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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Old Gods of Appalachia is an elite fiction/horror podcast

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

"I have another Bridgerton question" was not a phrase I thought I would hear in my US 1 class today.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Your friends don't like me, well I don't like me too

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

A good place to start would actually be 1872 with the Liberal Republican revolt. The party of Lincoln was also always the party of many who were anti-emancipationists during the war and hostile to civil rights after, especially in the west.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I'm a STL kid myself! North County area so right across the river. Used to go watch bald eagles at the dam.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Moreover, we know that the officer corps came disproportionately from the slave holding class. We see comments in journals and letters all over the place about officers and even enlisted men's "servants" in camp.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I would have to go back and read it again to really say, it's been a while. 25k might be high, but 10k is a very reasonable estimate. Kevin Levin is far and away the expert on that material so I would also check out his book. We know that they were a huge part of the officer corps in the ANV.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Excellent! His argument is one that people love to fight about.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

If you are interested on some CSA focused late war books, I highly recommend works like Rable's Confederate Republic. Sheehan-Dean's Why Confederates Fought, and Phillips' Diehard Rebels. Gallagher's Confederate War is a great way to wade into the historiographical debates.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Smart move. I think Guelzo is great. He is a better political historian than military historian, but he's still a pretty damn good military historian. Teaching at Gettysburg probably helped!

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

That's a fair argument. The war changed character after Vicksburg especially. I argue that the failure to come south (whether they could have or not) shattered a lot of Western confidence in the CSA on the home front. And yes, many wanted Lee to head south in June including some of his officers

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

The argument here is that in 1863, plenty could have gone right for the CSA to win the war, but it didn't. If they win at Chattanooga, if Grant recrosses the Rapidan after the Wilderness, if Sherman stalls outside ATL or turns back after Kennesaw, the war takes a different course.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Oh I have the books don't worry. My PhD is in Civil War history and my book project is all about Confederate nationalism so I am really deep into the literature on the war, both primary and secondary.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I think we are just working eith different definitions of what winning means. There was never going to be a grand battle to win the war in 1861, let alone 1863 or 64. That, I think is the breakdown in this convo. The South could have held on, which means they could have won, with army and politics

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

That is expanding what you said in your original comment, which makes your point more clear to be sure. But there were still plenty of what ifs to be decided on the field. Nothing was set in stone in summer 1863.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

No, pre-Gettysburg. You seem to be arguing that the war was military before Gettysburg and somehow political after. But it was always both. Every military victory had political calculations and implications. Even a victory at Gettysburg would have been to force a political move.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

That by invading the North the could break the political will to fight the war??? This isn't new stuff.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Absolutely. Even the conference before the invasion in 1863 discussed the political implications of getting back into the North knowing there was growing Copperhead sentiment.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I'm confused at how you are drawing a line between a military and political war when the war was always military and political.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Sorry CFP, I couldn't see the star spangled banner wave. Too much tear gas in the way.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

I have been screaming this in particular at anyone who mentions this to me! And I learned cursive for maybe 2 weeks in 3rd grade. I learned to read 19th century cursive just fine.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

I don't know if I can say *favorite,* but teaching the 1705 VA code on servants and slaves is always rewarding. It usually comes in week 3 when students are settling in. For many students, I get to see the "Oh, that's what slavery actually was" look on their faces.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I wish the Supreme Court would use AI as much as my students do because at least then their decisions might have a better basis in actual law.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

And they had to rewrite the surrender because the first one Sherman drafted was too lenient.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

No, they stacked arms at surrender, with the exception of officers' personal sidearms. Infantry, cavalry, artillery, all left them on the field. There were just plenty of arms floating around after for them to start Klan violence.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

My job may not be standard academia anymore, but I've spent the past week writing a tour for a local Black Jazz site, including some music theory, which is a very cool way to spend some time.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Worth saying out loud. For the pilots who fly these flights, for the officers making the "arrests," it's not just following orders. It's a choice. An active decision not just to be complicit, but to participate. apnews.com/article/supr...

apnews.com

Supreme Court clears way for deportation to South Sudan of several immigrants with no ties there

The Supreme Court is clearing the way for the deportation of several immigrants who were put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan, a war-ravaged country where they have no ties.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

There is an urge among that crowd to treat the battles like a football game. They analyze it, replay key moments, but don't ask the important questions of why the men were there, nor do the grapple with the reality of the violence and death.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

For those celebrating Gettysburg these three days, it's important to remember that just because an army fought well doesn't mean it fought for a good cause. Just because men did brave things in combat doesn't mean they were righteous. The South fought for slavery. They kidnapped black people in PA.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

I want to call my senators, but given my choices are to call from Kansas or Missouri, what am I supposed to say? "Take off your brown shirt for a second and stop being a fascist?"

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Keith Tkachuk is about to storm the ice and demand they stop the count.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

One of my students is a Capitals fan. I made sure to wait for the middle of the final to come up and tell him "RIP Caps" to test his mental fortitude.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

He earned his Catholic guilt from the Black Sox scandal

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I taught my last US history honors section Civil War infantry tactics in a park on campus today. I don't know how much they'll remember from the whole class, but I bet they'll remember how to refuse a line.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

"John Wilkes Booth violated a sacred norm, held since Washington's first term, of not assassinating the president. But that says more about middle America than it does about government." By Maggie Haberman

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

I'm begging for journalists to stop saying "violated norms" when they mean "broke the law." Weaponizing the Justice Department isn't "violating norms." It's just breaking the law.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

The same ones glorifying this type of violence against tyranny are the ones who most want the government to commit violence against their "enemies" too.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Filing those away in the archives next to McCarthy's list of communists in the State Department.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

This feels a lot like the Embargo Act in 1807. Americans suffered plenty, but Britain went, "Oh, damn. Well, moving on," and kept trading with the bulk of the world. We thought we had a lot more economic power than we did back then too.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Is it time for some personal liberty laws and Boston Vigilance Committee activities to start up again? We have seen government kidnappings before. What's 1850 is new again.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Beyond the sheer human tragedy of the deportation themselves is the realization that there are plenty of officers who will simply follow orders, whatever they may be.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

"Lol we are trying to buy a house," sums up my feelings about the epic self-destruction we are being forced to live through.

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Reason 9186 for people to read and grapple with Gienapp's The Second Creation

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Kevin McPartland @kpmcp.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

My phone was dying on my flight so I just played arm chair general for the guy playing his jewel-drop game in the row across from me. Terrible use of power ups the whole time. What a shame.

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