The campaign to extirpate our nation’s Confederate heritage is relentless. In 2007, Dixie College in St. George, Utah changed its name from the Rebels to the Red Storm and discontinued the use of the Confederate flag. The Confederate Air Force, an organization dedicated to preserving historic aircraft, is now the Commemorative Air Force.
The Unionists, both north and south, fighting for the US Constitution in the US Civil War were those on the correct side, from an historical viewpoint. Portraying the Revolution of 1776 as disposable and/or marching in some KKK rally only helps the Obama gang.
Good time to mention the outstanding free Hillsdale Constitution 101 course.
Previous FR links to Constitution 101.
Yes, some of my ancestors fought in the Confederate Army. And some of my ancestors were literally burned out of Northern Alabama during Reconstruction because they resisted the abuses of that occupation.
BUT, other of my ancestors were born in Texas during the Republic or Texas. That ancestor also fought in the CW and was captured and sent to prison in NY. After the War he walked from NY back to Texas.
I have been a history student most of my life. I do not like to read CW history. I have studied much military history, but the period of the CW has no appeal to me.
Do the GOP leadership hold southerners in contempt? Yes.
Do we distrust them? Yes, for the reason of past experience.
I want no part of a 3rd Party. But after we eject these Commies who run our nation, there will be a 3rd party unless the GOP leadership grows up. My suspicion is, they won’t.
The South lost the war, but every American lost the 10th amendment after it was all said and done. That was pretty much the trade off.
Keeping alive that “peculiar institution”. At its core the south (irrespective or their right to secede) was fighting to maintain a system that kept 4 million human beings enslaved. I am not sure such a system should be celebrated. It should be remembered and even discussed extensively. Individuals in the South can be admired for their good qualities and studied for better understanding. The stories of the battle and bravery of those who fought, and the pain of those who suffered can be remembered (Sherman’s brutal march to crush the South for example). As far as I am concerned flying a Southern flag is close to flying a 3rd Reich swastika flag.
Nathan Bedford Forrest has a huge statute south of Nashville. I like to think that statue is there to celebrate his remarkable skill as a soldier, and not the fact that he was a slave trader and one of the founders of the KKK.
For information I was born in Virginia and went to High School in Mississippi and lived in Tennessee for five years. I have also read Foote’s 3 Volume history of the Civil War twice along with dozens of other books on early U.S. history.
Sometimes you just have to hoist the black flag and start cutting throats someone said...Heinlein I think?
We are not all one people now or ever. Nor are we only Republican and Democrat or Whig and Democrat or city or country or whatever the alliances call themselves today.
Take a quick read of........snip “An illuminating history of North America’s eleven rival cultural regions that explodes the red state-blue state myth.
North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn’t confront or assimilate into an “American” or “Canadian” culture, but rather into one of the eleven distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory......illustrates and explains why “American” values vary sharply from one region to another. Woodard reveals how intranational differences have played a pivotal role at every point in the continent’s history, from the American Revolution and the Civil War to the tumultuous sixties and the “blue county/red county” maps of recent presidential elections. American Nations is a revolutionary and revelatory take on America’s myriad identities and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and are molding our future.”
In here lay all the answers to many of your questions and arguments.
I view the Battle Flag as a war trophy and I can do anything I damn well want with it.....and I chose to fly it because I am the rebel this time. I had family on both sides and KNOW both were the losers as the sad state of our nation shows today.
The South should have freed the slaves and THEN declared independence as Longstreet says in Killer Angels. The CW is is all theater played against the background of today’s race baiters. Grant owned slaves until 1863.....Lee freed his in 1862. Jefferson Davis adopted a black son, Abe Lincoln wanted to ship them all back to Africa as they were in his mind too stupid to co-exist with whites.....tell me who was right? Both? Neither?
Some of the South seceded to protect their slave interests. However.....Virgina, Arkansas, Tennessee, and NC didn’t secede UNTIL April AFTER Lincoln called up troops to INVADE his own country. Again. Right? Wrong?
The telescope of history collapses men and events and almost always hides the truth with lies convenient to the age in which they are told.
I’ll tell you what 2nd. I bloody sick and tired of “Rebs’’, ‘’Yankees’’ “Southerners’’ and “Northerners ‘’, I’m bloody sick and f**King tired of “Bonnie Blue,’’ “Dixie’’ and the bloody “Battle Hymn of the Republic’’ too!. I’ve been mixing it up here with Johnny Reb wanna-bes living in their parents basements and their love of the bloody’’ Stars and Bars’’ and to Hell with Old Glory. I’ve had my life threatened on Civil War threads here, I’ve been cussed and done my own share of cussing, Lord forgive me and I say ENOUGH!! And you know something? THEY”RE NOT MY ENEMY!! OBAMA IS!! The f**king war is over! One hundred and fifty years already, it’s OVER! Who really won, huh? Who won? We’re all in the same boat now, aren’t we? This little douche bag in The White House is going to have us ALL in chains and he’s laughing his ass off that we’re still at each others throats over this. The Johnny Reb wanna-be’s call me a ‘’socialist Lincoln butt-boy’’. An “Obama-lover’’ as if I voted or would EVER have voted for the little Marxist s.o.b! I HATE HIM!! Do we want war between the States again? OKay, fine. Only this time lets not march at each other North and South, but lets march North and South TOGETHER and head straight for DC, as AMERICANS AND THROW THE LITTLE BASTARD OUT!!! Sorry 2nd. This is nothing to do with you. Just had to get this off my chest. Been a long day for me and not a good one. Probably shouldn’t have said this but there it is.
Sounds like that's their choice. Either the war was too painful a memory, or Southerners don't want to be typecast as Jubilation T. Cornpone Confederates.
And it makes sense, doesn't it? If you've got climate, new roads, low taxes, and less expensive housing, are you really going to want to identify your state with our bloodiest war?
But I suspect Pennsylvania presents Gettysburg as just one of many historical and scenic areas. Virginia does the same thing. Push Williamsburg, and people who have other historical interests will visit them as well.
One thing this guy doesn't mention, though. It's not 1890 or 1930 any more, not a question of the poor South and the arrogant rich Yankees. Some Southerners who harp on past poverty are pretty quick to put down Northern cities and states that they've outstripped economically.
The United States would have been far better served by holding every surviving Confederate officer accountable in the federal courts or military tribunals in the states of the rebellion, with punishment imposed according to the standards of the time.
The mistake of Reconstruction was in giving “The Lost Cause” any seeds or fertile soil in which to sprout. We'd be a far different and better nation now if the traitors had been dealt with properly.
For later
“American foreign policy revolves around Israel. We are in two wars, and threatening a third for Israel’s security not our own.”
I stopped reading there.
I have a problem with comments like that which I have in bold.
I know plenty of Central and Eastern Europeans whose ancestors (or themselves) were driven out of their country due to tyranny.
Bump for later reading.