As we begin to work with primary documents on the Dowling monument, it will be especially useful for everyone to read each other’s blog posts. As you discovered this week, the Houston Public Digital Archives on Dowling contain many rich documents that merit a close, careful, and critical reading. By analyzing these documents and building on the research and interpretations of others, we can develop “maximal explanations” to answer our questions about the monument. This week I’d like to point you to two posts:
Kat concentrates on what might seem a smaller piece of the Dowling puzzle: the names inscribed on the monument. Yet her examination of the Dick Dowling Monument Association Records reveals that as Mr. D.D. Bryan complied the roster, he faced a large and disturbing problem: some of Dowling’s men were deserters. This finding has important implications; as Kat explains, “that the Davis Guards had deserters takes away from [Cotham’s The Confederacy’s Thermopylae’s] image of valiant men choosing to stay at all costs.”
Craig examines newspaper articles and the 1997 rededication ceremony program to trace changes in the way Dowling has been remembered since 1905. By analyzing the language used to describe Dowling in these documents, Craig finds that since the 1950s Dowling’s Irish heritage and civic work has been emphasized, rather than his Confederate military service. But this finding has led him to ask a question many of you also had: “Was the Civil Rights movement a causative factor for this shift in public memory of the monument?”
In light of this shared – and important – question, I’m posting a snippet from another primary source. At the Annual Convention of the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 1957, Julie Dunn gave her official report as the Chairman of the Division’s Radio and Television Committee:
OUR MEMBERSHIP SHOULD AWAKEN TO THE VAST OPPORTUNITIES OF TV AND RADIO, FOR A MINIMUM OF EFFORT EXERTED RESULTS CAN BE OVERWHELMING.
On March 4, 1957, in cooperation with Mr. Barthold, Program Director of KUHT-TV, channel 8, the University of Houston presented “The War Between the States” on TV. A series of ten television lectures called – “The Confederate Debut”. This series of bi-weekly programs was given in conjunction with the Military Science and Tactics Department of the University, with Captain Richard C. Robbins, Department Assistant, as director. The history of the major battles of the War Between the States was discussed and approached from all military aspects – Maps, Charts, Southern Music, and Photographs as well as scale models of the Battlefields were incorporated into the lectures. Your chairman was in Houston for one of these telecasts.
The schedule for the program from 8:00 to 8:30 P.M. on Mondays and Wednesdays on the nation’s Educational Station – the Radio and TV Film Center – was as follows:
Monday, March 4: “The First Battle of Manassas.”
Wednesday, March 6: “Battle of Shiloh.”
Wednesday, March 13: “Seven Days’ Battle.”
Monday, March 18: “Battle of Chancellorsville.”
Wednesday, March 20: “Battle of Antietam.”
Wednesday, March 27: “Battle of Fredericksburg.”
Monday, April 1: “Battle of Gettysburg.”
Wednesday, April 3: “Battle of Vicksburg.”
Wednesday, April 10: “Battle of Missionary Ridge.”
Monday, April 15: “Strategy and Tactics of General Grant After Assuming Command of all the Union Forces.”
As this series closed all the major TV stations of the State were contacted, asking them to present similar broadcasts in conjunction with their nearest R.O.T.C. They were assured that KUHT and the University of Houston would cooperate, and possibly lend scripts, etc. The response was wonderful, with 3 stations scheduling much the same telecourses. – Julie (Mrs. Keet) Dunn, “Report of Radio and Television Committee,” Sixty First Annual Convention, Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (held in Austin: September 23-26, 1957), p. 66-67. Emphasis and caps in original.
In the posts this week, many of you identified a shift away from Confederate memory in the 1950s. What do you make of Dunn’s report? Soon I’ll be talking to the class about the Texas Division of the UDC, so if this quote has sparked any questions, comments, or ideas, I hope you’ll share them with me by commenting on this post, or by sending me an email.