Building an All-Star Cast

Annnnnnd so begins my Senior Thesis.

Here's an early list of my All-Star cast of authors and sources:

Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee.
Frank and Reaves, Seeing the Elephant.
Glathaar, General Lee's Army.
Hewett, Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.
Kees, Martin Van Kees, His Diary, 1861-1865.
Linderman, Embattled Courage.
Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over.
McPherson, For Cause and Comrades.
Mitchell, Civil War Soldiers.
Robertson, Soldiers Blue and Gray.
Rowland and Howell, Military History of Mississippi: 1803-1898.
Sifakis, Compendium of the Confederate Armies.
Wiley, Life of Johnny Reb.


It's gonna be a LOOOOONG semester!!

Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah on July 14, 1861.

July 14,1861
Camp Clark, Washington DC

Dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days - perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.

If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name...

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been!...

But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night... always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again...

Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the 1st Battle of Bull Run.

The Best Thing

The best thing that has happened to me in my life so far has been my time here at Auburn University.

I was at the dentist office the other day because I had to have a crown put on a tooth. While I was sitting in the dentist's chair waiting on the dentist, the hygienist in the room noticed my Auburn class ring and asked about it. We started talking about Auburn and then she asked me if I had always been an Auburn fan. Truth is, yes, I have always been an Auburn fan through and through. I have to admit that I wasn't all that interested in football growing up (I was a baseball kind of guy). However, I always rooted for Auburn on Saturdays in the Fall and watched football on Saturdays every now and then. I can remember the days of Terry Bowden pretty vividly. Anyway, I think I became an Auburn fan way early on. I remember thinking that all the Alabama fans were obnoxious when I was in elementary school and that Auburn fans were the "good guys" while all the Alabama fans were the "bad guys." My grandfather graduated from Auburn while it was still Alabama Polytechnic Institute in the early 1950's, and that was another reason why I became an Auburn fan. Now that I am soon to graduate, I only wish he could see me walk from his alma mater. I know he'd be proud.

To me, football doesn't make Auburn University Auburn University (although it doesn't hurt at all!). But my experience is one that I really cannot put into words. I can remember my senior year in high school, when I was undecided where to go to college. I had toured the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Jacksonville State University, and Birmingham-Southern University. Birmingham-Southern was actually really high on my list of schools to attend for college at the time. Then I traveled to Auburn and was forever changed. The thought of going to Auburn was just thrilling. I never really pictured myself going to Auburn for some reason, but my choice to go to that War Eagle Day was probably one of the best choices I've made in my life. I remember stopping by Samford Hall on the tour and just looking at my father and saying, "Dad, we can look at other schools, but this is home, I want to be at Auburn." He remembers it, too. My old man hasn't let me forget about it, either. Anyway, Auburn felt like home, and I will forever consider it my home even when I have long graduated.

The Auburn University Marching Band was probably the best part of my time here at Auburn.
I wrote this in an email to our marching band director. "First off, it is the greatest pleasure in my life thus far now to be a part of this organization. I began college in the Fall of 2005 as a freshman that didn’t quite know what to expect from college. After this season, it hit me how much the AUMB developed me into a true Auburn man. I'll be graduating in the Spring with a degree in history. I plan on going on to be a teacher (maybe a professor) later in life. It is my sincere hope that what I have learned here as a student at Auburn University and a member of the band will be something that I can pass along to my future students both inside the classroom and outside of the classroom."

I finished with, "...it was the greatest honor to be a part of the marching band. I could write all day about the lessons that I learned, the places that I traveled with the AUMB, the friends I made, and the highs and lows of my marching band experience. It is almost indescribable and something that cannot be put into words. I know that I will always look back on the past with fond memories. However, I also look forward to the future to see what is in store for the AUMB."

Those words really cannot do justice to my feelings toward the AUMB. I hope that one day I can truly capture my feelings about the band, but that would be a monumental task that may never achieved.

I could blog all day and night about the people that I've met here. For better or worse, all have shaped my life in some way. Friends came and went, but Auburn was the place that developed me into a man. An Auburn man.

I had always heard that "so-and-so" is a true Auburn man, but I did not really understand the definition of it until I finished marching my final game. I thought about it the other day when I was walking in Sam's. A scruffy looking guy with an Alabama hat on snickered at me because I had on my orange Auburn hat. He laughed and gave me an obnoxious "Row Tahd!" I did not look at him and passed him by like he wasn't there. He stopped to see my reaction, but was dissapointed when I ignored him. My point is is that an Auburn man can walk by without having to say a word because of the fine reputation of his University portrays, what it stands for, and because he represents his University in a positive fashion. There's no need to heckle another fan. An Auburn man never disowns his team or university, even in the toughest times. An Auburn man is a man of character. One who congratulates the other school over a win in football and tells them "good game" win Auburn wins a football game. One who sings his alma mater after a football game- win or lose. An Auburn man represents his school wherever he goes and takes pride in Auburn no matter what. He believes in Auburn and loves it.

