Tag: Confederacy

• And John Tyler too

  When I realized I had yet to read a presidential biography this year, I decided to tackle one that was more obscure and therefore more likely to be shorter. For some reason, tenth president John Tyler came to mind. I opted for John Tyler by Gary May, part of the American Presidents series of short books.…

  Jul 9, 2018

  # book notes, books, Confederacy, Henry Clay, John Tyler, politics, presidents, review, slavery, The Civil War

• Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

  Part of the Cool Civil War Names series. In addition to being one of two people to serve in the U.S. House and Senate, a President’s Cabinet, and the U.S. Supreme Court, L.Q.C. Lamar was one of eight senators featured in Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, which is one of those books you’ve…

  Mar 4, 2017

  # Charles Sumner, Confederacy, Cool Civil War Names, history, Jefferson Davis, John F. Kennedy, Supreme Court, The Civil War

• Flag Abuse

  Responding to the anti-shutdown right-wing protest in front of the White House on Sunday (which featured the Confederate flag and a rebel yell), Ta-Nehisi Coates gets at something that has long gnawed at me: If a patriot can stand in front of the White House brandishing the Confederate flag, then the word “patriot” has no meaning. The…

  Oct 15, 2013

  # America, Confederacy, flags, history, presidents, Robert E. Lee, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Civil War

• Robert Barnwell Rhett

  Part of the Cool Civil War Names series. We’ve got ourselves a good ol’ fashioned fire-eater here. And like fire itself, this brand of demagogue was a useful tool only until it burned its wielder. A lawyer by trade, Rhett entered public service in 1826 as a South Carolina state legislator and continued as state…

  Jul 21, 2013

  # Confederacy, Cool Civil War Names, history, Robert Barnwell Rhett, South Carolina, The Civil War

• Jubal Early

  Part of the Cool Civil War Names series. There’s so much Civil War in this guy it makes me want to cry. “Old Jube” (as Robert E. Lee would later come to call him) and his brawny beard fought early and often in the war between the states, but for reasons you wouldn’t suspect from…

  Apr 18, 2012

  # Abraham Lincoln, Confederacy, Cool Civil War Names, Gettysburg, history, Jubal Early, Lost Cause, Robert E. Lee, The Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant

• Zebulon Baird Vance

  Part of the Cool Civil War Names series. This guy had ambition. Studying law by 21 and in the North Carolina House of Commons by 24, Vance made friends and won elections with his oratorical skills and soon entered Congress as the youngest legislator and one of the few Southern supporters of the Union. This…

  Aug 29, 2011

  # Confederacy, Cool Civil War Names, Gettysburg, history, Jefferson Davis, North Carolina, The Civil War, Zebulon Baird Vance