A beautiful day in Richmond

It is quiet here today, Easter Sunday. Few people are out, but the blooms on the cherry trees and the yellow of the daffodils, sparkle throughout the city. The temperature is warm enough to wear only a light jacket and even later in the day, sandals.  Entering the city, it is easy to find the Museum of the Confederacy and the executive mansion of Jefferson Davis and his family.

This is a good first stop, as the museum covers each year of the war in a managable amount of information and interesting artifacts. Each battle is described along with actual photographs, lithographs. My favorites, Lee's hat and the map of the the United States in red and blue with a list of the states in secession.


I remember a song listing the states in order that I heard in Gettysburg during the evening program at the church on Remembrance Day last November.  Today  it seemed easy to create a mneumonic rhyming song that could be used to remember them.

I was surprised to see the Virginia articles of succession because it is relevant to our current situation in Indiana. The Confederate states continually invoke states rights and the oppression and imposition of the federal govt  on their rights to own slaves. And they were right in a fashion. Slavery was part of the original constitution. So in Indiana where there are no civil protections  for LGBT folks, rejecting people for pizza delivery for a wedding has not legal' discriminatory basis.

Here is one story about Jefferson Davis that has been part of the legends and counter legends of the time. When he was running from soldiers on the night of his eventual capture, he had grabbed his wife, Varina's night gown and shawl, and so it looked like he was wearing 'women's clothes'. But here in a broadside  a Union soldier adamantly denies it all in no uncertain terms.