DK - The American Civil War

THE WAR REMEMBERED

Military Park system at Chickamauga,

Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg.

These sites preserved the memory and

heroism of soldiers from both sides for

many future generations.

The building of monuments was

another form of public memory in

the final decades of the 19th century.

Communities erected simple memorials

to their honored sons, just as ambitious

larger works and equestrian statues

paid national homage to the heroes

of the battlefields. Washington and

Richmond became the focal points of

monuments immortalizing President

Lincoln, General Robert E. Lee, and

a pantheon of others. Richmond’s

equestrian statue of Lee, by French

sculptor Antonin Mercié, was unveiled

in 1890. The long-delayed Lincoln

Memorial, which takes the form of a

Classical Greek temple in the Doric

style, was finally dedicated in 1922.

AFTER

Segregation swept away many of the civil

rights established by Reconstruction. It

was not until the 20th-century civil rights

movement that the Federal Government

redressed the shame of discrimination.

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck a blow

against the segregation of public schools when it

ruled in favor of Oliver L. Brown and other

African-American parents against the Board of

Education of Topeka, Kansas. The court ordered

“prompt and reasonable” desegregation.

CIVIL AND VOTING RIGHTS

President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society

program included the Civil Rights Act of 1964,

which banned discrimination in voter registration,

federally assisted programs, employment hiring,

schools, and public accommodations. In 1965, the

Voting Rights Act removed the obstacles that had

disenfranchised African-Americans, outlawing

any “voting qualification or prerequisite” that

denied voting rights on racial grounds.

American War of 1898 was an

important milestone, creating

a shared sense of American

nationalism. With both sides

facing a common enemy, the war

brought the North and the South

together once and for all. Veterans

from the Union and Confederate

armies began appearing together in

joint reunions, highlighting their shared

sacrifices and bravery.

The 50th anniversary of the Battle

of Gettysburg in 1913 was the apex of

veterans’ memorialization, with more

than 50,000 former soldiers attending

the Great Reunion. At the “Peace

Jubilee,” President Woodrow Wilson

declared, “We have found one another

again as brothers and comrades in

arms, enemies no longer, generous

friends rather, our battles long past,

the quarrel forgotten.”

Civil War battlefields became sacred

sites, places of national

healing for veterans and

tourists alike. In the

1890s, Congress

established the

beginning of

the National

Its members also defended the legacy
of emancipation. A large number of
posts were integrated and its speeches
and writings recalled the valor of
black soldiers and the nobility of
their work as liberators. Likewise,
the U.C.V. maintained a Historical
Committee to review textbooks,
and from 1893 to 1932 published
Confederate Veteran as its soldiers’
voice. With articles about the war, the
magazine also allowed its readers to
maintain connections with their peers.

Reconciliation and healing
At the end of the 19th century, as
the Civil War receded into memory,
Northern and Southern sections of
the United States entered a period
of reconciliation. The Spanish-

Veterans’ memorial medals

Medals were struck to commemorate reunions.

Left: A badge from the Army of Northen Virginia

veterans group. Right: A Pennsylvania G.A.R.

badge from the encampment on the 25th

anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

CONFEDERATE UNION