eric's little black star

eric on Aug 20th 2010 Civil War

Vintage Base Ball this weekend!

There’s another Vintage Base Ball game this weekend at Fort Vancouver. We’ll be there and will have plenty of photos of the fort and game.

While doing some research for the Civil War Daily Gazette, I came across this picture:

I’d like to use it for the CWDG, but since it’s pre-election, it’s unlikely that I’ll find a place for it. However, I found it too wonderful to just ignore.

Pictured are the four Presidential candidates from 1860. From left to right (as it should be read), we see John Bell, former senator of Tennessee and candidate for the Constitutional Union Party. Their platform was simple – ignore the question of slavery and keep the Union together no matter the cost. His belt reads “Union Club” and he’s holding a bat with “Fusion” written upon it. He sums up the situation thusly: It appears to me very singular that we three should strike “foul” and be “put out” while Old Abe made such a good “lick.”

The short fellow is Stephen Douglas, the northern Democrat’s candidate. He was short and is always portrayed as really short. He answers Bell, saying “That’s because he had that confounded rail to strike with, I thought our fusion would be a “short stop” to his career.” The words “Little Giant” are upon his belt, while his bat reads “Non Intervention.” The northern Democrats wished for the territories (and new states) themselves to decide whether slavery would or would not be allowed – the federal government would not intervene.

The gentleman holding his nose and running away is Vice-President John Breckinridge. “Disunion Club” says his belt and his bat is for “Slavery Extension.” “I guess I’d better leave for Kentucky, for I smell something strong around here, and begin to think that we are completely ‘skunk’d’.” The southern Democrats, who nominated Breckinridge, were for the extension of slavery into the new states and territories.

Last up in Old Abe standing upon home base. “Gentlemen, if any of you should ever take a hand in another match at this game, remember that you must have a ‘good bat’ and strike a ‘fair ball’ to make a ‘clean score’ and a ‘home run.’” Abe’s good bat is a rail (this image was often used since he was known as a simple country rail splitter), reading, “Equal Rights and Free Territory.” His belt reads “Wide Awake.” The Wide Awakes were a Republican campaign organization during the 1860 election.

Candidates did not campaign themselves, they had parties and organizations to do that for them (Douglas, however, was the exception).

The caption is sort of wrong when it claims that baseball (actually base ball) wasn’t called the “national game.” It was called that by 1856.

Tomorrow’s match between the Vancouver Occidentals and the Fort Vancouver Shermans takes place on the Fort Vancouver Parade Grounds in Vancouver, Washington. I’ll report back with the results and photos. Huzzah!

No responses yet

eric on Aug 18th 2010 Civil War

Questioning my newest project?

I’m going to talk a bit about this Civil War blog that I’ll be starting in November. It’s been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve mentioned it before, so if you have no idea what I’m talking about, go here.

Basically, the blog is called The Civil War Daily Gazette and will follow the war, day-by-day as the 150th anniversary passes from 2010 – 2015 (I’m starting with the November 1860 election).

Inspiration for this came from reading Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative, which I’m still making my way through (I’m in the middle of Volume 3, the last volume). I had never read it before, which is odd since it’s a very nice overview of the conflict. In reading it, I took notice of so many things happening at the same time that I wondered what it would all look like in a timeline, which got me thinking that such a thing would be fun to create, but would take a very, very long time.

So I decided to take my time, every day examining that same day 150 years ago. This will, of course, take me to April or May of 2015. Four an a half years is a long time from now. This will take dedication and commitment, as well as hard work and research.

How do I keep it interesting? How do I come up with something on days where there’s “nothing”? How do I decide what to leave out when there are too many things happening? How detailed should I get? There are so many questions that I can’t even begin to answer.

