Posted on 12/16/2004 6:48:26 AM PST by cougar_mccxxi
Americans Owe Confederate History Respect
By CHRIS EDWARDS
The Time Has Come To Take A Stand After attending the Confederate Memorial Day service on June 1 in Higginsville, I found myself believing our nation should be ashamed for not giving more respect and recognition to our ancestors.
I understand that some find the Confederate flag offensive because they feel it represents slavery and oppression. Well, here are the facts: The Confederate flag flew over the South from 1861 to 1865. That's a total of four years. The U.S. Constitution was ratified in April 1789, and that document protected and condoned the institution of slavery from 1789 to 1861. In other words, if we denigrate the Confederate flag for representing slavery for four years, shouldn't we also vilify the U.S. flag for representing slavery for 72 years? Unless we're hypocrites, it is clear that one flag is no less pure than the other.
A fascinating aspect of studying the Civil War is researching the issues that led to the confrontation. The more you read, the less black-and-white the issues become. President Abraham Lincoln said he would do anything to save the union, even if that meant preserving the institution of slavery. Lincoln's focus was obviously on the union, not slavery.
In another case, historians William McFeely and Gene Smith write that Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant threatened to "throw down his sword" if he thought he was fighting to end slavery.
Closer to home, in 1864, Col. William Switzler, one of the most respected Union men in Boone County, purchased a slave named Dick for $126. What makes this transaction interesting is not only the fact that Switzler was a Union man but that he bought the slave one year after the issuance of the Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Of course, history students know the proclamation did not include slaves living in the North or in border states such as Missouri.
So if this war was fought strictly over slavery, why were so many Unionists reluctant to act like that was the issue?
In reviewing the motives that led to the Civil War, one should read the letters soldiers wrote home to their loved ones. Historian John Perry, who studied the soldier's correspondence, says in his three years of research, he failed to find one letter that referred to slavery from Confederate or Union soldiers.
Perry says that Yankees tended to write about preserving the Union and Confederates wrote about protecting their rights from a too-powerful federal government. The numerous letters failed to specifically say soldiers were fighting either to destroy or protect the institution of slavery. Shelby Foote, in his three-volume Civil War history, recounts an incident in which a Union soldier asks a Confederate prisoner captured in Tennessee why he was fighting. The rebel responded, "Because you're down here."
History tends to overlook the South's efforts to resolve the issue of slavery. For example, in 1863, because of a shortage of manpower, Lincoln permitted the enlistment of black soldiers into the Union Army. Battlefield documents bear out the fact that these units were composed of some of the finest fighting men in the war. Unfortunately for these brave soldiers, the Union used them as cannon fodder, preferring to sacrifice black lives instead of whites.
These courageous black Union soldiers experienced a Pyrrhic victory for their right to engage in combat. However, history has little to say about the South's same effort in 1865. The Confederacy, its own troop strength depleted, offered slaves freedom if they volunteered for the army.
We know that between 75,000 and 100,000 blacks responded to this call, causing Frederick Douglass to bemoan the fact that blacks were joining the Confederacy. But the assimilation of black slaves into the Confederate army was short-lived as the war came to an end before the government's policy could be fully implemented.
It's tragic that Missouri does not do more to recognize the bravery of the men who fought in the Missouri Confederate brigades who fought valiantly in every battle they were engaged in. To many Confederate generals, the Missouri brigades were considered the best fighting units in the South.
The courage these boys from Missouri demonstrated at Port Gibson and Champion Hill, Miss., Franklin, Tenn., and Fort Blakely, Ala., represent just a few of the incredible sacrifices they withstood on the battlefield. Missouri should celebrate their struggles instead of damning them.
For the real story about the Missouri Confederate brigades, one should read Phil Gottschalk and Philip Tucker's excellent books about these units. The amount of blood spilled by these Missouri boys on the field of battle will make you cry.
Our Confederate ancestors deserve better from this nation. They fought for what they believed in and lost. Most important, we should remember that when they surrendered, they gave up the fight completely. Defeated Confederate soldiers did not resort to guerrilla warfare or form renegade bands that refused to surrender. These men simply laid down their arms, went home and lived peacefully under the U.S. flag. When these ex-Confederates died, they died Americans.
