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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- General
- Yahoo
Philippi honors Civil War legacy with Blue and Gray Reunion
PHILIPPI, (WBOY) — The 2025 Blue and Gray Reunion in Philippi concluded on Sunday with a staged reenactment of the Battle of Philippi, the first organized land engagement of the American Civil War. The event capped off a weekend filled with historical reflection, community celebration and cultural enrichment. Throughout the weekend, the town welcomed visitors with Civil War encampments, living history demonstrations and guided historical tours, offering a glimpse into the life and experiences of soldiers and civilians during the 1860s. During the reunion period reenactors, dressed in authentic military and civilian attire, brought the era to life with portrayals and battlefield demonstrations. Historic Washington Irving Middle School honored with farewell tour 'This is what started it all, so you know, once this was over, the battle was on and of course it got worse after that. You know, there wasn't a lot of injuries and stuff, people killed here but it was an important battle because it was indeed the first land battle of the Civil War,' a resident of Philippi and an impersonator of President Abraham Lincoln Carl Swick said. 'Our covered bridge was used to access the supplies to get to, you know, the North to the South.' Held annually, the Blue and Gray Reunion commemorates the Battle of Philippi, which occurred on June 3, 1861. Sometimes referred to as the 'Philippi Races' due to the hasty retreat of Confederate forces, the battle marked a significant early Union victory and helped solidify Federal control over western Virginia. 'The importance of being able to retell these events, and the stories, and the people who are in them, when you have a point of reference from where things started and where they've gone it helps you understand some of the reasons behind things, why things are the way they are,' a living history story teller of the life of James Robison who was a surgeon for the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Chad Benson said. 'History teaches us where we've come from and a lot of times where we are headed. So, if you know what we intend to do, you have a good idea of what we're going to do, or what we should change.' The battle, though small in scale, reinforced Union morale and contributed to the eventual formation of the state of West Virginia in 1863. Spectators gathered in town to witness a recreation of the Union forces' pre-dawn surprise attack on Confederate troops, which was an operation led by Colonel Benjamin Kelley and Colonel Ebenezer Dumont. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Tattoos People Judge You For: The Brutal Truth
It is roughly estimated that around 32% of American adults have at least one tattoo. And, although tattoo styles are subjective, there are some that a lot of people simply do not like. In fact, some admit they will judge a person for simply having a certain kind of tattoo. Most everyone agrees with Reddit user u/IaniteThePirate who says they despise anyone with hate symbols. And "nazi, racist, white power shit gets the big 'fuck you,'" said u/RoodogNYC. And here are 19 other tattoos that the people of Reddit say they judge others for having: "I try really hard not to judge, but the times I have are when I see Confederate flag tattoos. They just…. Give me the ick." "The 'Only God can judge me' tattoos." "I have some kind of thoughts about (and avoid) people that use the navel or a nipple as some animals wtf already." "'Alpha male' tatted across the back." "Significant others' names. Just don't do it y'all." "I think hentai tattoos are disgusting, and I automatically assume that people who get them are stupid perverts." "Super American tattoos like eagles holding a confederate flag in one talon and a rifle on the other." "A lion wearing a crown… great way to let the world know that you have no personality." "Tattoos of serial killers or serial killer paraphernalia. I saw one artist on Instagram who had a flash sheet of items associated with various killers (like Dahmer's glasses, Bundy's car, etc.). People were RAVING about how much they wanted them. It's disgusting." "I instantly judge people on an anchor with 'I refuse to sink' or something similar. The whole point of an anchor is 👏 to 👏 sink 👏." "That feather turning into a flock of birds that every basic white girl got five years ago." "'90s tribal, I assume you drive a lifted truck with truck nuts." "Any misspelled or wrong translation tattoos." "I don't love weed-related, gaming, Spongebob, and Disney tattoos, but I'm sure most of the people who get them are lovely (and they prob don't like my work either)." "Cherry dripping juice, Winnie the Pooh, and Tweety Bird. Lots of girls got these in high school." "Lion clock roses." "NSFW stuff on visible places 🙅♂️." "Curly mustaches on their finger." And lastly: "Putting your last name on you, cringe." Got any others to add to the list?! Or maybe you want to show us your own, and why it is unique! Use the anonymous comments form below to share:
Observer
2 days ago
- Politics
- Observer
I'm normally a mild guy. Here's what's pushed me over the edge
When I was a baby pundit, my mentor, Bill Buckley, told me to write about whatever made me angriest that week. I don't often do that, mostly because I don't get angry that much — it's not how I'm wired. But this week, I'm going with Bill's advice. On Monday afternoon, I was communing with my phone when I came across a Memorial Day essay that Notre Dame political scientist Patrick Deneen wrote in 2009. In that essay, Deneen argued that soldiers aren't motivated to risk their lives in combat by their ideals. He wrote, 'They die not for abstractions — ideas, ideals, natural right, the American way of life, rights, or even their fellow citizens — so much as they are willing to brave all for the men and women of their unit.' This may seem like a strange thing to get angry about. After all, fighting for your buddies is a noble thing to do. But Deneen is the Lawrence Welk of postliberalism, the populariser of the closest thing the Trump administration has to a guiding philosophy. He's a central figure in the national conservatism movement, the place where a lot of Donald Trump acolytes cut their teeth. In fact, in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, JD Vance used his precious time to make a point similar to Deneen's. Vance said, 'People will not fight for abstractions, but they will fight for their home.' Elite snobbery has a tendency to set me off, and here are two guys with advanced degrees telling us that regular soldiers never fight partly out of some sense of moral purpose, some commitment to a larger cause — the men who froze at Valley Forge, the men who stormed the beaches at Normandy and Guadalcanal. But that's not what really made me angry. It was that these little statements point