What Ever Happened to Sportsmanship?

As I sit here looking back on my marching band career, I am taken back to the first game that I ever went to as a part of the Auburn University Marching Band in the Fall of 2005. We had many responsibilities: learning new music, learning new marching techniques, and memorizing lots and lots of drill. Our band director at the time sat all of down and told us that the SEC was trying to make an effort to promote "sportsmanship" among the league. Our task as a marching band members was to memorize the "Ramblin' Wreck" of Georgia Tech and perform that fight song for all of the Georgia Tech fans in attendance at Jordan-Hare Stadium. I thought it was strange at the time, but I still memorized the song and prepared for Saturday. That night, it was met with an awkward reception from fans from both teams. Nobody really knew exactly why the AUMB was playing Ramblin' Wreck, but it made sense to stop and honor and acknowledge Tech. They are a great school and have been for many years. Like I said, our fans did not know how to take the gesture. The next week, we had to learn "Hail State" (State, State, State, State, STAAAATE!) and play it for the Mississippi State fans that went to that game. Again, I can remember standing near the North End Zone watching Miss. St. fans with an awkward look on their faces. By this time, Auburn fans had figured out what was going on. There were grumblings that we'd eventually have to play "Yea Alabama" to the Alabama fans at the Iron Bowl. And that was just going to be blasphamy. The next week, we learned Ball State's fight song, but by Saturday the friendly gesture had been canned.

Ever since then, it seems like the whole "sportsmanship" part of the SEC has completely faded away. I've seen some crazy things in my four years in the band, but I wonder what happened to the sportsmanship that the SEC was trying to promote? I'll tell you what is sportsmanship (or something close to it).

1)West Virginia brought us hand warmers, a granola bar, and water during the game. (The ONLY nice thing done to us the entire time we were there).
2)The MDB "escorted" us out of their stadium at the Iron Bowl this year (even though there were no rabid fans to kill us outside).
3)Many SEC bands have given us food and drinks during the games.

Those are just a few of the sportsman-like things that have gone on at football games. Those are also the things that are never mentioned and get left out. I think that the bands have more respect for each other than the football teams and the fans!

Walt Whitman Wansn't Exactly Right...

Walt Whitman, literary genius and Civil War nurse, once wrote, "The real war will never get in the books." This quote was in regard to his experience working in a hospital during the Civil War.


I disagree with Mr. Whitman. Last week I finished Sam R. Watkin's memoir titled "Co. Aytch." I had no expectations from the book, but was pleasantly surprised over the literary quality of the memoir. Sam Watkins, who was a Confederate soldier in the Army of Tennessee, wrote this book some 20 years after the American Civil War.

This was taken from Wikipedia (it says the same thing in the book):
Watkins faithfully served throughout the duration of the War, participating in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro (Stones River), Shelbyville, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Adairsville, Kennesaw Mountain (Cheatham Hill), New Hope Church, Zion Church, Kingston, Cassville, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, and Nashville. Of the 120 men who enlisted in “Company H” in 1861, Sam Watkins was one of only seven alive when General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee surrendered to General William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina April, 1865. Of the 1,200 men who fought in the First Tennessee, only 65 were left to be paroled on that day.


Insane.

I was particularly disturbed over some of the descriptions used at the battle sites. Men with jaws shot off and their tongues flapping out, brains splattered, men being ripped apart by cannon balls, men freezing to death while standing gaurd, and much, much more. You can't get a good perspective of the Civil War unless you read this book. It totally changed everything I ever thought or knew about the war.

The First American To Die For Freedom and Equality

The First American to die for Freedom and Equality was a runaway African-American slave named Crispus Attucks in the Boston Massacre in 1770. Ironically for him and his race of men and women, TRUE freedom and equality wouldn't come until 1965 with Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Andrew Jackson on Henry Clay

Andrew Jackson on Henry Clay:
"...is the bases, meanest, scoundrel, that ever disgraced the image of his god-- nothing too mean or low for him to condescend to, secretly to carry his cowardly and base purpose of slander into effect; even the aged and virtuous female, is not free from his secrete combination of base slander."

Republican Advertisement on Jackson, 1838:
"Jackson's mother was labeled a 'COMMON PROSTITUTE' who was brought to this country by the British soldiers! She afterwards married a MULATTO MAN, with whom she had several children, of which number General JACKSON IS ONE!!!"

(Talk about dirty politics!)

Andy Jackson is an enigmatic figure in history. Is he the hero or the villain? His life and legacy are full of ironies, contradictions, and coincidences.

Jackson, as you may can see on the right had an early hatred of the British. When a British soldier demanded that he "clean his boots," Jackson refused. As a result, the soldier took a slash at Jackson's head, but Jackson caught the sword on his hand and it only scraped his head. This pictures was obviously drawn sometime after his actions with the British, but clearly Jackson's image was being transformed into that of a heroic "George Washington" at the time.




I have no clue why I typed this.