Reading

It's not a reflection of the quality of the book, it's a reflection of my blase attitude towards the Civil War. After a couple of false-starts, I finally finished Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Condfederate Capital (Nelson Lankford, 2002). He uses great primary sources such as diaries, letters, reports, and newspapers to capture the moods of Capital City as the distinction of being a national capital fizzled out. Two strong impression remain: the strength of Northern feelings; and the wrongs perpetrated on documents. I was familiar with Southern hatred towards the North for "doing this to us" and whatnot. Surprising to me was the vehemence of Northerner's jottings. For instance,

James Hane, a twice-wounded twenty-two-year-old corporal in Richmond with the 81st New York condemned [in a letter dated April 20, 1865] "traitors who deserve no better fate than to be hung between Heaven and earth for foul birds to pick their bones." (page 223)

As for the document record, Nelson described Confederate government officials striving to pack and take with them critical records as they prepared to evacuate. They planned to stay in business, and records management is part of doing business. In retrospect, we add the weight of history. What might we learn about the Confederacy if the records had stayed in tact? What wasn't packed was variously burned, left to drift up the streets, and recycled, it seems, as both wrapping and writing material. And then of course, there's the outrage of looters. Soldiers and visitors seeking souvenirs would even take from the White House items actually in use by the Union commanders using the building, not things used by Jefferson Davis.

Why should I be surprised? Destroying the records, history, and art of cultures is a standard way of conducting war. Consider the Taliban's destruction of the enormous Bamiyan Buddhas (see also this article). Librarians and archivists work to protect such places during war through the Blue Shield (and in other ways, I suspect).


New Reading: The Well of Lost Plots, by Jasper Fforde.
Knitting: baby gift for new niece or nephew
Capital City weather: cold and rainy