The idea for our Civil War trip came from a discussion we had while we were camping with some friends in October at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park in Tennessee. When we visited the museum at the state park, we learned that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate hero as well as the first Grand Wizzard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867 - 1869. Our learning about Nathan Bedford Forrest and how he was revered in the South eventually led to a conversation about learning more about the Civil War over the long Minnesota winter. We also decided to actually plan another camping trip in April to visit many of the locations we would learn about. At the time, it seemed like the "perfect pandemic project & trip." We'd be spending plenty of time at home, and once April came, we felt safe camping in our individual travel trailers where we could be totally self contained.
We took it upon ourselves to each research the best ways to learn about the Civil War and then we pooled our resources in a Google Doc. We took an online Yale Civil War class with renown Professor,
Dr. David Blight, who has won numerous awards and is often quoted today when reporters ask questions about why America still struggles with so many of the same issues that have plagued our country since the Civil War. In fact, this was of particular interest to all of us as we discussed the tumultuous years of the Trump Presidency, and questions arose about the ascendency of white supremacy. A number of us read Tony Horwitz’s book,
Confederates in the Attic in which the author went on a ten-state adventure to try to understand how the “Lost Cause” still resonates “in the memory and rituals of the South.” Certainly, as we have recently witnessed the battle over Confederate monuments and saw Confederate flags furled at the January 6th Capitol riot, it is clear that the struggles led to the Civil War are not behind us.
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