Talk:Ellen Call Long

=It was 1866 not 1865=

The claim that Ellen Call Long founded the Tallahassee Ladies' Memorial Association in 1865 is disproven both by the contemporaneous News article cited from the Semi Weekly Floridian in July 9, 1866, but by the book, Florida Breezes itself. In Florida Breezes, the date FRIDAY, June 22, as the creation date of the Association Florida Breezes. June 22 was NOT a Friday in 1865. It was a Friday in 1866. This is confirmed by the contemporaneous publication in the local news at the time.

By Friday, June 22, 1866, the Annual Memorial Day had already been established across the south. It originated in Columbus, Georgia, and was commemorated in dozens of cities on April 26, 1866. Tallahassee *adopted* this date and commemorated the following year, 1867. The suggestion that Ellen Call Long was somehow involved in the establishment of Memorial Day is entirely refuted by the two primary sources which tell of the Association's origin.

=Ellen Call Long was not the founder of the LMA of Tallahassee=

It is quite clear in the detailed minutes of the founding of the Tallahassee LMA, which were printed in the Semi Weekly Floridian, July 9, 1866 Semi Weekly Floridian, July 9, 1866, page 2, column 5, that Ellen Call Long was merely listed as a "foreign agent." She was not among the leadership.

Ellen Call Long was involved in a lot of activities which she declined leadership roles in. The information regarding her precise role with the local memorial organization comes from a history she wrote: "Struck with the beautiful generous and noble sentiment displayed by the women of Richmond, in this movement I appealed through the weekly newspaper - "Sentinel" - edited by Mr. Benjamin F. Allen, to the women of Florida, suggesting to and inviting them to united and volunteer in a similar object 0 which was to form an association or the purpose of building a 'state monument in the memory of Florida soldiers dead or surviving"

https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/180838?id=7 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wabnoles1 (talk • contribs) 17:20, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

I should also add that ECL was an outspoken Unionist like her father, which played a role in her not accepting the leadership as she herself stated: "As I started this movement in Florida, I was naturally requested to preside over the work - but having plans in view of a lengthy absence from home - I declined to accept the position. Besides I felt that another could make the object in view [Confederate memorial] more popular." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wabnoles1 (talk • contribs) 17:35, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

The handwritten manuscript on file with the state archives was apparently published in some form and was listed as among the holdings of the Florida Department of the Confederate Museum in Richmond in 1914. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wabnoles1 (talk • contribs) 18:02, 12 December 2018 (UTC)