American Civil War Centennial

Last updated January 21, 2024

The American Civil War Centennial was the official United States commemoration of the American Civil War. Commemoration activities began in 1957, four years before the 100th anniversary of the war's first battle, and ended in 1965 with the 100th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox.

Centennial Commissions

The public commemoration of the Civil War began with Congress' 1957 creation of the United States Civil War Centennial Commission. The Commission was asked to work with, and encourage, the U.S. states (especially the ones created before the war) to create commissions to commemorate the war, and to some extent coordinate centennial activities by the private sector.

Neither Congress nor President Dwight D. Eisenhower sought a unified theme for these commemorations. To avoid this, the law creating the federal Commission reflected clear expectations that most of the implementation work of the commemoration would be carried out by the various state commissions. Almost all of the states did indeed set up centennial commissions.

At the same time, the National Park Service, and other federal agencies that controlled key Civil War battlefields, used the Centennial to successfully lobby Congress for increased funding to re-landscape and interpret these battlefields for the general public. The U.S. Post Office issued a series of commemorative stamps to mark the centennial.

At the national Commission, key members urged different priorities. Emory University Professor Bell Wiley recommended a major effort to document and preserve information from historic letters, newspapers and public documents. Ulysses S. Grant III, the first chairman, wanted to emphasize large events that appealed to the public, such as "sham battles" or reenactments. Businessman Karl Betts, the Commission's first executive director, looked for ways it could spur economic development. They agreed on a Cold War consensus to the effect that all Americans were ideologically united, with the result that potentially divisive civil rights issues were not emphasized.^[1] The shadow of ongoing conflict over the civil rights movement affected these commemorative activities.

Differing themes

The same geographical divisions that had helped spark the Civil War itself also affected the works of the separate state commissions that tried to oversee the Centennial. Not surprisingly, the Northern states' commissions and the Southern states' commissions looked at the war in very different ways, used different key words and phrases to reflect their viewpoints, and sponsored and encouraged different public memorials and activities.^[2]

In particular, the governments of U.S. Southern states saw the Civil War centennial as an opportunity to reinforce their view that the infrastructure of Jim Crow and segregation was an organic reflection of a distinctive Southern "way of life." Many white Southerners responded with enthusiasm to invitations to celebrate their heritage, which they saw as one of courage on the battlefield and continuity afterwards. For the first time, many Americans, especially white Southerners, volunteered or were recruited into historical reenactment groups that performed pageants and re-creations of Civil War battles, field maneuvers, and encampments.

The Centennial also saw efforts to use the various commemorations as a launching pad for serious adult education of the facts and issues surrounding the war. Historian Robert J. Cook, in a 2007 study of the commemoration, argues that these efforts were unsuccessful and constituted a missed opportunity.^[3]

Legacy

One major legacy of the Civil War Centennial was the creation of an infrastructure of Civil War reenactment.^[4] At least two major Civil War battlefields, Pea Ridge National Military Park in Arkansas and Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri, were added to the roster of parklands administered by the National Park Service during the Centennial years. Civil War-related state parks, such as Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site in Kentucky, also trace their heritage back to the Centennial years. In addition, much of the current interpretive infrastructure of other major American Civil War battlefields dates back to planning decisions made in the early 1960s.

Before 1957, celebrants of Southern heritage had adopted a wide variety of signs and symbols. In the late 1950s, many white Southerners united around a modified version of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia as the flag to be used in commemoration of the Centennial, and this flag was raised at many 100th-anniversary events. For example, the modified Confederate flag was raised on the grounds of the South Carolina State House in April 1961 as part of the 100th-anniversary commemoration by South Carolina's government of the reduction of Fort Sumter.^[5] Eleven months later, state lawmakers passed a law requiring the flag's commemorative appearance be made permanent and that the flag be flown over the capitol itself. This decision (reversed in 2015 after the Charleston church shooting) accompanied white resistance to integration and the civil rights movement.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Cultural commemoration

Alec Wilder's Names from the War (1961), based on a long poem of the same name by Civil War historian Bruce Catton, was written for the centennial.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Civil War</span> 1861–1865 conflict in the United States

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which had been formed by states that had seceded from the Union. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Sumter</span> Historic coastal fortress in South Carolina, United States

Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island near Charleston, South Carolina to defend the region from a naval invasion. It was built after British forces captured and occupied Washington during the War of 1812 via a naval attack. The fort was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter occurred, sparking the American Civil War. It was severely damaged during the battle and left in ruins. Although there were some efforts at reconstruction after the war, the fort as conceived was never completed. Since the middle of the 20th century, Fort Sumter has been open to the public as part of the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, operated by the National Park Service.

Historical reenactments is an educational or entertainment activity in which mainly amateur hobbyists and history enthusiasts dress in historic uniforms or costumes and follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge presented during the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, or as broad as an entire period, such as Regency reenactment.

The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and the "Blood-Stained Banner", used in 1865 shortly before the Confederacy's dissolution. A rejected national flag design was also used as a battle flag by the Confederate Army and featured in the "Stainless Banner" and "Blood-Stained Banner" designs. Although this design was never a national flag, it is the most commonly recognized symbol of the Confederacy.

