Arlandria: Then and (Almost) Now
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The story of Arlandria, from rural outpost to diverse urban neighborhood, presented by University of Mary Washington professor Krystyn Moon.
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Female Soldiers of the Civil War
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A ceremony at Arlington Cemetery honored female soldiers of the Civil War--women who hid their identities and fought side-by-side with men.
Read MoreFinding Descendants from Alexandria's Contraband and Freedmen Cemetery
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Char McCargo Bah explained how she found descendants from among more than 1,750 people buried in Alexandria's Contraband and Freedmen Cemetery--who can now celebrate their ancestors, many of whom escaped slavery.
Read MoreAppomattox Statue, Then and Now
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The Confederate veteran has stood on Alexandria's main north-south thoroughfare for more than 100 years. Once grass grew between the cobblestones at his feet.
Read MoreThe Pacific Northwest: Far Away, but Not Untouched by the Civil War
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The Civil War in the Pacific Northwest? Not as intense, but no part of the country was immune.
Read MoreJulia Wilbur's Alexandria: The "Slave Pen"
/On the first morning after the Union occupation of Alexandria, May 22, 1861, Michigan troops came upon what had been a flourishing slave-trading establishment on Duke Street, less than a mile from the Potomac River.
Read MoreJulia Wilbur's Alexandria
/My friend Mary visited from Connecticut and asked for a tour of Julia Wilbur sites in Alexandria. (She is a fellow history nut, writer, and great friend, as I am not sure who else would indulge me on a hot summer day!) We didn't have much time, but off we went to some of the spots on a map I built:
Read MoreCivil War Medicine: Surgeon Training
/One of the many things I learned this week from Von Barron, aka Captain Turner Kitt, was that no surgeon working in the field, north or south, lasted all four years of the Civil War.
Read MoreMary Surratt and Julia Wilbur
/Mary Surratt and Julia Wilbur never met, and certainly would not have gotten along if they had. But both had to figure out how to survive in what could be an unfriendly world for a woman on their own.
Read MoreLast Mercy Street Episode
/No word yet on Mercy Street returning next year. A few points from the last episode:
Read MoreCemeteries in Old Alexandria
/Last night's episode of Mercy Street included a poignant scene in which the Green and Fairfax families attempted to bury Tom Fairfax. No matter one's sympathies, seeing a funeral disrupted at gunpoint was not pleasant.
Read MoreHarriet Jacobs and Julia Wilbur: Two Other "Heroines"
/With my own research in mind, I can't resist proposing Julia Wilbur and Harriet Jacobs as two other real-life heroines of Mercy Street.
Read MoreMansion House Hospital Today
/As you have watched "Mercy Street," have you wondered whatever happened to Mansion House Hospital?
Read More"Contrabands" in Alexandria
/One of Mercy Street's characters with perhaps the most compelling back story (not that we know much of it, at least not now) is Aurelia, the African American laundress who is victimized by the brutish steward, Mr. Bullen. I don't remember if they specifically refer to her as a "contraband," but I know the word came up during the program. Here's a little background.
Read MoreWhat did you think of "Mercy Street?"
/The first episode of the PBS drama "Mercy Street" aired last night. Mansion House Hospital was noisy, chaotic, and rather dark.
Read MoreFast Forward to LBJ
/What else could LBJ have accomplished if not for the Vietnam War? Perhaps the same could be said for Lincoln...or maybe Lincoln became great because of the war. I will leave that for others to debate.
Read MoreDecember 6, 1865: 13th Amendment
/We are now on a new round of "150th" anniversaries--the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. At a National Archives program earlier this week, the presenters focused on on "The 13th Amendment at 150."
Read MoreEric Foner on Reconstruction
/To kick off the D.C. Historical Studies conference, historian Eric Foner spoke to a very full auditorium at the National Archives last night on "Reconstruction and the Fragility of Democracy."
Read MoreAfrican American Historic Records at the Library of Virginia
/Two staff members from the Library of Virginia came up to Alexandria yesterday to explain some of the resources in the collection in Richmond or online.
Read MoreGrace Greenwood, once famous, now forgotten
/A fun thing in combing Julia Wilbur's diaries is coming across headline events and people of the day--once huge, now forgotten.
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