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Comment on Ode to the Confederate Dead - An Execrably Bad Poem by Douglas Graebner

Douglas Graebner — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:12:28 +0000

Don’t get so hung up on the title. If you read the poem without looking for somthing, one qickly realizes that Tate is not intrested in writing about the glorious deeds of the confederate dead. He is useing this to discuss the impernamency of memory-look at how the markers are decaying with the bodies, how the stone is being wiped clean. Look at how it takes place in autumn. Within this scheme, to attempt a ode to ,say, the glory of pickett’s charge, would not just be pointless but would fly in the face of what the poet is trying to accomplish.

Comment on General John Adams at The Battle of Franklin by Rab Adams

Rab Adams — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:39:24 +0000

Thanks for that. Very much appreciated. I’m from Ulster (N.I.)
General Adams’s father came from here in County Tyrone. My own family (of the same name) came from Tyrone too. So as people didn’t move about so much in those days, and also had large families I’m inclined to believe that there must have been some connection to this brave man.

I have did some searching into the life of General Adams. This is by far the most informative piece that I have come across. Thank you for your time and effort….R. Adams.

Comment on July 4th 2008 - At War, Understanding Einstein’s Nurse by Bo Warburton

Bo Warburton — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:39:44 +0000

1. I think you’re on to something by uncovering this attitude where they think that war/conflict itself is the “enemy” - all this stuff like “nobody wins in war” and “what if they gave a war and nobody came” etc. I wonder why? Is it because we’re just too rich and lazy, like the Romans in the 3rd century (WSJ op-ed 3-July-2008 on the rise of declinist literature then and now)? That we don’t believe in Heaven, therefore this life is all there is and must be preserved at all costs? That we are having smaller families, so the only son is too precious to risk (the tyranny of demography)? The decline of the notion of “honor” as a virtue, which parallels the decline of the institution of fatherhood?

2. I’m a big fan of “The Closing of the American Mind.” Read it, in fact studied it, while in the Navy right after college. I was embarrassed and inspired to try to go back and fix all those holes in my education. I was at the time, fresh from Harvard, exactly what Bloom was talking about - my esteemed teachers instructed me only read the skimmings, the late-19th century Germans and beyond, rather than reading what those Germans read.

3. I’ll tell you something even worse - talk about Orwellian - in China, the Communists changed the written language so much that you can read Mao, but not what Mao read. Fanatic Islam will play itself out, with more or less damage to the world depending on our will to resist, but those Chinese “Communists” will last longer.

Comment on July 4th 2008 - At War, Understanding Einstein’s Nurse by Abraham Heschel

Abraham Heschel — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:19:01 +0000

1. The use, without permission, of a friend’s unpublished remarks from a personal e-mail would be both “troubling” and “morally confused,” if it were to occur. Aso, using a “friend” as a straw man to win a self-made argument is also deeply disturbing. To be honest, you should allow your friend a chance to publish his quotes as he would wish them to be read in public.

2. As an historian, you conflate Confederate and Union casualties in your tendentious comparison to the Iraq War. Would it not then be reasonable to count casualties on both sides of the current conflict, since we are talking abouth human beings, afterall.

3. Your idea that America may have a superior form of government is a claim that can be made fairly. However, your claim that America has a superior “culture” is quite frightening. It is reminiscent of how others–people you would not wish to be associated with–have claimed that their “Kultur” was superior to those of other people they looked down upon. However, why make this point at all since it is clearly something you do not believe. You spend the bulk of your time decrying modern American culture as something you find again, “troubling” and “morally confused.”

4. Your claims about Al Quran are simply preposterous and your identification of Islam with the current threat by terrorist fundamentalists is also “deeply troubling” and “morally confused.” No further comment.

5. Mr. Salluto’s commentary cannot be characterized as “angry,” “bitter” or a “screed.” This is simply inaccurate use of language. You might say his remarks are “depressing” or “saddening” to you, but a “screed” requires ire and not the “quiet humility” that Mr. Salluto requests. Bitterness and anger usually don’t connect with a “day of atonement” either. Nothing in Mr. Salluto’s quoted remarks is the least bit seditious, in either Abraham Lincoln’s time or our own, and the only way you could possibly infer “seditious sentiment” is by citing the things that you claim Mr. Salluto has left out of his article. This concept of Mr. Salluto’s sedition, then, seems to be a fantasy that you have concocted from what you believe are telling absences in Mr. Salluto’s writing.