During the postwar period, ex-Confederates overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party. This party, led in Missouri by Rep. Dick Gephardt and Gov. Bob Holden, has chosen to turn its back on its fallen sons.
The act of pulling down Confederate flags at two obscure Confederate cemeteries for the sake of promoting Gephardt's hopeless quest for the presidency was a cowardly decision. I pray these men will rethink their decision.
The reality is, when it comes to slavery, the Confederate and United States flags drip with an equal amount of blood.
Chris Edwards is a local musician and MU graduate student of history. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and of the board of Missouri's Civil War Heritage Foundation.
ya'll are doing the LORD'S WORK against the LEFTIST, infidels.
now, if we could just the PW folks to go after the damnyankees, who are doing the "devils' bidding"!
free dixie,sw
But this moral judgment of yours, despite your rant, is not one that you have supported on any basis other than your own rhetoric. While I agree that a slave system is a flawed system, that does not in and of itself make slaveholders evil men; nor does it give you the slightest right to interfere in other people's cultures.
If you want to narrow this to the specifics of this thread, let me be very clear. The Constitution--however you deny it--was a compact between the States, whose independence had been recognized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. It was based upon delegated powers. As Article VII makes very clear, "The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same."
Parse that language anyway that you like, and it is a Compact between the States that ratify. Several almost didn't join.
There are several provisions in that Constitution, which deliberately took slavery off the table, as an issue between the States, ratifying the Constitution. Your suggestion that you--or those who think as you think--would have been justified in waging a murderous war, against the Southern leadership, because they insisted on the original Constitutional intent, is what is truly immoral; truly evil. It was because there were an increasing number talking, as you are writing, was probably the single most significant reason for the South's secession--although there had been many other issues, also.
As for systems that demean individuals? Do you really think that the slave or bondsman, whether in Biblical, Greek, Roman or ante-bellum Southern times, who served a Master loyally, and in a way that contributed to his social order at the time, had less dignity than someone today, living on Welfare, without even trying to do anything productive? Or take the serf, serving the great landowner, who went off to war with his King, Henry V? Was there not far more dignity in his service at Agincourt, than that accorded many a modern beneficiary of Tony Blair's Socialist Britain?
You want to see history as a battle between Good and Evil, rather than one between differing perspectives, and competing interests. There certainly are evil men; but their differing with you on competing social systems is not the crux of their evil. On the other hand, those who take an oath to support a Constitutional compact, and then call for a course of action that flies in the face of that compact, have violated one of the most sacred principles of morality. The South was reacting, not provoking in her secession. The tragedy--on both sides--flowed from the arrogant madness you espouse.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
You honestly don't believe that the Confederacy committed any "crimes against humanity" during their cause either? Neither side was 100% comprised of saints. Both had many good people, both had plenty of SOBs.
YES, there were many individuals in gray, who committed INDIVIDUAL war crimes (as well as common crimes), but there is NO EVIDENCE whatever that the CSA high command either planned,endorsed or covered up these INDIVIDUAL acts. (in point of fact, many CSA service members were HANGED for committing crimes by the Provost Marshal of the ANV,ATN, etc.)
otoh, the commission of WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY was a PLANNED/premeditated portion of the damnyankee's overall war plan.
i challenge you to find ANY ORIGINAL source document that shows that the Union Army ever HANGED anyone of their service members for ANY crime committed against any civilian SOUTHERNER or CSA POW. furthermore, the Provost Marshals of the USA seldom even bothered to "make a show of investigating" ANY offense committed against a southerner or CSA captive in union military confinement.
as a result, mass rape, arson,looting/plundering of private property,looting/burglary/armed robbery/desecration of churches & synagogues,armed robbery,sexual assaults, kidnappings for profit, coldblooded MURDER and other WAR CRIMES were both COMMONPLACE & UNpunished. (anytime the higher authorities of ANY military force lets the soldiers know that crime will NOT be punished, crimes will RISE exponentially!)
also, the damnyankees CREATED the CONCENTRATION CAMP, where rebel POWs & civilian internees were INTENTIONALLY/routinely abused,tortured,denied shelter & medical care,raped,assaulted & MURDERED POWs & civilian internees, without just cause, on a WHOLESALE basis.
at Point lookout Prison Camp, at least 15,000 POWs and civilian confinees were MURDERED. (the best estimates of the TOTAL number of confinees murdered at all the damnyankee concentration camps combined is between 50-100,000 persons.)
btw, on public display at the Point lookout Museum is an original document, signed by a Union Army CPT, which says that, "any UN-WARRANTED or INTENTIONAL shootings of rebel prisoners in our hands will IMMEDIATELTY cease. after this date, any such guard or staff officer killing prisoners will be fined the sum of ONE DOLLAR".===> some REAL PUNISHMENT, don't you think!!!!
free dixie,sw
Okay, seriously, how many synagogues were in the South at the time??
