Civil War discussion - a letter from the war

After missing the April meeting of the discussion group, I was back for the May meeting, which featured a discussion of a letter from Private Ray Wells, to his parents, describing some of his activities around the battle of Manassas (er, Bull Run for the Yankees).


Sir JJ Drinkwater and young Miss Hanna Bluemood (who had knowledge about the war beyond her tender years)


Private Wells was housed in the unfinished Capitol building, and his letter notes that he was writing on the desk of one of the Congressmen. He described an encounter with enemy troops, and some of the confusion in the ranks, and how he became separated from his unit. As he closed, he said he had heard his regiment was now in Arlington Heights (near what is now Arlington Cemetery) and he prepared to rejoin them.*


Mr. Longfeather Pinelli, Miss Herndon Bluebird, and Your Humble Scribe


This was a workaday letter, the kind of thing one sends to one's parents - a little excitement, but nothing alarming. One wonders how his written view of the war differed from reality.




Next month: an excerpt from Louisa May Alcott's Hospital Sketches.




* Interestingly, Wells said it was about seven miles from the Capitol to Arlington Heights. A quick check of Google Maps gives the distance as 6.8 miles, though how he crossed the Potomac is far from clear.

Civil War Discussion - Oops

A big slap to the forehead: I realized I missed this month's Civil War discussion, with Sir JJ and Dame Kghia. It never got on my calendar, and my infrequent in-world appearances meant I didn't see the reminder until after the fact.

Apologies to the hosts. I'll try to get next month's meeting on the calendar!

Civil War Discussion - Chickamauga

Like the relentlessly advancing Union army, the Civil War discussion series continued this past Wednesday with its monthly meeting. The topic: Ambrose Bierce's well-known short story, "Chickamauga."

The story refers to the Battle of Chickamauga, in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia in September 1863. The actual battle was a bloodbath for both sides - the second-highest casualty count of any Civil War battle (behind Gettysburg) - and resulted in a Confederate victory of sorts, driving the Union forces away from the battlefield, retreating to Chattanooga. Because the bulk of the army was able to escape, however, the Confederates were unable to take advantage of their victory.

Bierce's story describes a young boy, six years old, playing in the woods behind his family's farm. The child held a toy sword and waged imaginary war, unaware of the real war nearby. The child loses his way in the woods and, frightened, falls asleep. When he wakes, he encounters the retreating Union army, the wounded and dying men surely wondering how this boy appeared in their midst.

Bierce contrasts the mock war (and, even more mocking, the glorious warlike heritage of the child) with the grim realities of the real war. Seen through the child's eyes, the wounded men were playing games; seen through the narrator's eyes, the scene is a horror show. As the story nears its end, the child's "little world swung half around; the points of the compass were reversed," both literally and figuratively.

We had nearly a dozen attendees - an even dozen, if one includes the gentleman who materialized in our midst without a stitch of clothing and fully anatomically correct; he left when Sir JJ Drinkwater politely noted that the covenant forbade open nudity - and a good discussion, led by Sir JJ and Dame Kghia.

Sir JJ Drinkwater and Mr. Johnny Avon

Dame Kghia Gherardi and Miss Merit Coba

Miss Maria and Miss Herndon Bluebird

Mr. Jorge Serapis, looking quite dapper

Your humble scribe and Miss Jai LaSalle

Civil War Discussion Group, Part 4 - An Army Moves on Its Stomach

After taking a month off for the holidays (whatever combination of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or just Holiday (as in the dreaded "Holiday Party") one chose to observe, the Civil War Discussion Group had its January meeting on the 25th to converse about a subject near and dear to my heart: food.

Specifically, the day's text was from Hardtack and Coffee: Or, The Unwritten Story of Army Life, by John D. Billings. Billings was a Union army officer, and his book appears to cover a wide variety of topics under the umbrella of army life. Our focus was from the chapter entitled "Army Rations," and included such topics as: the quantity and type of rations, the awfulness of hardtack, the importance of coffee to army life, and the difficulty in finding an adequate way of transporting the coffee, sugar, and meat rations in a way that did not combine all the above in a disgusting mess.

The discussion, led by Sir JJ and Dame Kghia, as always, touched on subjects such as worms in the hardtack, the difficulties in supplying the rations to the troops, and the entrepreneurs who sold decent food to the soldiers who could afford it.