to the moral rot at the core of Trumpism, which every day disgraces our country, which we are proud of and love. Trumpism can be seen as a giant attempt to amputate the highest aspirations of the human spirit and to reduce us to our most primitive, atavistic tendencies. Before I explain what I mean, let me first make the obvious point that Deneen's and Vance's assertions that soldiers never fight for ideals is just plain wrong. Of course warriors fight for their comrades. And of course there are some wars such as Vietnam and Iraq, where Vance served, where the moral causes are unclear or discredited. But when the moral stakes are made clear, most soldiers are absolutely motivated in part by ideals — even in the heat of combat. For his book 'For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War,' the great historian James M McPherson read about 25,000 letters and 249 diaries from soldiers who fought in that war. Their missives were filled with griping about conditions, about the horrors of war — they had no need in their private writings to sugarcoat things. But of the 1,076 soldiers whose writings form the basis of his book, McPherson found that 68 per cent of the Union soldiers and 66 per cent of the Confederate soldiers explicitly cited 'patriotic motivations' (as they interpreted them) as one reason they went into combat. Other soldiers were probably also motivated by their ideals, but they found it too obvious to mention. 'Sick as I am of this war and bloodshed as much oh how much I want to be home with my dear wife and children,' a Pennsylvania officer wrote, 'every day I have a more religious feeling, that this war is a crusade for the good of mankind.' An Indiana man wrote, 'This is not a war for dollars and cents, nor is it a war for territory — but it is to decide whether we are to be a free people — and if the Union is dissolved I very much fear that we will not have a republican form of government very long.' People who are more theologically advanced than I have a name for that kind of dehumanisation: spiritual warfare. All of us humans have within us a capacity for selfishness and a capacity for generosity. Spiritual warfare is an attempt to unleash the forces of darkness and to simultaneously extinguish the better angels of our nature. Trump and Vance aren't just promoting policies; they're trying to degrade America's moral character to a level more closely resembling their own. Years ago, I used to slightly know both Deneen and Vance. Vance has been in my home. We've gone out for drinks and coffee. Until Inauguration Day, I harbored him no ill will. Even today, I've found I have no trouble simultaneously opposing Trump policies and maintaining friendship and love for friends and family who are Trump supporters. In my experience, a vast majority of people who support Trump do so for legitimate or at least defensible reasons. But over the past four months, a small cabal at the top of the administration — including Trump, Vance, Miller and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought — have brought a series of moral degradations to the nation those Union soldiers fought and died for: the betrayal of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine, the cruel destruction of so many scientists' life projects, the ruination of PEPFAR. According to the HIV Modeling Consortium's PEPFAR Impact Tracker, the cuts to that programme alone have already resulted in nearly 55,000 adult deaths and nearly 6,000 dead children. We're only four months in. Moral contempt is an unattractive emotion, which can slide into arrogance and pride, which I will try to struggle against. In the meantime, it provoked this column from a mild-mannered guy on a beautiful spring day. — The New York Times. David Brooks Brooks is a book author and political and cultural commentator
2 days ago
- General
Virginia capital likely has 742 unmarked graves, some of Confederate soldiers, study finds
RICHMOND, Va. -- An acre of land owned by the city of Richmond contains potentially hundreds of unmarked graves, some of which could belong to Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War, according to a study released Friday. The city commissioned the land survey after drawing scrutiny for spending $16,000 to upgrade an area around a grave marker on the property that pays tribute to Confederate soldiers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The stone marker was placed there in 1939 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It honors more than 100 Confederate soldiers from South Carolina who died in a wartime hospital across the street. The Richmond Free Press, a newspaper with a large Black readership, first reported on the upgrades, which had included fencing, landscaping and a new bench. The newspaper raised questions about city expenditures on the project in the wake of removing various other Confederate monuments in recent years. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. The city noted the scrutiny in the study, which sought to verify that the land had been used as a cemetery for Confederate soldiers. Using ground penetrating radar and other research methods, the study found that there are more than 472 probable graves and 270 possible graves there, if not more. The land was originally in the former Richmond suburb of Manchester, which was later encompassed by the city. Manchester bought the land in 1857, possibly for a cemetery, four years before the Civil War started in 1861. The study included a review of old municipal, hospital and burial records. Newspaper articles from the late 19th century and early 20th century reference people who died in the Civil War being buried there. Maps also show a cemetery existing in that spot in 1876, after the Civil War. The study found 'a circumstantial case that the property was used for wartime burials," while the research also 'indicates that soldiers from states other than South Carolina may have also been buried here.' The city bought the property in 1930. It now serves as a natural gas booster and storage facility. In its statement Friday, the city said it has consulted with historians and other officials to develop an access plan for the site. It would allow visitation to descendants of those believed to have been interred there and to others interested in genealogical research.
Toronto Star
2 days ago
- General
- Toronto Star
Virginia capital likely has 742 unmarked graves, some of Confederate soldiers, study finds
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — An acre of land owned by the city of Richmond contains potentially hundreds of unmarked graves, some of which could belong to Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War, according to a study released Friday. The city commissioned the land survey after drawing scrutiny for spending $16,000 to upgrade an area around a grave marker on the property that pays tribute to Confederate soldiers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
