Overview: Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
In his much acclaimed novel, Tony Horwitz takes readers on a national quest to explore the concept of Civil War memory and controversy. Horwitz gives readers plenty of insight in this subject matter through countless interviews with a wide range of people, including small town bartenders, hardcore reenactors, members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and even Shelby Foote. The diversity of the interviewees, weather that implies different perspectives or races, serves to understand why the civil war still affects us today, and why we still argue about a conflict that ended more than 150 years ago. In chapter 10, unfortunately named "The Civil Wargasm", Horwitz and his reenactor colleague Robert Lee Hodge take a weeklong "power-tour" of the war's eastern theater, visiting many known and unknown markers and battle grounds. This website highlights some of the sites that Hodge and Horwitz ecountered, featured in chronological order. |
Individual Markers
Day 1: John Quincy Marr memorial, near Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia. Hodge explains to Horwitz that Marr fell over 7 weeks before the First Battle of Bull Run, and therefore some consider him "the first Virginia martyr".
|
Day 3: Jeb Stuart memorial, Yellow Tavern Virginia. Stuart died an honorable death when he was shot off his horse in Custer's Cavalry. Stopping at this memorial, which was hard to find among cul-de-sacs, car lots, and shops, Hodge and Horwitz realize with "melancholy logic" that industrialization and urbanization leave little hope for such "historic landscape remaining relatively pristine."
|
Day 4: Statue of Stonewall Jackson in Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia. This memorial is introduced as both famous and infamous, Containing statues of Davis an Lee that Horwitz describes as "stone leviathans honoring falied rebels against the state". Hodge and Horwitz also attend a controversial debate on the addition of a statue depicting Arthur Ashe, an African American tennis player, among such figures, and the true meaning of "Monument Avenue".
|
Website Bibliography
Pictures
http://civilwarsaga.com/stonewall-jacksons-strange-habit/
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC34E82_sunken-road-bloody-lane http://www.fxva.com/listing/captain-john-quincy-marr-monument/1918/ https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60893-d278375-Reviews-Monument_Avenue-Richmond_Virginia.html https://rotj.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/j-e-b-stuarts-yellow-tavern-memorial/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederates_in_the_Attic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater http://souvenirchronicles.blogspot.com/2014/02/maryland-antietam-battlefield.html http://slideplayer.com/slide/9426256/ https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/photosmultimedia/kelly.htm http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall03/peters/virginia.htm http://thomaslegion.net/battleofchancellorsvillecampaigncivilwar.html http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/55200/55267/55267_cold_harbor.htm https://www.britannica.com/event/Petersburg-Campaign https://www.pinterest.com/pin/509329039081139786/ |
Info. Sources
|