Speaking of the Sesquicentennial

Check out Dmitri Rotov's recent posting on Civil War Preservation Trust and the national sesquicentennial planning. Interesting.

Boat Show Report and a Busy Week Ahead

Our living history at the annual Wooden Boat Show in Plymouth, NC went really well this past Saturday despite a rather ominous beginning. It had been raining for two days (not that we were complaining, because we really needed it) and when we awoke Saturday morning it had gotten even worse. We slogged over to the museum, hoping that we would be allowed to set up inside. Setting up outside would have been a monumental task and would have been downright miserable. Alas, we were allowed to set up inside and had a wonderful day. Six of our members attended and we put out four displays (navigation, steam engineering, rope and knot work, and small arms). We probably saw around 350 folks throughout the day and our hosts were gracious. All in all, it ended up being a nice little program.

This week will be a busy one. I am meeting with staff from Fort Fisher tomorrow to plan some programming, then helping interview candidates for an Office Assistant position at the CSS Neuse on Tuesday and Wednesday. Finally on Thursday I will head for Richmond and the annual meeting of the Southern Historical Association and banquet for the Society of Civil War Historians. I will certainly blog the conference as I did with AASLH in September. All of this makes for a very busy week.

North Carolina Sesquicentennial Committee Website Went Live Today

The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) launched the website for their Civil War 150 Committee today at www.nccivilwar150.com. Unlike Viriginia, this is not a state commission, but rather a committee organized by DCR. This committee is only undertaking to plan and direct activities relating to the sesquicentennial within the department. I believe this is a good step in the right direction for North Carolina and am excited about the ideas being generated by this committee. The committee membership is extremely well-qualified and the Advisory Board is excellent. Please check out the website for more information. If you are anything like me, you are comparing and contrasting the efforts that various states are making at this point. I think you'll agree that North Carolina's Department of Cultural Resources is ahead of the curve.

For more information on the Department or the Division of State Historic Sites, click on the links on the right hand column.

Back to Work

Our vacation to the mountains was very nice. We spent most of the day Friday in downtown Black Mountain just shopping and eating. Saturday morning we hiked to the top of Lookout Mountain in Montreat then spent the rest of the day in downtown Asheville. Two of the highlights were the Asheville Art Museum (especially the Stone Roberts exhibit and the Mid-Century Modern exhibit) and the Basilica of St. Lawrence, which is truly awe-inspiring. We also visited Vance Birthplace since we were headed out that way for dinner.

Vance Birthplace


Anyway, now I'm back at work. I'll be catching up on things around the office most of the week and representing the Division at a Teacher Conference in Greenville on Thursday. This Saturday our living history group is participating in the Wooden Boat Show in Plymouth, NC. Should be a fun Saturday. If anyone is planning on travelling to the Asheville area anytime soon, I am linking a couple of restaurant recommendations below.

Stoney Knob Cafe (Mediterannean cuisine - very good)
Cafe on the Square (something for everyone)
I also recommend Berliner Kindl and My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain. Neither has a web site, but they are both worth a stop.

Vacation

As if I don't travel enough due to my job, the wife and I are hitting the road this weekend in celebration of our anniversary (4 years if you're counting). We will be visiting the wonderful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, particularly Black Mountain, Montreat, and Asheville. I am very familiar with this area because in high school I attended conferences at Montreat Conference Center, and later worked there as a summer staffer in 1994 and 1995. I have returned to visit friends numerous times over the past ten years, and of course, our Division has two sites in that area, so I get an opportunity to travel there for work a couple of times a year.

So on the surface it would seem that I planned this little getaway, when in truth it was my wife's idea. We've been together for seven years, married for four of those, and I've never been able to convince her to go to the mountains with me. Now, out of the blue, she's decided its time for us to go. I'm not complaining. We hit the road after dropping the kid off at school Friday morning (for those who don't know, I have a 13 year old stepdaughter) and will return Sunday. Its a quick trip, but we will get to see and do a lot in the short time we are there. And I hope to be back Sunday night just in time to watch the Steelers kick it off against the Broncos in Mile High! Should be a great weekend!

Colonial Living Week at Alamance Battleground

For the past three days I have been assisting with the annual week-long school program Colonial Living Week at Alamance Battleground, near Burlington, NC. I am impressed that the Alamance staff is able to continue this program year after year, as they only have two full-time staff members. It is a tremendous feat for them and it requires a lot of help from other sites, Division staff such as myself, and volunteers. Roughly 300 students come each day of the week and go from station to station seeing various demonstrations and doing activities such as candle dipping, blacksmithing, quill pen writing, etc. I am set up to talk about colonial sailor skills (go figure). I am talking about navigation, all the various uses of rope on board ship, shipboard life, and keeping time by the bell. I am also assisting with the daily artillery demonstrations using the site's 3-pounder. Its been a very fun and rewarding experience, not only getting to do some front line interpretation, but also having the chance to interact with site staff that I don't always see all that often. Today is my last day, but maybe next year I'll try to stay for the whole week. This is why I love my job!

