Judge C.W. Tyler of Clarksville, Tenn. in 1898 wrote the following:
"A land that could forget its own sons who once took up arms and sacrificed their lives in response to its call is a land whose people must be intrinsically base; and if the cause was lost for which these sons contended, the failure to cherish their memories becomes doubly dishonorable, for their good name, having no favoring government to uphold it, must rest alone in the keeping of the men who shared their convictions and suffered defeat with them.
Upon these it devolves as a sacred duty to defend the "lost cause" against transducers, to uphold the motives of their fallen comrades, and to transmit to posterity, as worthy of emulation, the story of their virtue, their courage, and their sacrifices."
For this, as stated above, we must never forget those whom gave all for a cause they deemed honorable. And I say, "may God forever bless the Stars and Bars battle flag and those who fought beneath its banner."
I know the fact that people sacrificed their lives for a lost cause must have some sort of respect shown it, if only for the fact that lives were lost. But for the life of me, I still can't figure out any other reason for the Civil War being fought except for the right for some southern people to own slaves. This seems a pretty odious "cause", no matter how you slice it. I have always been against political correctness, but maybe it's time to just retire this rebel flag thing. The south lost the war; let's move on.