The official blog of the Dramaturgy Department at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE. For posts related to our current and upcoming shows, click the links to the right. Alternatively, you could begin at the beginning, and explore our posts in chronological order.
Disunion blog entry tracing the nuances of geopolitics, trade, economics, and flat-out fiction surrounding Britain’s almost-siding with the Confederacy in the American Civil Wars.
Artificial Leg from Civil War Period-The American Civil War Caused the Start of the American Prosthetics Field
For those who could pursue a prosthetic, in the North, the most popular artificial leg was a “Palmer” leg, named for Benjamin Franklin Palmer, who patented the design. A previous design by James Potts was made of wood, leather, and cat-gut tendons hinging the knee and ankle joints, and dubbed “The Clapper” for the clicking sound of its motion. Palmer improved upon this design with a heel spring in 1846, Palmer’s leg cost about $150.
In the South, North Carolina responded quickly to the needs of its citizens. It became the first of the former Confederate states to offer artificial limbs to amputees. The General Assembly passed a resolution in February 1866 to provide artificial legs, or an equivalent sum of money (seventy dollars) to amputees who could not use them. Because artificial arms were not considered very functional, the state did not offer them, or equivalent money (fifty dollars), until 1867. While North Carolina operated its artificial limbs program, 1,550 Confederate veterans contacted the government for help.
Source: http://ncpedia.org/history/cw-1900/amputations Source: http://www.ilsegnodeltempo.com/shop/a-rare-prosthesis-of-the-american-civil-war-una-rara-protesi-della-guerra-civile-americana/ Source: http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-civil-war-and-prosthetic-limbs-12.html
Walt Whitman-Poet and Civil War Nurse- Photographed in 1851
He first became aware of the plight of the wounded soldier when his younger brother George Whitman was wounded in at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He hastened to the battlefield to find him. Then for three years Walt spent much of his time as a nurse.
According to most Civil War accounts the male nurse ratio to that of women nurses was five to one.
“From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter
and blood,
Back on his pillow the soldier blends with curv’d neck and side-
falling head,
His eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on the
bloody stump,
And has not yet look’d on it.”
—- Walt Whitman: in “Leaves of Grass,” 1897.Whitman wrote a letter to friends in New York, saying:
“These thousands, and tens and twenties of thousands of American young men, badly wounded, all sorts of wounds, operated on, pallid with diarrhea, languishing, dying with fever, pneumonia, &c. open a new world somehow to me, giving closer insights, new things, exploring deeper mines than any yet, showing our humanity…For here I see, not at intervals, but quite always, how certain, man, our American man—how he holds himself cool and unquestioned master above all pains and bloody mutilations. It is immense, the best thing of all, nourishes me of all men.”
Civil War Re-Enactors- Why Do They Do It..
Some reenactors spend hundreds, even thousands each year on Civil War attire, accessories, weapons and camping gear. People do it now to honor the sacrifices of those who served, and they enjoy sharing the history they are preserving. Some participants are interested in getting a historical perspective on the turbulent times that gripped the nation, particularly if they can trace their ancestry back to those who fought in the war.
Reenacting the American Civil War began even before the real fighting had ended. Civil War veterans recreated battles as a way to remember their fallen comrades and to teach others what the war was all about. The Great Reunion of 1913, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, was attended by more than 50,000 Union and Confederate veterans, and included reenactments of elements of the battle, including Pickett’s Charge.
First Photo: FRILET Patrick Credit: © FRILET Patrick/Hemis/Corbis
Second Photo: first place winner 2010 National Geographic Energizer Photo Contest Winner photo by Roxann Lovette, Statesville NC
Assessing the harsh realities of Civil War medicine, judged by one practitioner as “the medical Middle Ages.” On the other hand, the cataclysmic conflict promoted singular innovations, discoveries, and advances. Something choreographer and dance innovator Liz Lerman is exploring in a new piece, called HEALING WARS.
Baltimore Performance Kitchen is hosting world renowned and local choreographer, Liz Lerman, for a two week residency as she explores the US Civil War and the contemporary wars of the past decade through the experiences of the healers involved. There will be two showings of the work, along with several other public events. In partnership with Mobtown Ballroom.
Showings at Mobtown Ballroom
861 Washington Blvd | Baltimore | MD | 21230 |
Thursday, October 25 at 7:30pm & Friday, October 26 at Noon
Low, Dirty Place: Maryland Morning considers the Civil War parole camps of Annapolis and the vicious nest of iniquity that arose around them. yet Baltimore gets all the grief….
Book Review - A World on Fire - By Amanda Foreman - NYTimes.com
By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT
The Freedmen and Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of that revolution by depicting the drama of emancipation in the words of the participants: liberated slaves and defeated slaveholders, soldiers and civilians, common folk and the elite, Northerners and Southerners.
“The Jewish Rebel” By TERRY L. JONES recalls Judah Benjamin in NYTimes Disunion series.
Another desolate image of the devastation suffered by Richmond in the waning days of the Civil War.
Images of The Civil War
Take a look back at some of the famous faces and places that now stand as legendary in the history of the United States. Photography was in its infancy during the Civil War, and war photography was unheard of. On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, these images stand as a faithful record of the country’s most turbulent times – of heroic figures, terrible sacrifices, and the shame of slavery. (via Images of The Civil War – The Eye: a Peoria photo blog - pjstar.com)
Among the ruins…
A forlorn figure finds a perch amid the ruins of what was Richmond, Virginia—shattered in the final days of the Civil War.
It is this Richmond in which three unlikely fugitives seek refuge in Matt Lopez’ The Whipping Man, at CENTERSTAGE.
Some of the devestation suffered by Richmond, Virginia, by the end of the Civil War—setting of The Whipping Man.
In honor of tomorrow’s opening night of Mathew Lopez’ The Whipping Man, here’s a link to a digital copy of the show program.
