sideburns. With his hair still dark around the sides, you imagine his grey beard must have looked quite striking.
Alcorn himself wasn’t really a soldier. A lawyer and politician in Mississippi, he was an opponent of secession but joined the Confederate Army anyway, serving as a Brigadier General. Not having any military experience, he spent most of his time in uniform engaged in raising recruits and garrison duty, although he was a prisoner of war for a time in 1862. Given parole by the Union Army, he went back to his plantation and made a lot of money trading cotton. After the war he was a notable Scalawag - a Southern supporter of the Republican Party and its Reconstruction policies - and served in the US Senate and as Governor of Mississippi.
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Meanwhile in Mississippi… students counter protest against current state flag supporters. We envision a flag that represents everyone, one where there is no controversy and doesn’t bring division. One that truly represents us all.
Shots by| IG @ellevogue
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Other Lost Shoes
A number of Massachusetts Reform School boys locked bayonets with the VMI cadets at the Battle of New Market. I wrote about three of these forgotten soldiers for a recent guest article on Irish in the American Civil War.
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Born on May 9th, 1844, Isabella Maria Boyd was born in Martinsburg, Virginia (which would later become West Virginia). She led a fairly typical life for a girl her age: she attended finishing school in Baltimore and was a relatively normal young woman by the time the Civil War began. It is here where her career in spying begins by chance.
Boyd wrote of her escapades in espionage in a highly exaggerated account, but it details her successes (and ultimate failures) during the Civil War. Her account details the Union forces that came to investigate her house in 1861 because there was rumor that Boyd was housing Confederate flags in her room. She then claims that one of the solider cursed at her mother, which enraged her and forced her to shoot him (he later died, but Boyd was exonerated of murder). The Union forced stationed men around the house, which allowed Boyd to become close to at least one of them (Captain Daniel Keily was the name she gave him in her memoirs).
The stationing of soldiers around her house allowed Boyd to start eavesdropping and learning the ways to pass information. Generally, Boyd passed information to Confederate officers through her slave Eliza Hopewell, who carried the written notes in a hollowed-out watch case. This worked until she was caught early on and threatened with death. She realized she needed a safer route of communication. Belle’s house was located in Martinsburg, West Virginia and has now been made into a museum.
Boyd took sensitive information about Union forces that she had overheard in her parlor directly to Colonel Turner Ashby by bluffing her way through Union lines. For her help, Stonewall Jackson wrote a letter to Boyd saying “"I thank you, for myself and for the army, for the immense service that you have rendered your country today.” She also received the Southern Cross of honor and was awarded a captain and other honorary aide-de-camp positions.
Boyd was arrested at least six times, but managed to avoid jail in each instance. In 1862, Allan Pinkerton, a detective who would go on to create Pinkerton National Detective Agency, assigned 3 men to work the Boyd case to track her down. Boyd continued to evade Pinkerton and his men and began to gain popularity as “La Belle Rebelle” and “the Siren of the Shenandoah” as well as numerous other nicknames.
Though Boyd did exaggerate some of her tales and escapades, she was incredibly famous (and infamous) to both the Union and the Confederate sides. She was hailed as a hero to her rebelling countrymen and was hunted by the North. Boyd was actually arrested 6 times, imprisoned 3 times, and exiled twice. On July 29, 1862, Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, issues a warrant for her arrest and she was captured and taken to Old Capitol Prison (the current site of the U.S. Supreme Court). She was banished to the Confederate capitol, Richmond. Boyd refused to stay in Richmond and she was arrested again, and banished to Canada, but she decided to head to England instead.
Boyd was more likely in the business to be an adventurer rather than because of her strong commitment to the Confederate ideals. She married two Union men in her lifetime: Samuel Hardinge, a naval officer with whom she had a daughter, Grace, and John Swainston Hammond, with whom she had 4 children (3 that lived past infancy). Boyd published a memoir Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison in 1865 to support herself. She went on to marry Nathaniel High, an actor 17 years younger than her. Boyd was also an actress herself and she died on stage in Wisconsin on June 11, 1900 at age 56.
(All images from The Library of Congress).
Racist fucking oogle
That’s my home girl and if you had some sort of integrity you wouldn’t be a hitch and hide behind the internet you are or some pc housey oogle and quit your pitching , why are you even looking at this site ? Ashley will laugh when she sees this
Guys I’m a racist lololololol
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#wepost from @embracingblackculture
Well Bree Newsome couldn’t wait any longer. So, she took matters into her own hands, literally. She stood up for what she believed in (even if the plight seemed miniscule to others) and took down the flag. She ended up getting arrested, but was clearly proud of her actions, as are we. Doesn’t sound much different from someone else we know #RosaParks Everyone please take note, this is history happening right in front of us. Welcome to the history books Bree, you have joined the ranks of the many Black women who have fought and sacrificed for our rights, and we stand with you sister. #FreeBree #BreeNewsome #SouthCarolina #confederate #confederateflag #TheFlagIsDown #CivilRights #civilrightsmovement #civilrightsactivist #blackwomenhistory #blackwomen #Black
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The Disturbing History Of Confederate Monuments, In A Single Image
The past century has seen several steep increases in Confederate tributes–and they tend to occur at very specific moments.
[Image: Southern Poverty Law Center]
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So… by now you’ve all heard about this:
Amidst all the screaming that the premise is racist - which it is - I personally couldn’t help but think “Um… didn’t Boondocks creator already announce a similar show for Amazon this past February?
So… to Hell with Benioff & Weiss’s new show - let’s dedicate our Black asses to watching Aaron McGruder’s new joint.
Especially since the world has basically become a Boondocks strip come to life.
Right-wing nationalists react with violence as activists burn the US and Confederate flags to protest institutional racism in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park.
Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC
urban dreamscapes photography
alec mcclure
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I DON’T WANT TO WATCH SLAVERY FAN FICTION byLeonardo Santamaria. An illustration for an op-ed by Roxane Gay on The New York Times.
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