Tag Archives: sesquicentennial

‘The Widow Lincoln’ at Ford’s Theatre

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How is Ford’s Theatre marking the sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s assassination?  It’s staging a play about Mary Lincoln.  Hope the Secret Service are keeping the Obamas far, far away from this one.

The moment is just one of many pathos-crammed sequences in “The Widow Lincoln,” the doleful historical monument of a play at Ford’s Theatre. Written by James Still (“The Heavens Are Hung in Black”) and directed by Stephen Rayne, this world premiere broods knowledgeably over the plight of Mary Todd Lincoln after the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, at Ford’s Theatre in 1865. While fever-dream design and dramaturgy evoke the first lady’s mental health problems, there’s an aching universality to the production’s portrait of grief and bewilderment in the face of loss.

via ‘The Widow Lincoln’ at Ford’s Theatre shows a first lady in mourning – The Washington Post.

Commemorative Events

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Readers in or near Caroline County, Virginia (or buffs who might want to make a trip out of it) should note this nifty little program, which features receptions, talks, bus tours, and even a dinner with an author, all on the subject of John Wilkes Booth’s flight, capture and death in Virginia.

Caroline County is getting ready to commemorate perhaps the county’s most historic event: the capture of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth…

The county will have events on April 24, 25 and 26 to remember the 150th anniversary of the capture and to honor Lincoln.

via Caroline will commemorate anniversary of John Wilkes Booth’s capture – Fredericksburg.com: Caroline.

Replica of Lincoln’s Coffin on Tour

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I’m posting this too late for it to be of use to Indiana buffs, but there are enough interesting facts to merit mentioning it anyway.  If you ever wanted to know the difference between a coffin and a casket, for instance – I’d never given it much thought before.  I’d also not given much thought to the size of a coffin needed to bury a 6’4″ President.  It says here that Lincoln’s coffin was only 2″ taller that the big man himself, which is a surprise.  Was he buried shoeless and after a haircut?

April 14, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln. In remembrance of this historic date, a replica of the well-loved president’s coffin will be on display for public viewing at Farley Funeral Homes and Crematory in January. 

This replica, known as the Lincoln Replica, was made by the Batesville Casket Company in Batesville, Indiana. According to a Batesville representative, it is one of four replicas touring the country. A fifth coffin is on permanent display in Springfield, Missouri, Lincoln’s birthplace. The coffin, authentic down to the smallest details, measures 6 feet 6 inches long and is constructed of solid walnut. It is completely covered in black broadcloth and has a white satin interior.

via Replica of Lincoln’s coffin to visit the Suncoast – Sarasota News | Mysuncoast.com and ABC 7: Featured.

New Year’s Levees

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We celebrated the arrival of 2015 a week ago today.  Back in Lincoln’s time, January 1st was the day the White House doors were thrown open to the public and the masses thronged in to greet the inhabitants.  These White House New Year’s levees were common knowledge to me, but their desegregation never struck me as a revolutionary event until reading this article.

Every year the Lincolns threw open the doors of the White House for a New Year’s reception to which the public was invited. When a few African Americans – including Abbott and fellow physician Alexander Augusta – asserted their citizenship by attending in 1864, people inside the White House were shocked, but decorum prevailed.

The next year, however, things unfolded quite differently. By New Year’s 1865, it appeared that the abolition of slavery and the defeat of the Confederacy were at hand. For African American activists and their white allies, however, it was not enough simply to outlaw slavery. They envisioned a nation in which racism, too, would be eradicated. They wanted an end to discrimination in voting rights and law enforcement. And African Americans wanted to be treated with the same respect and dignity accorded to whites.

via Abraham Lincoln and a test of full citizenship.

Remembering the Columbia Burning

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February 17th marks the 150th anniversary of the burning of Columbia, South Carolina, and the town is memorializing the event with a series of lectures. If you live in or can get to Columbia in the next month, there are some interesting topics being covered.  Click the link below for the full list of speakers.