Educating Home Schoolers at Tryon Palace

Yesterday our living history unit participated in Home School Day at Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens in New Bern, NC. This is a program that began when I was working at Tryon Palace in 2000. When it first began it was a series of weekdays, devoted to home schooled students. After leaving my employment there, I continued to come back and help with the program. However, the organizers realized that it was hard to rely on the same staff and volunteers for a series of 4 or 5 weekdays, spread out over a two week period. For the past three years or so the program has been held on Saturday (one in the spring, one in the fall). As our schedule works, we usually miss the spring, but attend in the fall. The theme changes each time, and the theme yesterday was Life in Revolutionary-era North Carolina (very appropriate for the colonial capital). All in all it was a good program and a good day for us. We set up as Rev War privateers, displaying rope and knot work, navigational items, and weapons. Home schoolers and regular, paying visitors included, we probably saw close to 400 folks. Say what you will about home schoolers (and I've probably said it all), but the caliber of kids that we see at this program is usually far better than at other events. They seem to be more intelligent (in most cases), inquisitive, and willing to interact with us. While you have the occasional pushy parent, most adults are also very interested in what we're doing and want to ask questions and talk longer than the kids. It kind of reminds me why we do this, and that's a good thing.

New Addition to the Blog

I have added a new list of links on the blog. This one is a list of sports blogs, particularly Pittsburgh sports blogs. My other passion aside from history is sports. What that means....I play softball, racquetball, and disc golf. In terms of professional sports I am a fan of all the Pittsburgh teams. In college football I am a Paterno devotee and follow Penn State (the past two weeks has been terribly difficult to swallow). Finally, being here in North Carolina, college basketball is a big deal. While I am first and foremost devoted to my alma mater, the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks, that's not good enough 'round here. Everyone must have an ACC loyalty, and mine is to the UNC Tarheels. It makes things interested because my wife is a Duke fan. Of course, she also started watching football as a Baltimore Ravens fan and I had to quickly rectify that (it really could have ruined the marriage). However, she was a Duke basketball fan when I met her, so I have to deal with that. At least I've managed to get her in black and gold during the NFL season, and that's good enough for me. Enjoy the sports blogs if you decide to check them out, and keep coming back as I add more.

See Also.....

Chris Grimes at Albemarle Soundings has also posted on the event at Tarboro if you are interested. He and I have pretty much the same take on it, but go read his blog anyway; its interesting. You can link to it off of my blog roll on the right hand side of the page.

Some Battles Are Best Left Unfought

This past weekend our navy unit participated in Tarboro History Days. We've been doing this event for three years and it's an enjoyable program. The folks who organize it are the most hospitable we've come across and we are always welcomed and made to feel at home. It doesn't hurt that they always make sure we get an honorarium of some sort to help keep the unit coffers full. All in all, it is a fun time.

This year's event was the biggest on record, and while I hesitate to critique an event too harshly, it seemed that this year there were some things on the schedule that just weren't planned all that well. The most ill-advised thing I've ever seen was the "battle" reenactment they attempted. First, the space in which they planned to have the battle was much too small a space. Even had the living history area not been located there, I would still have not recommended staging any sort of recreated action there. It took place on the town common, which is an absolutely gorgeous setting with beautiful old homes and oak trees lining the streets. Unfortunately, the town common was never meant to be a battle ground. There were no real barriers (I don't count orange traffic cones as barriers) to keep spectators from getting too close to the action. At one point, my colleague Chris had to yell at some kid to get back lest he be trampled by the cavalry. There were three artillery pieces (way too many for such a small space) and the spectators might as well have been targets, as close as they were. A small child near us was crying because he was scared to death and his idiot mother wouldn't take him away to try and calm him. A dog near us was so frightened it broke it's leash and hauled ass the opposite direction (I blame the stupid owners for bringing a dog to a reenactment to start with). Finally, an acquaintance of mine was so agitated that he was stomping around talking about what "bullshit" the reenactment was and how it was trivializing the war, blah, blah, blah. BTW, his wife was one of the event organizers so go figure. All in all, it was about the most uncomfortable I've been in my nine years of doing this.

Then, the battle itself was a joke. It involved about half a dozen Union cavalry who would ride forward, fire a few shots, then retreat. The Confederate artillery would unleash a volley that shook every window on the block, then the Union would saunter forth again and so on and so forth. After about 20 minutes of this ridiculous back and forth, the Union bugler blew taps and they called it a day. Hokie to say the least, and rather pointless at that.

At least the living history aspect of the program was well done (except for the following). We were set up as Confederate Navy, next to an 18th century fishing boat. I guess they figured Confederate Navy, 1700s fisherman, not a big difference. Then, across the green from us were stationed the Buffalo soldiers of the 1870s. They had a terrific set up, but again, nothing to do with the Civil War (and everything in the area aside from them and the aforementioned boat was Civil War). There was also living history going on at two other locations, and it seemed that one of them may have been more suitable for these displays. We were told later, by one of the event organizers, that the Buffalo soldiers had been stationed on the town common to appease the City Council and assure them that having a Civil War encampment there wouldn't anger the black community and cause racial tension. Wow.

They seemed to suffer from "too many chiefs and not enough Indians" syndrome. Over the course of the day I met no fewer than five event "organizers." I realize it takes a large committee to pull something like this off, but I'm not sure the left hand knew what the right hand was doing. They were trying to cram way too much stuff into one event, rather than focusing on one thing or another.

Aside from all this, we had a great time. We saw about 1,500 people over the course of the day and did some good living history. We will continue to attend this event and hope that the organizers learn from their mistakes. This event could be a first class affair, if the organizers don't try to overdo it, which is really what they did this year. Once they sort through all of the angry, negative feedback from the very few disgruntled people I encountered they may get some useful and constructive criticism. I hope that from now on they find a more suitable location, or leave the battle unfought.