Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 10:59am

For Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things, and Battles Long

Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper

 

 

An interesting collection in the video above of photos of Civil War generals during and after the War.  As the Civil War was drawing to a close one hundred and fifty years ago, the hundreds of thousands of photographs taken during the War ensured that it would not be remembered as other conflicts had been remembered.  Unlike, say, the American Revolution, the reality of the War would not be sweetened by a few score paintings that would fix the War visually in historical memory.    Unthinkable in 1865, even when the millions of men who had fought in the War were all dust, the photographs would remain to show a small part of what they saw.  John Adams, who feared that the true history of the American Revolution was lost forever and that posterity was being given myths instead of truths regarding the great times he lived through, would have hailed the advent of photography as helping to preserve some of the reality of the stubborn facts of history.

 

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Philip
Philip
Thursday, February 19, AD 2015 4:53am

“……the photographs would remain to show a small part of what they saw.”

And lovers of a free nation founded by men who feared God, exist today, to bring history and truth to the men and women of these United States.
Thanks Mr. McClarey for caring.
My sight is better for it.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, February 19, AD 2015 7:38am

“Way down south in the land of cotton,
Old times there are not forgotten.”
.
Those were men.
.

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