More than 450 buildings in Columbia were destroyed and many residents were left homeless and destitute in February 1865 after Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s troops marched with vengeance into the city.

The fire that nearly wiped out the city is the focus of two months of lectures, exhibits and tours designed to help current residents determine look back on the nation’s most devastating conflict and gauge its impact even today.

via Diverse experts, events to mark Columbia’s most devastating period | Living | The State.

Children of Civil War Veterans

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National Geographic interviews the children of Civil War veterans.  As I’ve posted before, incredibly there are still some living.  There’s a short video that accompanies this article which is worth the click-through.

Extraordinary even among this exclusive group of Civil War children are four surviving siblings from the same family: Charles Parker Pool’s sons, John, Garland, and William, and his daughter, Florence Wilson. Their father served in the Union’s Sixth West Virginia Infantry.

via Children of Civil War Veterans Still Walk Among Us, 150 Years After the War.

Smithsonian Civil War

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The Smithsonian has just released this fabulous coffee table book, Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection.  A browse through with the Amazon preview tool reveals a wonderful series of photographs and brief but informative captions. It was a book like this that inspired me in my first days of Civil War study.  With Christmas around the corner, it would be a great gift for any new or old war buffs on your list.

Smithsonian Civil War is a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book featuring 150 entries in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  From among tens of thousands of Civil War objects in the Smithsonian’s collections, curators handpicked 550 items and wrote a unique narrative that begins before the war through the Reconstruction period. The perfect gift book for fathers and history lovers, Smithsonian Civil War combines one-of-a-kind, famous, and previously unseen relics from the war in a truly unique narrative.

Smithsonian Civil War takes the reader inside the great collection of Americana housed at twelve national museums and archives and brings historical gems to light. From the National Portrait Gallery come rare early photographs of Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant; from the National Museum of American History, secret messages that remained hidden inside Lincoln’s gold watch for nearly 150 years; from the National Air and Space Museum, futuristic Civil War-era aircraft designs. Thousands of items were evaluated before those of greatest value and significance were selected for inclusion here. Artfully arranged in 150 entries, they offer a unique, panoramic view of the Civil War.

Searching for Gettysburg

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This Washington Post writer seems to be a humorist rather than an editorial writer, but she acquits herself splendidly here, talking about the changing interpretation of Gettysburg’s battle, importance, and even the visitor’s center.

I particularly liked this passage:

This randomness is the part of military history that has always fascinated me. You miss a sunken road on your map, and Waterloo is a defeat instead of a victory. You misplace three cigars with orders wrapped around them, and Antietam suddenly grows more complicated. You shoot at what you take to be an enemy riding in the woods, and you have killed Stonewall Jackson. Hold the heights for an hour longer, for two hours longer, and the course of history shifts.

Searching for Gettysburg – The Washington Post.

Chattanooga 150

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Lost in the commemorations of the Kennedy assassination is the Chattanooga anniversary.  There are a lot of events happening in the area between today and the 27th, so if you’re in or near Tennessee, swing by and partake.  I visited the site as a kid, and it was a spectacular park.   The view from Missionary Ridge is worth the engine-taxing drive to the summit.

via 150th Anniversary of the Campaign for Chattanooga – Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service).

7 score and 10 since “of, by, and for”

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It’s the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address; the “little speech” that made a big impact.

Abraham Lincoln’s carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by the secession crisis, with “a new birth of freedom,” that would bring true equality to all of its citizens. Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality.

I was thinking of which version to post to celebrate the sesquicentennial, and it occurred to me that this clip from Ken Burns’ The Civil War is perfect: You get David McCullough’s gentle narration of the day’s events, Shelby Foote’s drawling explanation of Lincoln’s “failure”, and Sam Watterson reciting the speech in that flat, Midwestern accent which lends an authenticity to the whole thing.  (Plus – hey, Ashokan Farewell.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address