Sir JJ Drinkwater

Dame Kghia Gherardi

The three of us were the evening's only participants, which is too bad, as we had a rousing time. Perhaps others were still digesting the figgy pudding.

Civil War Discussion Group, Part 4

November 23 was the next meeting of the Civil War discussion group, and the evening's topic was Walt Whitman's poem "The Wound-Dresser" (1865), which reflected Whitman's stint as a hospital nurse in Washington, DC during the war.

I admit to no little trepidation before the discussion, as poetry and I tend not to mix. Nonetheless, we had a sizable group and a lively discussion, led, as always, by Sir JJ Drinkwater and Dame Kghia Gherardi. Dame Kghia kindly read the poem, stanza by stanza, over the course of our hour together.

Sir JJ and Master Kei Saito, with Mr. Joe Arnica in the background

(1)
An old man bending I come among new faces,
Years looking backward resuming in answer to children,
Come tell us old man, as from young men and maidens that love me,
(Arous’d and angry, I’d thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war,
But soon my fingers fail’d me, my face droop’d and I resign’d myself,
To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead;)
Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions, these chances,
Of unsurpass’d heroes (was one side so brave? the other was equally brave;)
Now be witness again, paint the mightiest armies of earth,
Of those armies so rapid so wondrous what saw you to tell us?
What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics,
Of hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains?

Mr. MikeVa Waco and Miss Jessie Darwin

(2)

O maidens and young men I love and that love me,
What you ask of my days those the strangest and sudden your talking recalls,
Soldier alert I arrive after a long march cover’d with sweat and dust,
In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight, loudly shout in the rush of successful charge,
Enter the captur’d works—yet lo, like a swift-running river they fade,
Pass and are gone they fade—I dwell not on soldiers’ perils or soldiers’ joys
(Both I remember well—many the hardships, few the joys, yet I was content).

But in silence, in dreams’ projections,
While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on,
So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand,
With hinged knees returning I enter the doors (while for you up there,
Whoever you are, follow without noise and be of strong heart).

Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
Where they lie on the ground after the battle brought in,
Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the ground,
Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof’d hospital,
To the long rows of cots up and down each side I return,
To each and all one after another I draw near, not one do I miss,
An attendant follows holding a tray, he carries a refuse pail,
Soon to be fill’d with clotted rags and blood, emptied, and fill’d again.

I onward go, I stop,
With hinged knees and steady hand to dress wounds,
I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,
One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy! I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.

Dame Kghia

(3)
On, on I go, (open doors of time! open hospital doors!)
The crush’d head I dress (poor crazed hand tear not the bandage away),
The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and through I examine,
Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life struggles hard
(Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death!
In mercy come quickly).

From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood,
Back on his pillow the soldier bends with curv’d neck and side-falling head,
His eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on the bloody stump,
And has not yet look’d on it.

I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep,
But a day or two more, for see the frame all wasted and sinking,
And the yellow-blue countenance see.

I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bullet-wound,
Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so sickening, so offensive,
While the attendant stands behind aside me holding the tray and pail.

I am faithful, I do not give out,
The fractur’d thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdomen,
These and more I dress with impassive hand (yet deep in my breast a fire, a burning flame).

Your humble journalist, Miss Aubry Clarity, and Miss Brianna Nitely

(4)
Thus in silence in dreams’ projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals,
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young,
Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad,
(Many a soldier’s loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested,
Many a soldier’s kiss dwells on these bearded lips).

Duchess Augusta Maria

Miss Serena

Civil War Discussion Group, Part 3

October 26 found me once again in the Caledon Library reading room in Victoria City to discuss a memoir from the Civil War.

This month we considered selections from the diary of Mrs. Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, the well-to-do wife of a U.S. Senator from South Carolina before the war and aide to President Jefferson Davis during the war.

Sir JJ Drinkwater and Dame Kghia Gherardi led a large and spirited group, touching on Mrs. Chesnut's views on such topics as the war and her servants, and whether a memoir edited and published two decades after it was written made the author an unreliable narrator.

I think there was something of a tendency for some of the participants to judge this woman by the standards of the 21st century. It is true that she was a wealthy woman in a time when that meant owning slaves, and we rightly view that as reprehensible today. It's hard to know the mind of a mid-18th century lady, however - one who knew no other world than that of the antebellum South.

Next month we discuss a poem by Walt Whitman, which I approach with some trepidation. Poetry is not my long suit. We shall see.