The Battle of Lovejoy's Station was fought on August 20, 1864, near what is now Lovejoy, Georgia, in Clayton County, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. The two sides had arrived at something of a stalemate, with the Union army half-encircling Atlanta and the Confederate defenders staying behind their fortifications.

The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was the final engagement of Confederate General in Chief Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia before they surrendered to the Union Army of the Potomac under the Commanding General of the United States Army, Ulysses S. Grant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Civil War reenactment</span> Hobbyist or actor attempts to recreate battles or events from the American Civil War

American Civil War reenactment is an effort to recreate the appearance of a particular battle or other event associated with the American Civil War by hobbyists known as Civil War reenactors, or living historians.

The most common name for the American Civil War in modern American usage is simply "The Civil War". Although rarely used during the war, the term "War Between the States" became widespread afterward in the Southern United States. During and immediately after the war, Northern historians often used the terms "War of the Rebellion" and "Great Rebellion", and the Confederate term was "War for Southern Independence", which regained some currency in the 20th century but has again fallen out of use. The name "Slaveholders' Rebellion" was used by Frederick Douglass and appears in newspaper articles. "Freedom War" is used to celebrate the war's effect of ending slavery.

Defenders Day is a longtime legal holiday on September 12, in the U.S. state of Maryland, in the City of Baltimore and surrounding Baltimore County. It commemorates the successful defense of the city of Baltimore on September 12-13-14, 1814 from an invading British force during the War of 1812, an event which led to the writing of the words of a poem, which when set to music a few days later, became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner", which in 1931 was designated as the national anthem of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dade Battlefield Historic State Park</span> United States historic place

Dade Battlefield Historic State Park is a state park located on County Road 603 between Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 301 in Sumter County, Florida. The 80-acre (32 ha) park includes 40 acres (160,000 m²) of pine flatwoods and a live oak hammock. Also called the Dade Massacre site, it preserves the Second Seminole War battlefield where tribal Seminole warriors fought soldiers under the command of Major Francis L. Dade on December 28, 1835. Each year, on the weekend after Christmas, the Dade Battlefield Society sponsors a reenactment of the battle that started the Second Seminole War.

The Philippine Centennial was a series of celebrations by the Philippine government to primarily commemorate the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898.

<i>Confederates in the Attic</i> 1998 nonfiction book by Tony Horwitz

Confederates in the Attic (1998) is a work of non-fiction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz. Horwitz explores his deep interest in the American Civil War and investigates the ties in the United States among citizens to a war that ended more than 130 years previously. He reports on attitudes on the Civil War and how it is discussed and taught, as well as attitudes about race.

The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg's 50th anniversary. The June 29–July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans was the largest ever Civil War veteran reunion. All honorably discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of the 48 states attended, all but Nevada and Wyoming.

The commemoration of the American Civil War is based on the memories of the Civil War that Americans have shaped according to their political, social and cultural circumstances and needs, starting with the Gettysburg Address and the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery in 1863. Confederates, both veterans and women, were especially active in forging the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

The Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps concerns both the actual stamps and covers used during the American Civil War, and the later postage celebrations. The latter include commemorative stamp issues devoted to the actual events and personalities of the war, as well as definitive issues depicting many noteworthy individuals who participated in the era's crucial developments.

Territories of the United States on stamps discusses commemorative postal issues devoted to lands that have been ceded to the nation or purchased by treaty in conjunction with both war and peace. Thirteen states have been created from colonial territories, two from independent republics, four from previous states in the Union, and an additional thirty-one from United States territories.

A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of an exact century.

The United States Semiquincentennial, also called Sestercentennial or Quarter Millennial, will be the 250th anniversary of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence. Festivities will be scheduled to mark various events leading up to the anniversary on July 4, 2026.

The 28th Virginia battle flag is a Confederate battle flag that belonged to the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Captured by the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg, the flag was brought to Minnesota and exhibited at the state's capitol for several years before passing into the permanent collection of the Minnesota Historical Society after 1896 where it has remained since. Although various groups in Virginia have requested that the flag be returned, beginning as early as 1960, Minnesota has repeatedly declined to return it, with Governor Jesse Ventura asking "Why? I mean, we won."

References

↑ Robert J. Cook, Troubled Commemoration: The American Civil War Centennial, 1961-1965 (2007) p 126
↑ Edward L. Ayers, The Civil War and Emancipation 150 Years On, Southern Spaces May 17, 2011.
↑ Cook, Robert J. (2007). Troubled Commemoration: the American Civil War centennial, 1961-1965. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. p. 261 . ISBN 978-0-8071-3227-2.
↑ Hadden, Robert Lee (1999). Reliving the Civil War: a reenactor's handbook. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books. p. 4.
↑ "The Day the Flag Went Up". scpronet.com. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
↑ SEANNA, ADCOX. "As SC honors church victims, Alabama lowers its flags". Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
↑ BURSEY, BRETT. "The Day the Flag Went Up".
↑ "It's Long Past Time For South Carolina to Stop Flying the Confederate Flag". Mother Jones.