Just today I was reading about General Sherman in Georgia, Forrest in Tennessee, Grant in Virginia, Early in another part of Virginia and stuff happening in Brazil and Vermont. While these things may not have happened all in the same day, especially in 1864, there was a lot going on at once. I got a little panicked and even second guessed my whole idea. But then I realized that 1864 (or rather, 2014) is a long way away. If I make it to that stage of the war, I’ll be a veteran myself. Just as the soldiers were able to deal with it because they had suffered through the war from the beginning (well, some of them), I’ll be able to much more easily cope with my own worries because I’ve been writing about it for three or so years.

I guess that maintaining the blog won’t be as difficult as starting it. I don’t know that for sure, of course, since I’ve done neither, but that’s my suspicion.

For now, I’ve gotten the blog up and running, have sorted my categories, planned, done some research and have a general idea of a start date – right before the November 6th election. Generally histories of the Civil War start with Fort Sumter, April 1861. I’m starting four months prior to it, attempting to explain how the election of a president can lead a country to split in two and then draw blood. Lots and lots of blood.

If I can’t explain how, I can at least explain the events that happened. Most of all, however, I’m just excited for this to start. I can’t wait to dig into the research and writing (which I’ll be starting in the next week or so). I can’t wait for the first posts to appear and the ball to get rolling. I’m not sure how all this will play out, but I’m excited to find that out too.

10 responses so far

eric on Aug 15th 2010 Listen,Mix CDs,Music

August’s Mix – Sounds Like Syd – A Tribute

Get it now and/or read on! (324MB)

Two Christmas ago, I did a 2 CD (actually 4 CD) mix made up of covers. I wanted to dip back into that since covers, especially when they’re more of a reinterpretation than a straight cover, are always fun.

For this mix, I’ve decided to focus on one particular artist: Syd Barrett. Syd was a founding member of Pink Floyd, playing on all their early singles, the first and some of the second album. At the start he was their vocalist, guitarist and principle song writer.

Due to drugs and a going a bit crazy, he left/was kicked out of Pink Floyd. He still performed and put out two albums over the next few years before “retiring.” Though his musical output lasted barely over five years, he is still seen as in influential legend.

I got into Syd Barrett in the late 80s after I got into (then) current Pink Floyd. After dipping into their back catalog, discovered Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Floyd’s first album) and snatching up Barret’s Madcap Laughs and a few bootlegs courtesy of the guy who used to sell bootlegs at the Frackville Mall, I was hooked.

Living in central Pennsylvania, I was the only person I knew who was into Syd. Towards the end of high school, with the explosion of “alternative music” finally bubbling its way into Mifflinburg, others got into him too.

Somewhere along the way, I picked up a Syd Barrett tribute album at a record shop in Williamsport. Beyond the Wildwood had a bunch of great songs on it, some of which have made it to this mix. Most of this mix, however, comes from research.

To be honest, I hadn’t heard most of the songs (or even most of the bands) prior to making this mix. Sure, I had heard of Jesus and Mary Chain, David Bowie and Robyn Hitchcock, but who are Dream Divers, Midnight Movies and Carnival Act? Beats me! But everybody here, all 46 bands, have been influenced by Syd Barrett enough to cover one of this songs.

I wanted to do something fun with two discs full of music, so I have the same 23 songs done twice by two different artists. For example, “Long Cold Look” is done by both Fat & Limo as well as Dolphins.

Some of the songs are pretty straight forward. Robyn Hitchcocks “Dominoes” sounds almost exactly like Syd. I can hardly tell the difference between Paul Roland’s “Matilda Mother” and the original. Other songs, however, are drastically changed. The Polka Floyd Show does a polka cover of “See Emily Play,” while Fortran 5 does a very liberal interpretation of “Bike.”

Some other new found favorites are: “Terrapin” by Big Blood & The Bleedin Hearts, “Arnold Layne” by a very European-sounding Etienne Daho, an instrumental version of “Vegetable Man” by Larsen that really does need to be listened to intently and a dance version of “Rats” by What Noise.

Oh there’s quite a lot of fun to be had here.

This is the whole track list…