And, I'm not defending the actions of the Union troops. Much of that was uncomprehensible! However, it worked.
The Confederacy lost . . . get over it. Learn to function in present day society. You sound like a bitter person.
"However, it worked." ====>do you REALLY think that murdering UNarmed civilians & helpless POWs, committing mass rapes, kidnappings,etc. are A-OK and/or aren't something for damnyankees to be EMBARRASSED about????
IF i'm "bitter", it's because 92 members of MY family were raped/robbed/tortured & MURDERED, only because they were NOT "white persons" AND unarmed, AND BECAUSE "all too many posters here" seem to think that this INTENTIONAL ATROCITY was "perfectly acceptable in wartime".
btw, would you tell a Jew that telling the story his family's demise during the HITLER TERROR makes him sound like a "bitter person". NO?? i thought NOT.
free dixie,sw
Okay, I'm not discriminating against the South for slavery. I fully realize the North had previously had slaves and still had probably just as racist of views. But, do you honestly not believe that many Southerners (many who fought for the Confederacy) had not raped/robbed/tortured and murdered plenty of people, only because there were NOT "white persons"?
can't you discern the VAST difference between INDIVIDUAL un-lawful acts by individual criminals and a PREMEDITATED & INTENTIONAL holocaust committed against an "unfavored" racial minority group by GOVERNMENT PLAN & ACTION????
if you can't, here's the difference:
the "Son of Sam" was a serial-killer;AUSCHWITZ was an INTENTIONAL action of a CRIMINAL REGIME. the damnyankee DEATH CAMP at Point Lookout, MD & a dozen or so other damnyankee DEATH CAMPS were like places of HORROR.
may i suggest that you borrow the book,PORTALS TO HELL, from your local library? MUCH of the sad story is therein.
free dixie,sw free dixie,sw
If not for the fact that some of the words are capitalized I would think that you wrote that. But still it's mildly upsetting to think that there are more than one person out there as wrong as you.
No, but I would expect you to. The base payment check is deposited in a Swiss bank each year. The base commander at Guantanamo has nothing to do with the process.
Join in the fun.
Thanks..it's been quite a roller coaster ride so far..as a lefty I thought all conservatives walked in lockstep, was I ever wrong. It's the libs who dare not deviate from party line. There are so many different views here, I must have lost weeks of sleep since I joined, checking out the threads.
free dixie,sw
what a SHOCK!
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
what ARROGANCE!
free dixie,sw
I wouldn't call any of those things racism. Unfortunately, the term has been thrown around so much by those with a political agenda, that generalizations (which is what your second two examples are) are sometimes mistaken for racism. Wanting one's child to marry someone from your own background is fine--forcing them to do so against their will (while not racism) I think is silly (not that I am saying that you would do so).
Can I observe that blacks under perform academically? Or that they commit many more violent crimes than their proportion of the population would suggest?
ML/NJ
I'm flattered that you need my permission to do so. j/k
Again, citing these thing isn't necessarily racism. The first again, is a generalization. I'm sure that Powell or Rice would outperform many whites or asians any day. The second is an inference based on statistics. Now, an example of racism would be to suggest that both of these things are true BECAUSE they are black.
in every society, the percentage & the number of criminals in peacetime is small.
otoh, when removed from their home area during war,given assurances of NO punishment for their actions and/or ENCOURAGED by their "supervisors" & "leaders" at higher levels to commit crimes against "the enemy", a MUCH larger percentage will commit ATROCITIES.
that is PRECISELY what happened with the damnyankee army in the south.
as Dr Susan Brownmiller of Harvard University has said, the damnyankee army committed the outrages against common decency & crimes against humanity because "they COULD".
free dixie,sw
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