History

=Historical Context = Key Words Army Ranks Mr. Taylor's Lecture ||
 * Contents:

“The only foes he had seen were some pickets along the riverbank.” (p 8) b. a demonstrator or protester.
 * __ Picket __**
 * Definition**: A group of soldiers positioned slightly ahead of the rest of the troops in order to watch for the enemy’s advance and guard against a surprise attack.
 * Etymology**: Comes from the French verb //piquer//, meaning //to prick//
 * Other** **Meanings**: a. a sharp or pointed post

“A Negro teamster who had been dancing upon a cracker box with the hilarious encouragement of two-score soldiers was deserted.” (p 1-2)
 * __ Teamster __**
 * Definition**: Privates who were assigned to drive and guard the baggage wagons and sometimes the ambulances. They also cared for the animals that pulled the wagons.
 * Etymology**: From the word //team//, as in driving a //team// of horses, mules, etc.
 * Other** **meanings**: Today, Teamster refers to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union of professional truck drivers.

“When he had finished the blue-clothed men scattered into small arguing groups between the rows of squat brown huts.” (p 1) “He had grown to regard himself merely as a part of a vast blue demonstration.” (p 8) “They were a sun-tanned, philosophical lot, who sometimes shot reflectively at the blue pickets.” (p 8) b. Blue is a common color used to represent groups or countries (flags, symbols, etc). During the French revolution, blue stood for the revolutionary forces.
 * __ Blue __**
 * Definition**: In context, it refers to Union soldiers and supporters of the Union cause in general.
 * Etymology**: Union soldiers wore blue uniforms, and over time the color came to represent the movement as a whole.
 * Other** **Meanings**: a. sad, down

“Don’t go a-thinkin’ you can lick the hull rebel army at the start, because yeh can’t.”(p 6) “Of course they ain’t never been under fire yet, and it ain’t likely they’ll lick the hull rebel army all-to-oncet the firs’ time…” (p 12) //Rebel// //Army//: the confederate army from the South during the Civil War //rebellare// (Latin) – to fight back; to wage war again
 * __ Rebel __**__ **Army** __
 * Definition**: Rebel: one who acts in revolt; to resist authority; one who refuses obedience or allegiance
 * Etymology**: //rebellisas// (Latin) – waging war again; insurgent
 * Other** **Meanings**: The phrase often appears in current events referring to any insurgents or militias that we are against or oppose.

“‘Yank,’ the other had informed him, ‘yer a right dum good feller.’” (p 8) b. originally referred to residents of New England c. during the Civil War, referred to anyone from the North, the Union side of the war. a. used as a word meaning ‘excellent’ b. comes from the Cherokee word ‘eankke’ meaning coward, which they used to describe New Englanders
 * __ Yank __**
 * Definition**: a. someone of US origin or heritage
 * Etymology**: short for Yankee, which has uncertain origins but many theories.
 * Other** **Meanings**: It is sometimes used as a derogatory term by people outside the US.

-(MR)

Structure and Organization of Civil War Infantry
//(more...)//
 * Army** > **Corps** > **Division** > **Brigade** > **Regiment/Battalion** > **Company**

Mr. Taylor's Alternative Causes of the Civil War Lecture
Mr. Taylor came in to our class to discuss alternate causes as to what started the American Civil War. His views were controversial and eyeopening, yet surprisingly rational. He discussed that the Civil War was caused by Southerners wanting to keep their federalist rights, which the centralist North was taking away. He also mentioned that the slavery issue was actually isolated incidents in the South and that there was actually a large amount of white and Native People slavery in the North. The final cause of the Civil War was the US trying to build railroads in the North and West while making the South share the cost, though the South would not reap any of the benefits. Reflections on these ideas and Mr. Taylor's lecture follow. (CK)

Chris' Reflection
Mr. Taylor’s visit was quite an interesting experience. In some ways I was disappointed by his lecture—I had been preparing myself over the past few days for a racist secessionist rant such as I’ve heard from other modern Confederate sympathizers. Instead, I was met with an educated and informative alternative view on the civil war. Although my previous years of education have taught me that slavery was a minor cause of the civil war, I had not heard of the fabled “white slavery”. Looking back, I can definitely piece together from what I have learned that it did in fact exist. However, I don’t understand his evidence for there not being many railroads in the South. We frequently hear of the famous “Sherman Knots” in which General Sherman’s army twisted the railroad tracks into unfixable knots. This could not be done if there were no railroads in the South. I also greatly disagree with his statement that the North is more racist than the South. From my own experience, the South is quite bigoted. My own experience that I have referenced twice would be a vacation with my friend’s Southern family to the real South, not the romanticized South. These hotspots included such places as Pigeon Forge, TN (home of [|Dollywood]) and Roanoke Rapids, NC (home of a Wal-Mart, a McDonald’s and a Sonic; nothing more). Last, I thought he didn’t even touch upon some important ideas of the pro-secessionist thought, such as the US’s enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine which pushes for self-determination. However, I felt that the shortcomings of Mr. Taylor’s speech could have been explained had there been more time. But I still found that they were made up for with his very interesting artifacts. (CK)

**Yin's Reflection**
“Let me just start by saying that the Civil War was not really about slavery,” Mr. John Taylor began in his twangy North Carolinian accent. He proceeded to dig through layers of history, back in time, down to the very core & integrity of this country. An interesting, though not entirely original point of view (my 8th grade U.S. History student teacher taught us the same thing), his arguments claimed that the origins of the war came not from idealistic principles of equality, but from baser economic ones. While he lectured, I was wondering to myself, //If what he says is true, why won’t the textbooks print it? For what would they corrupt the spirit of education?// Then I realized – we become increasingly cynical and insecure with each truth that we uncover. If textbooks taught that the Civil War was not fought in the name of breaking injustice, but rather as a president’s excuse to acquire money to pay for stolen land – what would that make the people think? What would motivate the soldiers to sacrifice their young lives in bloody, hellish battles? What would the citizens of this country, to this day, have to be proud of if not for the fact that, in the words of Barack Obama, “There's not a black America and a white America … there's a United States of America”? I guess that sometimes we need to be told what we want to hear in order to keep our hope, faith, and the courage to live.