Civil War Discussion Group, part 2

Last Wednesday was the second evening of the Civil War discussion, "Voices from the Civil War," focusing on first-hand accounts of the war.

Material for the discussion came from Life and History of the Rev. Elijah P. Marrs, First Pastor of Beargrass Baptist Church, and Author. As before, Dame Kghia Gherardi and Sir JJ Drinkwater led the discussion.

Mr. Marrs was a slave in Kentucky who ultimately became a minister. However, in 1864, as the Civil War was in its fourth year, he and 27 fellow slaves decided to join the Union army, making their way to a recruiting office in Louisville. Although he bridled at taking orders from white men in the army - seeing it as little different than taking such orders at home - he understood that this was part of a process that would ultimately gain him freedom.

Our group included a number of newcomers, including the gentleman to my right, a Mr. Stranger Nightfire, who seemed to be no stranger to the conflict, judging by his uniform.

We had a spirited discussion of Mr. Marrs, his account of his time at war (he never seemed to encounter a true battle, but he was on the fringes of the war at a time when the South was near defeat), the reasons he joined the Union army, and his motivations for writing down his memoirs.

I enjoy these sorts of events (and this one happens to be at the right time of day for me, a rarity!), which remind me of my misspent university days. I do feel quite ignorant of the subject, however, and therefore a bit shy about chiming in. (And yet a transcript would doubtless show me to be a blabbermouth, which just shows that my companions were even more shy!)

I have the next meeting in my calendar for October 26 at 4 p.m. SLT, and I have my homework in hand.

Civil War Discussion Group

In that other Life, the one that by convention we call Real, organization is key to surviving our increasingly complex world. Spontaneity is not always wise or rewarded.

In Second Life, however, one can be spontaneous, seeking new sims by searching random keywords, popping into a social event, or stumbling into something educational. One Wednesday, shortly after I logged on, I received word from Caledon's Librarian extraordinaire, Sir JJ Drinkwater, that a new discussion group would shortly be underway, focusing on the American Civil War, with a particular emphasis on firsthand accounts of the period. Knowing terribly little about the war except from high school classes a...er, few years back and the odd dramatization in the meanwhile,* I thought that sounded intriguing, though I wondered how much of a contribution I could make.

Mr. Drinkwater and Dame Kghia Gherardi welcomed me as I arrived in the reading room of the Caledon Library in Victoria City.

Sir JJ Drinkwater, Mr. Michael Neff Macbeth, Mr. Ruvean Skytower in front, Miss Lyncean Luminos and Miss Jane Fossett seated behind Mr. Drinkwater.

Your humble narrator, Dame Kghia Gherardi, Sir Kyle Chalice

Miss Herndon Bluebird, Mr. Snow Scarmon (the height-challenged dinosaur behind the chair on the right)


This turned out to be but the first of the monthly meetings of this group. The initial discussion was limited as few of us were on solid factual footing, and thus our remarks tended to be more in the line of questions than answers. Nonetheless, I anticipate a range of views.

We have a reading assignment as well for the next meeting. I need to find my reading glasses and get cracking, lest Professors Drinkwater and Gherardi think me entirely unserious!

* That's not entirely true. My typist took an economic history class as an undergraduate, taught by the eminent Dr. Claudia Goldin. One of the works we studied, and that I still recall more than a quarter-century later, was Time on the Cross, the 1974 book by Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman. Using a variety of contemporary sources (contrary to the claim in the linked Wikipedia entry), the authors put forth the view that, contrary to what most historians at the time believed, slavery was a profitable institution and thus would not have withered away of its own accord in the absence of the Civil War. The book was quite controversial in its time.

Steelhead's New Library

Some pictures of the new Steelhead library:


The stone exterior


The cozy reading area with fireplace...


...bookshelves, and comfortable chairs.


The spacious interior courtyard.

Bookbinding Exhibit

The latest exhibit at the Whitehorn Library in Victoria City is on the art of bookbinding. Curated by Miss Incunable Sorbet, the exhibit shows some of the 18th and 19th century highlights of the craft, as well as its more modern applications.

The notecard given upon arrival reads:

In the 18th Century, Mr. Laurence Sterne experimented with typography in his famous book, "Tristram Shandy". Towards the end of that century, William and Catherine Blake developed illuminated printing. In the 19th century, cover designs on books went from a simple title stamped in gold to multicolor graphic illustrations designed by well known artists. These examples expand our ideas of what a book is supposed to look like. In this exhibit we will endeavor to trace the evolution of artistic bookbinding, and speculate on how it may evolve in the future. Works include Louis Mileman's tabloid circle book, Incunable Sorbet's animated Penny Dreadfuls, and Trilby Minotaur's "Book Oasis."

Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling the book. The exhibit focuses on unusual illustrates uses of the book production process, such as Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. The book, which John Barth has called the first postmodern novel, published between 1759 and 1767, is ostensibly Shandy's own recollection of his life, but is far more a comic series of digressions about society and its mores. Sterne incorporated not merely prose but also visual aspects to his writing, as illustrated below:


Another example involves William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, published in 1794, and illustrated by the author.

Songs of Innocence mainly consists of poems describing the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating free love and a closer relationship with God, and most famously including Blake's poem The Lamb. Its poems have a generally light, upbeat and pastoral feel and are typically written from the perspective of children or written about them.

Directly contrasting this, Songs of Experience instead deals with the loss of innocence after exposure to the material world and all of its mortal sin during adult life, including works such as The Tyger. Poems here are darker, concentrating on more political and serious themes. Throughout both books, many poems fall into pairs, so that a similar situation or theme can be seen in both Innocence and Experience.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Blake illustrated his poems using a technique called "relief etching."

The process is also referred to as illuminated printing, and final products as illuminated books or prints. Illuminated printing involved writing the text of the poems on copper plates with pens and brushes, using an acid-resistant medium. Illustrations could appear alongside words in the manner of earlier illuminated manuscripts. He then etched the plates in acid in order to dissolve away the untreated copper and leave the design standing in relief (hence the name).

(Source: Wikipedia)

Modern examples of unusual bookbinding include those by Richard Minsky, such as his presentation of Robert Louis Stevenson's essay The Philosophy of Umbrellas, printed on a Tyvek umbrella.


Finally, the exhibit provides some examples of "virtual bookbinding" in Second Life, with works produced by Miss Trilby Minotaur and Miss Sorbet herself. In the adventure books shown below, the balloon gently floats up and down and the tentacles on the left wiggle. These are not editions for the faint of heart!


The exhibit runs through September 2010.

When You Dance, Do Your Senses Tingle and Take a Chance?

The Whitehorn branch of the Caledon Library, in Victoria City, has a new exhibit: "To Move in Measure: A glimpse of 19th century social dance," curated by Miss Leslie Weston. The exhibit occupies both the first and second floor.

As is usual in these things, the exhibit consists mainly of wall hangings that, when clicked, offer notecards. Many of the pictures are of entertaining Victorian dancing scenes, helping to illustrate the dances or locations in the accompanying notecard.


From the introductory card:

Social dance has been around since man first figured out how to clap and stomp. Reconstructing the specifics of HOW man clapped, and stomped, in any given era or country can be tricky. Fortunately, when considering Western European and American social dance traditions, there is a wealth of primary source material available to us, from instruction manuals, literary references, musical evidence, iconographic representations, to the ephemera which accompanies dance events.

The 19th century was a period of immense social change. Men went off to fight long wars on foreign soil, and brought back new social dances. The industrial revolution created a new class of upwardly mobile people eager to access the gentility (and power) of the traditional upper classes, which they did in part, through social dance. The waltz, and other couple dances like it, created a revolution by putting couples into each other's arms.

The first set of cards describe various dances and their origins, including the quadrille (an "elaborate set of steps and danced by sets of four, six, or eight couples" that was "introduced in London in 1815"), the waltz ("first danced in Vienna in 1773," this is "a dance in triple time"), and the polka (first referened in 1835).


The waltz was quite a revelation: "At first, society was shocked at the innovation of a lady dancing in a gentleman's embrace, but despite opposition and charges of laciviousness, it was enthusiastically adopted." As an editorial aside, one might suggest that "despite" be changed to "because of."

Below, Dr. Tesla Steampunk (in his white tie from Mr. Mako Magellan) and I dance a waltz on the second floor of the library.


Other notecards discuss dancing venues, musicians, dance notation and choreography, sheet music, and dance cards, and provide references to works of ballroom etiquette.


In order to better illustrate the various dances, a Moving Picture Device has been installed on the first floor. This Device has a dozen or so moving illustrations of dances, some performed by a lady and gentleman in scandalous clothing in what appears to be a studio, others performed at a [replica of a] society Event, as can be seen in the photograph above.

The exhibit runs through April.