Speaking of family memories, in my family the word was always  
bitterly expressed that "the Yankees" destroyed my gr-gr  
grandfather's business, Cardwell Machine Company. Which didn't make a  
lot of sense to me, the Evacuation Fire was, let us say, "home  
grown." But years later, doing research, I found that his business  
was one of those blown up by Union engineers to make the firebreak  
that stopped the fire's spread. So yes, the family lore was true.  
(His insurance had been with northern companies, the policies had  
lapsed during the war, so he was in his 50s, wiped out, with a wife,  
a bunch of kids, a widowed mother and an unmarried sister to support.  
He became a scrap metal dealer, salvaging from the wreckage of the  
city, till he hooked up with a northern investor and got the business  
going again-- from a letter written by his son and detailing the  
history of the business).

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 24, 2007, at 10:54 AM, Brent Tarter wrote:

> The Richmond Planet of 11 October 1890 contains a long article with  
> the
> opinions of 17 Richmond men who were asked what was the most proper  
> day
> for celebrating the end of slavery. The article fills nearly an entire
> column. The reasons people assigned for each of the dates reveals how
> personal the end of slavery was to them and how, at that date, the end
> of slavery was tied to specific places and events of importance to  
> those
> individual people:
>
> Some advocated commemorating 1 January 1864, the day when Emancipation
> Proclamation went into effect ("I have to close up that day anyhow,  
> and
> the colored people have holiday anyway and won't lose any time from
> business")
>
> Some advocated commemorating 23 September 1863, the day when the
> Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued ("on account of the
> weather")
>
> Some advocated commemorating 3 April 1865, the day that the United
> States Army entered Richmond ("the work was done when Richmond fell")
> ("that was the day I shook hands with the Yankees") ("that was  
> virtually
> the ending of the war")
>
> Some advocated commemorating 9 April 1865, the day that the United
> States Army accepted the surrender of the Confederate Army ("when the
> Proclamation went into effect we were not free") ("That's when we
> received the blessing") ("That was when the work was done") ("the  
> day of
> the downfall of the Confederacy was the day of the uprising of the
> Negro") ("the date of the surrender of Lee would be the proper day")
> ("when Lee surrendered to Grant the work was accomplished")
>
> Joseph T. Wilson, of Richmond, gave the longest opinion: "In the first
> place I think that Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation didn't amount to any  
> thing
> from a legal standpoint. It freed nobody. Understand me that it had a
> very marked moral effect, but the 13th Amendment really gave  
> freedom to
> the slave. I believe that we should celebrate the passage of that
> Amendment, if we desire to celebrate the act by which we became free.
> However if they want to celebrate Lincoln's Proclamation, the day  
> should
> be the the first of January."
>
> It is curious that none of the commentators at that time (or the  
> editor
> of the newspaper, John Mitchell Jr, who posed the question) took a  
> wider
> or longer view and mentioned commemorating 19 June 1865, the date on
> which the United States Army took final command in Texas and under
> Lincoln's Proclamation freed the last slaves then held in the country.
>
> Nor did any one think to mention commemorating 7 April 1864, the
> effective date of the Virginia Constitution of 1864 which abolished
> slavery (How many of us remember that?); of course, that Constitution
> was effective only in the areas under the control of the United States
> Army at that time, but in May 1865 that Constitution became the
> governing law of all of Virginia (less West Virginia, of course) and
> remained so until 1870.
>
> The Library of Virginia's current exhibition, "Myth and Memory:
> Understanding 400 Years of Virginia History" explores these  and like
> themes of contested memory and how Virginians have employed
> commemorative events to reinterpret their history. One of my favorite
> parts, and one that I have been delighted to see causes people to  
> pause
> and read and reflect, treats memories of the Civil War. Side by  
> side we
> have displayes of items from Confederate reunions and from Loudoun
> County Emancipation Day celebrations. So: What did the Civil War mean?
> To whom?
>
> Brent Tarter
> The Library of Virginia
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us
>
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