Posted on 02/25/2004 11:52:26 AM PST by 4CJ
THOMASVILLE -- Nelson Winbush knows his voice isn't likely to be heard above the crowd that writes American history books. That doesn't keep him from speaking his mind, however.
A 75-year-old black man whose grandfather proudly fought in the gray uniform of the South during the Civil War, Winbush addressed a group of about 40 at the Thomas County Museum of History Sunday afternoon. To say the least, his perspective of the war differs greatly from what is taught in America's classrooms today.
"People have manufactured a lot of mistruths about why the war took place," he said. "It wasn't about slavery. It was about state's rights and tariffs."
Many of Winbush's words were reserved for the Confederate battle flag, which still swirls amid controversy more than 150 years after it originally flew.
"This flag has been lied about more than any flag in the world," Winbush said. "People see it and they don't really know what the hell they are looking at."
About midway through his 90-minute presentation, Winbush's comments were issued with extra force.
"This flag is the one that draped my grandfathers' coffin," he said while clutching it strongly in his left hand. "I would shudder to think what would happen if somebody tried to do something to this particular flag."
Winbush, a retired in educator and Korean War veteran who resides in Kissimmee, Fla., said the Confederate battle flag has been hijacked by racist groups, prompting unwarranted criticism from its detractors.
"This flag had nothing to with the (Ku Klux) klan or skinheads," he said while wearing a necktie that featured the Confederate emblem. "They weren't even heard of then. It was just a guide to follow in battle.
"That's all it ever was."
Winbush said Confederate soldiers started using the flag with the St. Andrews cross because its original flag closely resembled the U.S. flag. The first Confederate flag's blue patch in an upper corner and its alternating red and white stripes caused confusion on the battlefield, he said.
"Neither side (of the debate) knows what the flag represents," Winbush said. "It's dumb and dumber. You can turn it around, but it's still two dumb bunches.
"If you learn anything else today, don't be dumb."
Winbush learned about the Civil War at the knee of Louis Napoleon Nelson, who joined his master and one of his master's sons in battle voluntarily when he was 14. Nelson saw combat at Lookout Mountain, Bryson's Crossroads, Shiloh and Vicksburg.
"At Shiloh, my grandfather served as a chaplain even though he couldn't read or write," said Winbush, who bolstered his points with photos, letters and newspapers that used to belong to his grandfather. "I've never heard of a black Yankee holding such an office, so that makes him a little different."
Winbush said his grandfather, who also served as a "scavenger," never had any qualms about fighting for the South. He had plenty of chances to make a break for freedom, but never did. He attended 39 Confederate reunions, the final one in 1934. A Sons of Confederate Veterans Chapter in Tennessee is named after him.
"People ask why a black person would fight for the Confederacy. (It was) for the same damned reason a white Southerner did," Winbush explained.
Winbush said Southern blacks and whites often lived together as extended families., adding slaves and slave owners were outraged when Union forces raided their homes. He said history books rarely make mention of this.
"When the master and his older sons went to war, who did he leave his families with?" asked Winbush, who grandfather remained with his former owners 12 years after the hostilities ended. "It was with the slaves. Were his (family members) mistreated? Hell, no!
"They were protected."
Winbush said more than 90,000 blacks, some of them free, fought for the Confederacy. He has said in the past that he would have fought by his grandfather's side in the 7th Tennessee Cavalry led by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest.
After his presentation, Winbush opened the floor for questions. Two black women, including Jule Anderson of the Thomas County Historical Society Board of Directors, told him the Confederate battle flag made them uncomfortable.
Winbush, who said he started speaking out about the Civil War in 1992 after growing weary of what he dubbed "political correctness," was also challenged about his opinions.
"I have difficulty in trying to apply today's standards with what happened 150 years ago," he said to Anderson's tearful comments. "...That's what a lot of people are attempting to do. I'm just presenting facts, not as I read from some book where somebody thought that they understood. This came straight from the horse's mouth, and I refute anybody to deny that."
Thomas County Historical Society Board member and SVC member Chip Bragg moved in to close the session after it took a political turn when a white audience member voiced disapproval of the use of Confederate symbols on the state flag. Georgia voters are set to go to the polls a week from today to pick a flag to replace the 1956 version, which featured the St. Andrew's cross prominently.
