Marching in Step: USCT Veterans and the Grand Army of the Republic

For many United States Colored Troops, remembering the Civil War and their comrades who fell in it became an important part of their post-war life. One of the primary opportunities for public expression of remembrance was Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day. African Americans played a critical part in the creation of this holiday. On May 1, 1865, the newly-freed black residents of Charleston asserted their place in Civil War memory by leading a parade to a recently constructed cemetery for Union prisoners at the city’s horseracing course. The procession heaped flowers upon the graves of the honored dead, after which ministers from the town’s black congregations gave dedicatory speeches. This event, known among some in the North as the “First Decoration Day,” exemplified African American interest in perpetuating the memory of the Civil War. However, the resentment of white Southerners at the time towards this instance of black agency led to the marginalization and eventual forgetting of the event in the mind of the public at large

The Complexity of a Soldier: Mitchell Anderson’s Life, Death, and Legacy

It is hard to believe that this is my last semester as a Civil War Institute Fellow, but that time has indeed come. When offered my choice of projects for this term, I figured it would only be appropriate to finish out my work on the Killed at Gettysburg project with one last deep dive into the life and legacy of a soldier who died here in Pennsylvania. I know I have stated this several times in my previous reflections on the project, but I feel that Killed at Gettysburg profiles offer an excellent way to consider the battle from a micro perspective and to remember the human element behind history. As such, I am proud to have worked on the project during my years as a CWI Fellow, and I hope you have enjoyed learning about the men behind the stories as well. [excerpt

The Legacy of “Old Osawatomie”: John Brown in Art and Memory

This, of course, is no deity, but rather John Brown, a man who received many appellations both during and after his lifetime. Abolitionist. Murderer. Freedom fighter. Terrorist. And this picture is known as Tragic Prelude, painted by the American regionalist artist John Steuart Curry. A native of Kansas, Curry received a commission from Governor Walter Huxman in the late 1930s to paint a series of murals depicting the state’s history for the Kansas State Capitol Building. Other scenes in the mural cycle included depictions of the explorer Francisco Coronado and Padre Padilla, but the most recent scene, as well as the largest, portrayed John Brown

A Soldier of the North and South: The Remembrance Day Legacy of Minion Knott

For the third straight semester, I have returned to the Killed at Gettysburg project to chronicle the life and death of another soldier who lost his life in southern Pennsylvania. My personal interest in this project has not waned since I authored the first of my five profiles of Union soldiers in Dr. Carmichael’s “Gettysburg in History and Memory” course in the spring of 2017. I firmly believe that no interpretation of the Battle of Gettysburg is complete without a strong understanding of the unique lives that were extinguished there. This reminds us all that the battle was fought by men with their own personalities, hopes, and dreams, rather than faceless chess pieces on a map, and promoting this mindset has become a key goal of mine. [excerpt

Antietam’s Dunker Church: Meaning in the Viewpoint of the Beholder

This post is part of a series featuring behind-the-scenes dispatches from our Pohanka Interns on the front lines of history this summer as interpreters, archivists, and preservationists. See here for the introduction to the series. Antietam National Battlefield’s venerable Dunker Church stands out today as one of the battlefield’s most recognizable landmarks. While visitors to the park commonly seek it out as a place to explore today, the church has held several different meanings for those who have interacted with it over the years. These varying perspectives on the simple white brick structure provide great insight into how material objects influenced the attitudes and beliefs of historical actors. Across the decades, the Dunker Church has remained a key object in this regard, even as its meaning has changed depending upon the viewpoint of the beholder. [excerpt

Perspectives on Our Past: The Killed at Gettysburg Stories of Franz Benda and Augustus van Horne Ellis

Once again, I have spent the semester working on the Civil War Institute’s Killed at Gettysburg project. This project continues to be one with which I feel a strong connection, as I have always taken an interest in the stories of Gettysburg’s fallen. As such, I am glad to have had the opportunity to work on it again. As before, I have focused on two soldiers in my research this spring, one an enlisted soldier in the ranks and one a regimental commander. The latter, Colonel Augustus van Horne Ellis of the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry, has a life-sized statue of him on the battlefield, while the former, Private Franz Benda, 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, remains obscure. Both of them, though, lived fascinating lives, and each of their deaths reverberated far beyond the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania. Through text narratives and interactive story maps, I sincerely hope that both of their stories can be told to broader audiences who can thus gain a greater appreciation for these men who heroically gave their lives for the cause of the Union. [excerpt

Looking Ahead to the 2018 Pohanka Internship Program

This summer, 21 Gettysburg College students will head to the front lines of public history through the Brian C. Pohanka Internship Program. From Andersonville National Historic Site to Minute Man National Historical Park, these interns will carry forward the legacy of the late Brian C. Pohanka, while also developing their own skills in the field of public history. Brian Pohanka was an avid student of the Civil War who shared his love of the past through presenting and reenacting, as some of the interns who bear his name will do this summer. They will work at some of the sites most dear to him, including Gettysburg National Military Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, and Richmond National Battlefield Park. [excerpt

Monumental Questions: 1860s Civil War Monument Vandalization at Manassas

On October 4, 2017, I awoke to the news that the Stonewall Jackson equestrian monument at Manassas National Battlefield Park had been vandalized. Having worked there as a Pohanka intern during the summer of 2016, I was saddened to hear this. Now, I have no great love for the Jackson monument. It makes the Southern general look like Superman atop a horse that appears to have had a good amount of steroids mixed with its oats and hay. Yet, I believed then, as I do now, that covering the monument in colored paint was an extremely inappropriate act of vandalism. [excerpt

Small hydrocarbon molecules in cloud-forming Brown Dwarf and giant gas planet atmospheres

We study the abundances of complex carbon-bearing molecules in the oxygen-rich dust- forming atmospheres of Brown Dwarfs and giant gas planets. The inner atmospheric re- gions that form the inner boundary for thermochemical gas-phase models are investigated. Results from Drift-phoenix atmosphere simulations, which include the feedback of phase- non-equilibrium dust cloud formation on the atmospheric structure and the gas-phase abun- dances, are utilised. The resulting element depletion leads to a shift in the carbon-to-oxygen ratio such that several hydrocarbon molecules and cyanopolycyanopolyynene molecules can be present. An increase in surface gravity and/or a decrease in metallicity support the increase in the partial pressures of these species. CO, CO2, CH4, and HCN contain the largest fraction of carbon. In the upper atmosphere of low-metallicity objects, more carbon is contained in C4H than in CO, and also CH3 and C2H2 play an increasingly important role as carbon-sink. We determine chemical relaxation time-scales to evaluate if hydrocarbon molecules can be affected by transport-induced quenching. Our results suggest that a considerable amount of C2H6 and C2H2 could be expected in the upper atmospheres not only of giant gas planets, but also of Brown Dwarfs. However, the exact quenching height strongly depends on the data source used. These results will have an impact on future thermo-kinetic studies, as they change the inner boundary condition for those simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, accepted to MNRA

A Flexible Simple Thermostat for Small Objects and the Range of 100 to 400 K

A flexible, inexpensive thermostat for the temperature range 100 to 400 K is described. Liquid nitrogen is the coolant and a gas serves as transfer medium. The temperature can be set to better than 1 K and is held there within (1/2) K by an electronic control system. The relatively small working volume of the order of 10 cm^3 allows quick changes of temperature, a desirable feature in typical semiconductor experiments