Fire destroys Louisiana plantation house, calling legacy into question
Nearly a dozen fire departments responded to extinguish the flames engulfing the pre-Civil War Nottoway Plantation House in Louisana. No injuries were reported at the 53,000-square-foot home, which was a resort and event venue. WVLA's Khayla Gaston reports.May 25, 2025
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Out
3 days ago
- Time Out
The Grand Army Plaza Arch is finally free of scaffolding, two very long years later
Brooklyn's iconic Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch is back—and looking better than it has in decades. After more than two years under wraps, the 132-year-old monument has emerged from an $8.9 million restoration project that scrubbed off a century of grime, patched up structural damage and gave the Arch a new lease on its very stately life. Unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday, the restoration marks the first major upgrade to the arch in nearly 50 years. Funded by mayoral allocations and led by the Prospect Park Alliance, the sweeping renovation tackled everything from replacing the crumbling roof to restoring its ornate bronze statuary and cast-iron spiral staircases. No detail was too small or too historically significant for the project. With the original blueprints lost to time, the Alliance's in-house architects used radar and magnetic imaging to digitally map the arch's guts before reinforcing it with steel supports and a new drainage system. Mortar samples were tested in labs to match the original 19th-century Rosendale cement, while damaged granite was replaced with stone from the same region in Maine as the original supplier. Energy-efficient lighting now spotlights the arch's bronze masterpieces by Frederick MacMonnies and others, including the once-toppled quadriga sculpture that famously fell from the arch in 1976, a collapse that eventually sparked the founding of the Prospect Park Alliance. But the glow-up didn't stop at the arch itself. The surrounding plaza and berms also got a facelift: Nearly 200 native trees were planted, invasive vegetation removed, crumbling bluestone repaired and a new low steel fence replaced a long-standing chain-link eyesore. The upgrades earned the city's highest preservation honor, the Lucy G. Moses Award. City officials turned out to celebrate the arch's long-awaited return. 'The Grand Army Plaza Arch stands not only as a gateway to Prospect Park, but as a powerful symbol of Brooklyn's history, resilience and pride,' said Mayor Eric Adams. NYC Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa called it 'a tribute to the New Yorkers who gave their lives in the Civil War,' and said the upgrades reflect that 'New Yorkers deserve the best from their public realm.' Prospect Park Alliance President Morgan Monaco added, 'This makes the arch a true monument of the people, welcoming all into Prospect Park and signifying that this is a place where all in our community are celebrated and seen.'
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
Sudan's former prime minister Hamdok says recent military gains won't end the war
Sudan's former prime minister on Wednesday dismissed the military's moves to form a new government as 'fake,' saying its recent victories in recapturing the capital Khartoum and other territory will not end the country's two-year civil war. In a rare interview with The Associated Press, Abdalla Hamdok said no military victory, in Khartoum or elsewhere, could end the war that has killed tens of thousands and driven millions from their homes. 'Whether Khartoum is captured or not captured, it's irrelevant,' Hamdok said on the sidelines of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's governance conference in Morocco. 'There is no military solution to this. No side will be able to have outright victory.' Hamdok became Sudan 's first civilian prime minister after decades of military rule in 2019, trying to lead a democratic transition. He resigned in January 2022 after a turbulent stretch in which he was ousted in a coup and briefly reinstated amid international pressure. The following year, warring generals plunged the country into civil war. Sudan today bears the grim distinction of being home to some of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left at least 24,000 dead, though many believe the true toll is far worse. Both sides stand accused of war crimes. The RSF, with roots in Darfur's notorious Janjaweed militia, has been accused of carrying out genocide. The army is accused of unleashing chemical weapons and targeting civilians where they live. The war has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including 4 million who have crossed into neighboring countries. Famine is setting in and cholera is sweeping through. The military recaptured the Khartoum area from the RSF in March, as well as some surrounding territory. Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan has framed the advances as a major turning point in the conflict. Last month, he appointed a new prime minister, Kamil al-Taib Idris, for the first time since the war began, tasked with forming a new government. But the fighting has continued. The RSF has regrouped in its stronghold in Darfur and made advances elsewhere, including in Kordofan. Hamdok, a 69-year-old former economist who now leads a civilian coalition from exile, called the idea that the conflict was drawing down 'total nonsense.' The idea that reconstruction can begin in Khartoum while fighting rages elsewhere is 'absolutely ridiculous,' he said. 'Any attempt at creating a government in Sudan today is fake. It is irrelevant,' he said, arguing that lasting peace can't be secured without addressing the root causes of the war. Hamdok said a ceasefire and a credible process to restore democratic, civilian rule would need to confront Sudan's deep inequalities, including uneven development, issues among different identity groups and questions about the role of religion in government. 'Trusting the soldiers to bring democracy is a false pretense,' he added. Though rooted in longstanding divisions, the war has been supercharged by foreign powers accused of arming both sides. Pro-democracy groups, including Hamdok's Somoud coalition, have condemned atrocities committed by both the army and the RSF. Hamdok, however, has avoided accusing the United Arab Emirates of supplying weapons to the RSF, even amid international scrutiny and an investigation from a U.N. panel of experts. On Wednesday, he rebuffed AP questions about weapons coming from the UAE. He said those who singled out the Gulf state while ignoring others accused of backing the army, including Iran, were 'pushing a narrative.' 'What we would like to see is anybody who is supplying arms to any side to stop,' he said.
