An unusual obsession

Emily Brennan has an article in The New York Times about Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Civil War:

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic and author of The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, had only a passing interest in the Civil War when he picked up James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era three years ago. By its end, he had become “fanatical”. “I went through all the books I could,” Coates said. “I was driving my wife crazy, my son crazy.” So he took his obsession on the road.
For the last three summers he has traveled with his family to Civil War battlefields. This summer he’ll be doing the same. A collection of essays and novels on the war (yes, plural) is in the works.
Coates answers questions on the battlefields he’s visited:
Q. What was the first battlefield you visited?
A. Petersburg, which is just south of Richmond, Virginia. It’s extremely significant in African-American history. It is one of the last major campaigns of the war and, by the time Ulysses S. Grant gets there, one in eight Union soldiers is African-American. When we were there in 2009, I saw markers everywhere for Confederate and Union regiments, but I missed the one for African-American soldiers. (There is one there, but it didn’t have the same presence as the others.) The fact that the African-Americans who fought there didn’t enjoy much recognition filled me with a feeling of debt and obligation. The books I am writing really come out of that spirit.
Q. What is the atmosphere at these battlefields?
A. It’s extraordinarily sad because a massive amount of people died in spectacular fashion. When you see the terrain, you can see how that’s possible. The Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia still has the earthworks that soldiers dug up to shield themselves from fire. When you see the field, you see the length of the field, the width of the field, you can just imagine it. It hits you in a way you can’t get from reading a book.
Q. You wrote an essay in The Atlantic titled Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War? Have you found any answers?
A. Scholars have written about how this country, post-bellum, ceded the memory of the Civil War to the South. In order for us to have peace and union, we would give them honor; we wouldn’t talk too much about what they were fighting over, except to say they fought valiantly. For an African-American, it’s very disconcerting. When I was at Shiloh, Tennessee in 2010, they had these Confederate re-enactors firing cannons. I’m not interested in that at all— you have to remember that this was an army in the business of enslaving people.
Q. Are there any sites that seem more inclusive?
A. Many of these parks are doing a better job. In 2010, I went to Fort Pillow in Tennessee, where this heinous massacre of African-American Union troops by Nathan Bedford Forrest happened. As uncomfortable as I felt in that park, the film at the visitors’ center represented African-American soldiers very well. It had no problem saying these guys were fighting for freedom. And the film at Gettysburg makes no bones about the war being over slavery. So progress is coming.
Q. The anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg is 1 July to 3 July. Would you recommend going?
A. People should go, period, but if I could go off-season and during the week, I’d do that. I have a thing about crowds. I want it all to myself.

Rico says it's nice to see someone else doing a Gasm during the 150th cycle; if only he had this guy's money, he could do it right...