"Those of us who are serious about our Confederate heritage are very unhappy with the trivialization of Confederate symbols and their misuse," he said. "Part of what we are trying to do is correct this misunderstanding."
Wrong Stand Watie, the Declarations of Secession were written by the secessionists themselves.
The hatred of the neoconfederate on display for all to see. Calling the brave American soldier names such as you do.
Back it up with proof.
4CJ says they were. You guys need to make up your minds. If your saying secession was never official, then your supporting Lincoln's views.
do you care that you look like a fool to the KNOWLEDEGEABLE on FR???
No one looks worse than you. lol
Confederate troops raped Confederate women so are you saying that Lee was a bad general? Are you saying that Ike was a bad general since Germany was firebombed?
AND good generals assure that instances of rape,torture,robbery,plundering & especially MURDER are punished severely under the Law of War. the punishment for these crimes was/is death by hanging or shooting by firing squad.
Many Confederates were not punished when they raped confederate women. Was Lee a bad general then?
ROFL!! This is great. Stand Watie! Boo!
Looks to me like the same 3 or 4 nuts. lol
It's obvious the war was lost. Booth was a murderer. Assassins will burn in hell. You guy's defense of a despicable murderer shows your character.
Arsonists, not voters. Your claims are ridiculous.
Stand Watie is obviously insane. Do you go to the insane assylum to get an authoritative view on a subject?
My link show that slaveowners attended the conventions to the tune that they made up 70% of the attendees. The bigger slaveowners were probably smart enough to know that the South couldn't win. Seeing the future is what makes some great businessmen and the bigger slaveowners would have been adept at business. The dumb ones pushed for secession.
Being from Illinois, I vote in Illinois. If a Southerner was voting in New York, then he would've been doing so illegally. Have you no common sense?
What were Southerners doing voting in New York? Sounds illegal to me.
Stand Watie! Boo! lol
It wasn't Florida and people could read then. Do you get confused by different colors? lol
The elections wrere faked too huh? lol Was Davis elected, by the way?
Sounds good to me. We need to do that now. Too many are loyal to the UN instead of the US.
Why were southerners trying to vote in New York?
What about Delaware? Here is some more from Congressman Saulsbury (DE) (January 6, 1864, page 102 of the Congressional Globe):
Well, then, since the Senator [Lane from Indiana] has chosen to deny that there has been any impropriety on the part of the military in the freedom of elections in the States, I cannot sit quietly as a Senator from what was once a State in the American Union, and the first to adopt the Constitution under which we live, without saying to that Senator that I have seen the armed soldiery (acting under the command, I suppose, of “the powers that be”) appear at the polls at which I myself had a right according to the constitution and the laws of my State, to vote, and there, by positive interference, drive men from the polls, take some men who had done naught in violation of the law of the land either Federal or State, and incarcerate them in the county prison; and no longer ago, than last November, in the county in which I live, as soon as the voters arrived on the ground, before they offered to vote, before they had approached the polls, the soldiery seized them, fastened them up, and kept them confined.Sir, a majority of the legal voters of the State of Delaware were during the last special election in our State – an election called to fill a vacancy which had occurred in the other branch of Congress – disfranchised, not allowed to cast their votes in that state; and why? Because a majority of the legal voters of that State did not approve of the action of this administration. But, says, the Senator, nobody has been interfered with by the military power of this country in reference to his right to vote, who was not otherwise a rebel or a rebel sympathizer. Sir, I mean no disrespect to that Senator, for I know the kindness of his heart, but such expressions have become so common that they can have no weight, even when uttered by a Senator.
Take my own State. From the commencement of these unfortunate troubles, in which brother is found arrayed against brother, has there been any attempt in that State, by any political organization, or even by a mob, even by two persons united together, to violate any law of this government, to give aid and encouragement, by act or deed, to those who are in revolt against the Government? I defy that Senator, or any other Senator on this floor, to show where any attempt has been made by any political organization in that State to tear down the fabric of this once proud and glorious Union.
Lincoln got less than a quarter of the Delaware vote in 1860.
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