Rouviere Media

The Civil War commemoration has added two new items to the adopt-a list. Earlier, I mentioned the adopt-a-grave option. Flatiron, New York, also has an  Adopt-a-Monument program.  It has funded the restoration and maintenance of 51 works of public art in the five boroughs of New York City. Among them is a statue of Civil War hero Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who helped prevent New Orleans from falling into Confederate hands in 1864. The program funds an annual spruce up of the monuments.. The Parul and Klara Prozelt Foundation adopted the Farragut sculpture. The Admiral, sadly, is sans weapon, as his weapon was stolen at some point. The sculpture was originally dedicated in 1881.

Meanwhile, the Wayne County, Pennsylvania, Chamber of Commerce leadership class of 2011 is restoring a local civil war monument that is 130 years old. In Honesdale's Central Park., accoridng to WNEP News Station.

This is bound to be a growing field, as new markers and monuments are being added left and right during the war commemoration. For example, Paducah, Kentucky, has just installed a marker in honor of a troop of predominantely black soldiers that defended Paducah from Confederate General Nathan Bedfor Forrest. All of the newly installed monuments will have to be maintained and eventually restored, no doubt resulting in ever more adoptions.  On the bright side, local communities and states can add them to Civil War tours, bringing in lots of Civil War tourists to help offset maintenance and restoration costs. Some of them may even adopt a monument while they are there.

If that fails to support the growing army of Civil War monuments, one can always round up reenactors to help with a fundraser. Lancaster, Ohio, had a fund-raising ball and dinner last week to raise money for the mantenance of the Sherman Cannon in downtown Lancaster. The cannon was donated by General William Sherman, who after his military career had no use for it, and it has been in Lancaster ever since.  It had to be restored in 2010 to the tune of $23,000.

In addition to having an excuse to dress up in period hoopskirts and bonnets, those in attendance got to hear the cannon fired.

Alas, attorney E. Terry Brown lamented this week in the Mongomery Advertiser that Montgomery, Alabama, has a lack of markers on its historical sites although Montgomery was where the Confederacy was organized and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was inaugurated. One endangered site, the Estelle Hall where Jefferson Davis’s inaugural celebration was held, may soon be lost to development, he said.

However, belated headstone dedications for Civil War soldiers continue apace, with great great grandchildren and reenactors in attendance. More future maintenance opportunities. 

The newest form of reenactment at battles is women in hoopskirts wandering onto the scene of battlefields at twilight after the mock fighting is over, holding lamps and searching for their fallen relatives. Nice touch.
The convenient thing about the expansion of the borders of the United States since the Civil War is that you can attend a Civil War battle just about everywhere.For example, a Civil War battle reenactment was held recently in Fresno, California.  Much more convenient than traveling to Virginia or Mississippi where the war was actually fought.

The Civil War has become a common theme of school field trips, with students heading for Gettysburg and other less prominent sites associated with the war. However, the opportunity for off-site instruction also has been jeopardized by budget cuts at some schools and an increased emphasis on testing that keeps students in the classroom.