Disease in the Public Mind book review

My most recent book on tape was "A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War" by Thomas Fleming

Basically this is a book about slavery as the cause of the war.  It starts off with the John Brown raid, then goes back to the creation of Constitution and follows the time line back through the end of the Civil War.

I thought it was a good book that covered many events of the first 100 years of the country.  I would have one dispute though.  Calling this a "new understanding of why we fought the Civil War" is far from accurate.  Slavery was considered a cause of the war from the moment it happened.  At various times other interpretations have emerged.  Directly after the war the defeated Confederates tried to cast it as a conflict over states rights.  It feels like slavery was diminished as a cause for quite awhile and sometime around the centennial made a comeback to its rightful place.  At this point I'm not sure that anyone taking up a new study of the causes, without any bias, would not think that slavery was the main cause of the conflict.  I'm not sure the point where this interpretation took hold but from my own experience I'd say this is far from a recent development.

So quibbling with a subtitle is my main complaint.  Other than that I thought it was a good book.

John Brown Presentation

Last night I did a presentation on John Brown for the Rocky Mountain Civil War Roundtable as part of our series on the causes of the war. I was a little nervous at first that it wouldn't go as smoothly as I'd want. Unlike other presentations I just didn't feel like a Brown expert. I've read some books and hit the internet but I didn't feel 100% confident that I knew it all. But it turned out well. I thought it was a little short, just under an hour when other presentations lately seem to hit 90 minutes, but the few people I talked to about that issue were kinda glad that it was an hour long. Later I realized there was one fact I left out of the presentation but it was a minor piece of the battle of Black Jack so it was not a big deal.

My presentation focused on Bleeding Kansas and Harper's Ferry. For Bleeding Kansas it boiled down to Pottawatomie and Black Jack. I also did brief segments on his life before 1855 and the Secret Six who gave him the financial backing to do what he did those last 4 years of his life. I was a little disappointed in the resources in general because there were questions that were never really answered. I could never get a good number of how many men Brown fought against at Black Jack. One source said he faced 29 to 750 odds, others just said he was outnumbered. How could he win a battle facing those odds, plus capture 25 men? I think he faced odds of 29 to 40-50 and a dozen or so deserted during the fighting. I could never get a handle on whether he was a good business man with bad luck or a bad business man. Some said he was a failure at everything he tried, but others said he suffered as much as others from the various financial panics that hit the country, but that when the country went well so did Brown. It seemed that Brown gets a new biography every year or so, I bet he ranks up there with Lee and Lincoln as the most written about Civil War era personalities. That's a help and a hindrance because some of those books are pure garbage, or offer very little new to the topic.

And because I can't do a post without sharing some pictures, here are some pictures of Harper's Ferry. I have not been to Black Jack (add it to my to do list) so this is all I can share right now. If you click on the first picture you will be able to read the labels I have added to the picture. It points out where John Brown's Fort was in 1859 and where it is now. Unless you have really great vision you probably cannot read it on this page but if you click on it a larger version will load and you should have no problem.

John Brown

Sometimes I feel sorry for my wife. When she married me she thought she was just getting one Civil War nut. Turns out I've influenced my son enough that he's a Civil War nut too. He loves to come with me to the roundtable meetings, so far I've taken him to two. He's very well behaved, at first I was a bit worried taking a 4 year old along but he sits there quietly, watches the presentation and whispers questions to me.

This weekend I was going through some boxes in the closet and he saw a mini Confederate flag. He reached in and said "A Confederate Flag!" like he'd been looking for one his whole life. I don't remember explaining the different flags to him but somehow he caught onto it. Also in the box was a plastic house to go with plastic soldiers, I think the house is supposed to be Meade's Gettysburg HQ, or something similar. And he loves that thing. Every night this week he's wanted to look at it and hold it. I had intended to throw it away but he's so into it I now feel guilty throwing it away.

At one point he talked about being a Confederate soldier for Halloween, but I think now he wants to be a cowboy or Shrek, it changes all the time. Its odd though that he would want to be a Confederate soldier when his favorite Civil War character is John Brown. John Brown was the first character I read to him about. I've tried Lee, Cleburne, Grant, Sherman, but he always comes back to John Brown. A couple times a week he'll bounce out of bed run downstairs and blurt out "John Brown!," then scamper back to bed. I look at my wife as she rolls her eyes.

I had been thinking next summer's family vacation would be to Chattanooga but now I'm thinking we should go to Kansas City and make side trips to some Bleeding Kansas sites so he can get the full John Brown experience.

I'd like to dress him up like this for Halloween, but I think my wife would kill me.

I'm also thinking of doing a John Brown presentation next year for the roundtable (our theme will be causes so he'd fit in nicely) and I could take my son in full costume along. Right now when I take him to meeting I play a little game with him. I'll say things like "Who led the raid on Harper's Ferry?" or "What abolitionist was a major figure in Bleeding Kansas?" and he gleefully shouts back "John Brown." I could incorporate that into the presentation, although he might become shy if he was on the spot like that.

When doing a google image search for John Brown I came across this statue on the Kansas University campus. They did a series of Hawk statues like those pigs and cows that pop up in cities every few years. I wonder if its still there, I'd love to see it.

Harper's Ferry

Mike and I had both been to Harper's Ferry years before. And its a neat town but we were not interested in seeing the town again. What we really wanted to see was the view from Maryland Heights. We really had no idea how steep and long the hike was. Our hike was longer than it had to be because we took the bus into town instead of parking at the trailhead. But we did want to see some of the town we were just more interested in getting onto Maryland Heights so it wasn't a huge deal.




The first place you get a view from the mountain is at the Naval Battery. The guns here were designed to sweep Bolivar and Loudoun Heights. During the fighting in September 62 the guns were swung around to fire at the crest behind them but not to too much good. Some of the remains of the fortifications can be seen below as well as the view of town beyond.


The view from the top though is what we were after and although it was a tough hike it was worth it. It was a beautiful day, a few birds drifted by but each time they just missed Mike's camera. Later in the trip it became clear that birds did not like Mike's but that cows were much more willing to be photographed. As I said the view was worth it. If we had packed a lunch we might have continued on the trail to the stone fort but we did not bring a lunch and we had other sites to see in the Shenandoah Valley. I'm not sure I'd hike it again, it really is a steep hike. Part of our problem was tons of heavy camera equipment but I am glad I did it.





FYI John Brown's Fort can be clearly seen in the photo if you know what you're looking for. It is next to the left fork of the railroad just after it crosses the river. The building sits alone. The original site is marked by a 6 foot tall obelisk. It can also be seen in the photo but it a bit harder. It is just to the right of the large red brick building at the end of the street and is between the road and the railroad. These sites can be seen a bit better in the photo below this one.
And here's a photo of Maryland Heights taken from the streets of Harper's Ferry.

We also added two more trains to our list at Harper's Ferry. First we saw one crossing the river from the top of Maryland Heights. Then in town we saw a commuter train roll right past us on the street. I will have a train post in the next few days showing all the trains from the trip.