“Within the laws and customs of war’’. Oh, yes the argument Southerners have used to escape what Lees troops did.”
Lee was an honorable man, a condition with which some may be unfamiliar. What his troops did was in no way comparable to what Sherman did. The late Senator Moynihan reminded us that while a person might be entitled to his opinion, none of us is entitled to his own facts, and that—combined with what should be an embarrassing dearth of facts—seems to be what we have going on here.
“And just what are those ‘’laws and customs’’ by the way?”
You’ve managed to remain willfully ignorant thus far, and you want me to take on the task of educating you?
Do it yourself. It’s all public record.
“It was treason.”
In no way.
“It was the taking up of arms against the duly elected government.”
Loyalty is owed in the United States not to the government, but to the Constitution. Failure to take up arms against a government to prevent it traducing the Constitution is treason. Are you even an American, that you would think opposition to a government is necessarily treason?
“And to say the South would have ended slavery if it had won is ridiculous.”
Howls, Bruce. Howls of derisive laughter. No other nation on the face of the earth had to kill 600,000 men in a civil war to end slavery, but they all got it ended (except for the mooselimbs and their Satanic blood cult). Slavery-based agriculture was already on the way out in 1861, and absent the real causes of the War of Northern Aggression, would have ended in a decade or so for economic reasons.
Oh, how can you say slavery should have persisted for another decade? Well, how can you say 600,000 men needed to die?
“It could have done that anytime before April 9,1861.”
Before the WNA, people said “The United States are...” It was only after the WNA that people began to say “The United States is...” Thinking of the southern states as an “it” betrays a distorted perspective that precludes productive thought.
“The fact of the matter is the North went to war to preserve the union and won.”
The North went to war to deny the South their right to self-government, and won.
“The South went to war to preserve slavery”
You haven’t even learned better than that? We like to say that everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but that isn’t really true. Below a certain level of knowledge of a subject, a person really has no right to swan about annoying the adults.
“and no amount of revisionism and romancing treasonous, slave owning paltroons will change that.”
Why is it that ignorance and malice are so often seen together?
Here’s a hint: there’s more accurate history in Gone With the Wind than in every history of the WNA you’ve ever read.
No other nation on the face of the earth had slave owners willing to launch a terribly bloody war to defend slavery.
Slavery-based agriculture was already on the way out in 1861, and absent the real causes of the War of Northern Aggression, would have ended in a decade or so for economic reasons.
And replaced with what?
Such prevarication as I’ve never seen. ‘’We’re entitled to our own opinion, not our own facts’’. This seems lost on you. The most specious part of your post is this gem:’’Loyalty is not owed to the government but to the Constitution’’. Read the oath given to those who serve in the US Military and what it states. Am I an American? Yes, what are you that you defend treasonous slave owners from a hundred and fifty-four years ago? It seems quite obvious to me you’re sorry the South lost the war and wish it hadn’t so today you might be some other kind of American or a facsimile thereof. Are you indeed sorry the South lost?