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
A Virginia museum found 4 Confederate soldiers' remains. It's trying to identify them
Archaeologists in Virginia were excavating the grounds of a building that stored gunpowder during the American Revolution when they uncovered the eye sockets of a human skull. The team carefully unearthed four skeletons, including one with a bullet in the spine, and three amputated legs. They quickly surmised the bones were actually from the Civil War, when a makeshift hospital operated nearby and treated gravely wounded Confederate soldiers. The archaeologists work at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a museum that owns the land and focuses on the city's 18th century history. They're now trying to identify human remains from the 19th century, a rare endeavor that will include searching for living descendants and requesting swabs of DNA. The museum has recovered enough genetic material from the men's teeth for possible matches. But the prospect of identifying them emerged only after the team located handwritten lists in an archive that name the soldiers in that hospital. 'It is the key,' said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's executive director of archaeology. 'If these men were found in a mass grave on a battlefield, and there was no other information, we probably wouldn't be trying to do this.' The archaeologists have narrowed the possible identities to four men who served in regiments from Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia. The museum is withholding the names as the work continues. Meanwhile, the remains were reinterred Tuesday at a Williamsburg cemetery where Confederate soldiers from the same battle are buried. 'Everyone deserves dignity in death,' Gary said. 'And being stored in a drawer inside a laboratory does not do that.' 'Shockingly costly for both sides' The soldiers fought in the Battle of Williamsburg, a bloody engagement on May 5, 1862. The fighting was part of the Peninsula Campaign, a major Union offensive that tried to end the war quickly. The campaign's failure that summer, stalling outside the Confederate capital of Richmond, informed President Abraham Lincoln's decision to end slavery. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said he intended to reunite the nation with slavery intact in the Southern states, while halting its westward expansion, said Timothy Orr, a military historian and professor at Old Dominion University. But Lincoln realized after the campaign that he needed a more radical approach, Orr said. And while the president faced political pressure for emancipation, freeing people who were enslaved served as 'another weapon to defeat the Confederacy.' 'He becomes convinced that slavery is feeding the Confederate war effort,' Orr said. 'It had to be taken away.' Bigger and bloodier battles followed Williamsburg, Orr said, but it was 'shockingly costly for both sides." Roughly 14,600 Union soldiers fought about 12,500 Confederates, Carol Kettenburg Dubbs wrote in her 2002 book, 'Defend This Old Town.' The number of Union killed, wounded, captured or missing was 2,283. The Confederate figure was 1,870. The fighting moved north, while a Union brigade occupied the southern city. Confederate soldiers too wounded for travel were placed in homes and a church, which was converted into a hospital. A surgeon from New York treated them, while local women visited the church, Dubbs wrote. One woman noted in her diary on May 26 that there were 'only 18 out of 61 left.' Their arms were crossed When the remains were discovered in 2023, they were aligned east-west in the Christian tradition, said Gary, the archaeologist. Their arms were crossed. The careful burial indicates they were not dumped into a mass grave, Gary said. Those who died in the battle were almost immediately placed in trenches and later reinterred at a cemetery. The men were not in uniform, said Eric Schweickart, a staff archaeologist. Some were in more comfortable clothes, based on artifacts that included buttons and a trouser buckle. One soldier had two $5 gold coins from 1852. Another had a toothbrush made of animal bone and a snuff bottle, used for sniffing tobacco. The bullet in the soldier's spine was a Minié ball, a common round of Civil War ammunition. The foot of one amputated leg also contained a Minié ball. Bones in a second severed leg were shattered. 'We want it be ironclad' As the team researched the battle, they learned of the lists of hospitalized soldiers, said Evan Bell, an archaeological lab technician. The lists were likely copied from Union records by the women who visited the wounded. The documents were with a local family's papers at William & Mary, a university nearby. The lists became the project's Rosetta stone, providing names and regiments of more than 60 soldiers. They included dates of death and notes indicating amputations. The archaeologists eliminated soldiers on the lists who survived or lost an extremity. The four skeletons had all of their limbs. Death dates were key because three men were buried together, allowing the team to pinpoint three soldiers who died around the same time. William & Mary's Institute for Historical Biology examined the remains and estimated their ages. The youngest was between 15 and 19, the oldest between 35 and 55. The estimates helped match names to enlistment records, census data and Union prisoner of war documents. The soldiers' remains and the amputated limbs were buried in their own stainless steel boxes in a concrete vault, Gary said. If descendants are confirmed, they can move their ancestor to another burial site. The identification effort will continue for another several months at least and will include extensive genealogy work, Gary said. Using only DNA tests on remains from the 1800s can risk false positives because 'you start becoming related to everyone.' 'We want it to be ironclad,' he said.
