Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and the Battle Cry of Freedom

EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin—In the farm cities and county seats of rural western Wisconsin, among the first memorials to the Civil Conflict useless, and to the heroic wrestle to finish the unique sin of the American experiment, had been erected by returning veterans, and by the households of those who didn’t return. The statues, plaques, and markers positioned by the Grand Military of the Republic are nonetheless well-maintained in the present day, a testomony to the area’s satisfaction in its embrace of the struggle not simply to avoid wasting the Union however to upend the merciless techniques of governance that had permitted human bondage.

This isn’t simply Wisconsin historical past. Throughout the Mississippi, within the farm nation of southeastern Minnesota that Tim Walz as soon as represented in Congress, the Civil Conflict monuments stand simply as tall, and the reminiscences run simply as deep. So it was that, when Walz first ran for Minnesota’s governorship in 2018, he recorded a stirring name to motion that argued for an expansive view of the state’s potential. Whereas some politicians talked about slicing applications, reducing expectations, and accepting despair and division, Walz declared, “If Washington gained’t lead, we are going to. On this state, we don’t concern the long run. We create the long run. And once we stand collectively, we win.” To show his level, the previous highschool social research trainer invoked the state’s historical past: “Our blood saved the Union at Gettysburg. Our iron cast the tanks that liberated Europe. Our farmers sparked a inexperienced revolution that fed the world. Our creativeness remodeled medication. What many describe because the Minnesota miracle, that’s simply what we do right here.”

That reference to saving the Union at Gettysburg was not hyperbole. Walz was speaking concerning the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment — the “First Minnesota Volunteers” — which, on the second day of the combating at Gettysburg, halted the Accomplice forces that threatened to interrupt the Union line at Cemetery Ridge. Outnumbered 5-1, the troopers of the Ist Minnesota charged the enemy troops. Whilst they sustained horrific losses, the Minnesotans held the road till reinforcements arrived. Army historians recall that “Of the 262 members of the regiment current for responsibility that morning, solely 47 answered the roll that night. The regiment incurred the very best casualty fee of any unit within the Civil Conflict.” Union Main Common Winfield Scott Hancock, who ordered the assault, reported, “The excellent gallantry of these males saved our line from being damaged.” With out the first Minnesota, probably the most hallowed victory of the conflict —one which, in President Abraham Lincoln’s immortal phrases, had renewed the promise of “a brand new nation, conceived in Liberty, and devoted to the proposition that each one males are created equal,”— would possibly by no means have occurred.

Slightly greater than 160 years after the struggle at Gettysburg, the Democratic ticket of Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris rallied 12,000 Wisconsinites and Minnesotans on the sting of a farm subject close to Eau Claire. Historical past met them there too; this western Wisconsin area is dotted with monuments to the eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and their mascot, an eagle referred to as “Previous Abe” who flew over battlefields because the screeching “Yankee Buzzard” that terrified Confederates by 4 years of Civil Conflict combating.

Civil Conflict references was frequent at political rallies throughout the higher Midwest, the place the place radical abolitionists shaped the Republican Get together to oppose the growth of slavery. Now, supporters of the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, present up at his rallies with Accomplice flags and Trump himself describes the symbols of the treasonous revolt of Accomplice states towards the Republic as “a part of a Nice American Heritage.”

Lately, it falls to the Democrats to look sincere eyes by the lens of historical past. Maybe that explains the remarkably well-chosen acknowledgment of the Civil Conflict on the Harris-Walz rally exterior Eau Claire.

Justin Vernon, the chief of the Grammy Award-winning band Bon Iver, carried out on the rally. That was not stunning. Vernon is an Eau Claire native who nonetheless resides within the space, and he and the Bon Iver crew have usually appeared on behalf of progressive candidates, similar to former US Senator Russ Feingold and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. At Wednesday’s rally, Vernon was usually self-effacing, telling the gang, “We’re right here for the correct causes and everyone knows what we’re right here for, We’re gonna do our factor, make this music, and make approach for the individuals we have to hear from.” However the set concluded with a music that spoke to the second with placing readability. “We’re going to shut out right here with a pleasant, previous patriotic music that has been rolling round my head these final months,” stated Vernon, earlier than he and the band carried out a chilling model of probably the most visionary and radical of Civil Conflict-era songs, the abolitionist anthem, “The Battle Cry of Freedom.”

 Written in 1862 by George Frederick Root, at a time when the Union trigger was struggling, “The Battle Cry of Freedom” was a name to arms that recognized the treason of the rebels (”Down with the traitors, up with the celebrities”) and urged the formation of a military of northern abolitionists and unionists, together with previously enslaved Black Southerners, to defeat the Confederacy (“We are going to welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and courageous, Shouting the battle cry of freedom! And though he could also be poor, he shall by no means be a slave, Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom”).

Harris has made freedom a watchword for her marketing campaign towards the authoritarian menace posed by Trump and his running-mate, right-wing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. To that finish, she has employed Beyoncé’s music “Freedom” as rally music. On Wednesday, nevertheless, it was an older, but no much less applicable name for freedom, that echoed throughout the farm fields of the higher Midwest. “Oh, we’ll rally around the flag, boys, we’ll rally as soon as once more, shouting the battle cry of freedom,” sang Vernon. “And we’ll rally from the hillside, we’ll collect from the plain, Shouting the battle cry of freedom.”