Melanie's Reflection
It was very helpful to have a quick refresher course on the civil war because I haven’t studied it since 9th grade and it’s a lot easier to get in to a book and follow it when you know the historical context and what was going on at the time. That being said, I also learned some brand new ideas about the war during John’s presentation. He was able to portray the big picture and overall climate of the time very well, and it was a lot more interesting than a bunch of dates and names of battles. It surprised me how much he downplayed slavery and said that the war was mostly fueled by economic reasons. I think that, especially in northern states, we are all used to hearing about the horrors of slavery and how Lincoln came to heroically emancipate them, and we generally accept this explanation without much thought. But what John was saying made a lot of sense. The issue wasn’t all about the morality of slavery, but about the economy surrounding it. For example, railroads in the north used Chinese slave labor, but no one seemed to care because railroads were a booming business and were helping the economy. Slave labor helped the economy in the south as well, but it was not used to make any technological advancements which people in the north valued more than agriculture. Also, the original constitution left a lot of room for states to develop their own laws, even to the point that many states had their own currency. This made it very hard to function as a whole country, so Lincoln came in to try to tighten up the country and take away some of the state rights. This is what caused most of the problems. Lincoln was not really quite the hero that we like to portray him as because his argument was about much more than purely the immorality of slavery. It helps to know this perspective on the Civil War while reading //Red Badge// because history has so many different sides, depending on the individuals who experienced it. Aside from talking about the climate of the country and the causes of the war, John also talked a little bit about the life of a soldier, and he showed us some weapons and tools used. It was amazing to see the enlistment sheet from Wisconsin. It gave me a better image of what it must have been like for the young soldier in the book to go sign up to join the army and write his name on a sheet like that. Also, it was cool to see the weapons and bullets that they talk about in the book and to hear about how personal the war was. John said that in battles, a soldier was usually less than 20 yards from the person they were trying to kill. I cannot imagine being in that situation, and it helped me appreciate the youth’s struggles in the book. (MR) Aaron's Reflection ** The guest speaker that came in to talk to us had a lot of helpful information. Mr. Taylor also introduced many controversial ideas that I have never even heard before. I also liked that he brought in many Civil War objects for us to look at. They helped me visualize how the war progressed, and what items they used. I think the most interesting part of his presentation was how the explanation of how the war started. His beliefs were very different than the ones I have been taught. I think it is more beneficial to students to learn two perspectives of history than just one. It was interesting to learn a little history of what sparked the war as well. The best part of Mr. Taylor’s presentation were the Civil War items he brought in. I think it would have been more interesting if he had played the bugle a little. The part that I didn’t like about his presentation was the amount of time he spent on pre-war information. It might have been more informative if he had spent more time on connections from the Civil War to Red Badge or if he had just told more the Civil War in general. Overall I thought that his presentation was very useful and helpful for Red Badge readers. (A.L.)
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John's Reflection
On Wednesday November 19th, Mr. John Taylor came to speak to our class about the U.S. Civil War and to provide us with background context for Stephen Crane’s novel, The Red Badge of Courage. Mr. Taylor began his discussion by explaining his viewpoint on the origins of the Civil War. He believes that one of the principle causes of this war was the development of the railroad system in America. According to Mr. Taylor, the U.S. Federal Government wanted to create a vast railroad system to facilitate the transport of natural resources across the country. The railroad network that was developed didn’t traverse much of the South, but Mr. Taylor averred that President Abraham Lincoln asked the Southern states to contribute an inordinate amount of money to subsidize the railroad companies. According to our guest speaker, this action by President Lincoln greatly agitated the aggrieved residents and leaders in the South and contributed to the impasse between the North and the South that resulted in our Civil War.

Mr. Taylor also brought in several artifacts from his collection of Civil War documents and memorabilia. I found the bugle and old military documents especially fascinating. I might enjoy reading some of the primary sources in Mr. Taylor’s collection.

It was evident that our guest speaker spent a good deal of time considering the best approach for explain his ideas to us, and he seemed to still be deciding about his focus and how much detail to provide during his presentation. He also didn’t explain how his research and beliefs about the Civil War would be especially relevant to readers of The Red Badge of Courage since he hadn’t read this book recently. I really enjoyed seeing the artifacts Mr. Taylor showed us, and I’m grateful for the additional perspective they provided on the setting of The Red Badge of Courage. However, I would have appreciated it if there had been a more in-depth explanation of these items from the Civil War era.

Overall, I enjoyed John Taylor’s presentation and thought it was very relevant to the material we’ve been covering in class. I think it would have been even better, however, if he had spoken about some more specific examples with connections to the novel we’ve been reading. (JS)