Class Note 1975
Issue
September-October 2021
Although you are reading this in September/October, I am writing it in June on the heels of the local Juneteenth celebration. As a New Englander from birth, I was not as aware of Juneteenth as I should have been. Now I live at ground zero—Galveston, Texas. The elation at this day becoming a national holiday was deep here, and a new artwork mural was dedicated in the center of town attended by the co-sponsors of the bill making this a national day of recognition. If you want to be proud of this nation for continuously seeking to correct its mistakes, join me in celebrating Juneteenth every year, all year.
When the Black troops entered Galveston in 1865 and General Granger delivered his proclamation in this Gulf Coast community, it represented the full circle of delivery on the Constitution’s original promise of equality for all. How fitting that news should arrive on my desk of Gil Hahn’smost recent literary product—Campaign for the Confederate Coast: Blockading, Blockade Running and Related Endeavors During the American Civil War.
Gil is an attorney and historian who grew up in Washington, D.C., near Battery Kemble, one of the ring of forts defending the federal capital and also within easy touring range of many Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Gil is an enthusiastic and learned student of the Civil War, including the combined operations that took place at or near the major Confederate ports, but he was unable to find any book that pulled together all the various aspects of the war along coastal waters, including blockade running, the Confederate efforts to assist and then control blockade running, and the influence of international capital and foreign governments on the conduct of the Civil War.
We continue to gain steam in our Facebook page. New members include Peter Douxmont, Michael Varley, Wanda Irving,and Bob Jamieson.Please welcome them to our group.If you are not already on board, please sign up and join us. It is especially important as we start to gather momentum toward our 50th reunion. I know it seems like a long way off, but the planning has begun. In fact, as homework (I am giving you plenty of time to contemplate this), why don’t you shoot me a note with your fondest memory from undergraduate years and why it is still relevant today—or you can just send me a note and let me know you are alive.
Vox clamantis in Tejas.
—Stephen D. Gray, 3627 Avenue M, Galveston, TX 77550; (650) 302-8739; fratergray@gmail.com
When the Black troops entered Galveston in 1865 and General Granger delivered his proclamation in this Gulf Coast community, it represented the full circle of delivery on the Constitution’s original promise of equality for all. How fitting that news should arrive on my desk of Gil Hahn’smost recent literary product—Campaign for the Confederate Coast: Blockading, Blockade Running and Related Endeavors During the American Civil War.
Gil is an attorney and historian who grew up in Washington, D.C., near Battery Kemble, one of the ring of forts defending the federal capital and also within easy touring range of many Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Gil is an enthusiastic and learned student of the Civil War, including the combined operations that took place at or near the major Confederate ports, but he was unable to find any book that pulled together all the various aspects of the war along coastal waters, including blockade running, the Confederate efforts to assist and then control blockade running, and the influence of international capital and foreign governments on the conduct of the Civil War.
We continue to gain steam in our Facebook page. New members include Peter Douxmont, Michael Varley, Wanda Irving,and Bob Jamieson.Please welcome them to our group.If you are not already on board, please sign up and join us. It is especially important as we start to gather momentum toward our 50th reunion. I know it seems like a long way off, but the planning has begun. In fact, as homework (I am giving you plenty of time to contemplate this), why don’t you shoot me a note with your fondest memory from undergraduate years and why it is still relevant today—or you can just send me a note and let me know you are alive.
Vox clamantis in Tejas.
—Stephen D. Gray, 3627 Avenue M, Galveston, TX 77550; (650) 302-8739; fratergray@gmail.com