6. To a man with a hammer all problems look like a nail. Failing to see the distinctions between an attack by a sovereign government (Japan) and an attack by a group of 18 terrorists, who may or may not be associated with certain governments, is an extraordinary historical error. If such distinctions are not made, one could use your calculations to make war on Michigan (500 casualties in Oklahoma are 1/4 of Pearl Harbor and so therefore requires 1/4 the response of World War II on that poor northern state).

Comment on A Most Astounding Event Happened Today by Darrin Dickey

Darrin Dickey — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:51:36 +0000

Now THAT is a cool story. Life is full of amazing stories like that. And strangely enough, I find people who are open to opportunities often find them just after a layoff. Very odd, yet exciting.

Maybe you can share those cool maps with us one day.

Comment on Franklin and Spring Hill Tour - Understanding John Bell Hood, CSA by Darrin Dickey

Darrin Dickey — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:46:52 +0000

Daniel,

Lots of info here. I’ve never been a big fan of General Hood, mostly because I consider his time as the head of the Army of Tennessee to have been a disaster. Chickamauga was a victory, but it seemed to be more in spite of Hood than because of him. Spring Hill was a debacle, Franklin was a tragedy and Nashville was just a waste.

However, your tour through the Spring Hill and Franklin is interesting and it does beg us to take a closer look at Hood and his tenure as the army’s commander. In some cases, such as Franklin, he was presented a situation with limited options. Attack late in the day or wait till morning and risk Schofield being gone - again - to Nashville where Hood was never going to get him.

Thanks for giving me more to think about with regards to Hood.

Comment on Franklin and Spring Hill Tour - Understanding John Bell Hood, CSA by Eric Wittenberg

Eric Wittenberg — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:34:27 +0000

Dan,

That’s a first-rate report. It sounds like a terrific tour, and I’m sorry I missed it.

Thanks for sharing that.

Eric

Comment on General John Adams at The Battle of Franklin by Webb Adams

Webb Adams — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:02:49 +0000

As a distant relative of the General it was most interesting to learn more about him and how he fought and died.

Comment on Ode to the Confederate Dead - An Execrably Bad Poem by Ericka Aguilar

Ericka Aguilar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:46:34 +0000

Ironically I just spent an hour and a half discussing the current and future state of American poetry in my Poetics class. I very much agree that modern poetry is a landscape dotted sparsely with excellent, moving pieces and mostly populated with grimy intellectual pretense.
The poem itself is all in all forced. I think that Tate had a few lines, or a few images in his head and he used those few good things to create a poem that is ultimately more about his language than substance and you are right to say that it does a terrible injustice to the dead and what they died for.
I will confess that I am a poet but I detest the state of my craft and those who continue the cannibalistic style of academic writing. I’m going to share something here thats been sitting in my head for awhile.
People who call themselves poets solely disgust and infuriate me. A poet, or a writer in general, is not much more than an observer. Whether we include our observations in the meat o the text or merely react to them that open eye is crucial. How can a writer do any subject, even herself, justice by living in the cloistered world of academics?
The world must be seen, terrible and beautiful as it is to be written about and this naiveté’s is the rotten core of American poetry.

Ah, forgive the rant, bravo on the article.

Ericka

Comment on General John Adams at The Battle of Franklin by Rosalie Adams Cox

Rosalie Adams Cox — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:52:36 +0000

Thank you so much for letting me see this fine presentation and tribute to Gen. Adams! Well-written and thoroughly researched, the kind of writing that we seek and often do not find. I found it most interesting and informative, and even if I had not studied the background of the Battle of Franklin, you’ve made it clear just what happened during that fateful time. We love accounts that are both complete and concise as readers can get the most out of these articles. But a book, on any subject of the Civil War, would also be very welcomed, coming from you. You’re a fine author. your friend, Rose