Congress recognized Confederates as “civil war veterans,” not American veterans. The purpose was to allocate funds for headstones for Confederate graves, and for widow’s pensions.
Nevertheless, Confederates were “American veterans,” not because of any act of Congress but for the same reason Union soldiers were — “America” was part of their country’s name.
Most veteran legislation doesn’t refer to “American veterans” at all, even when referencing U.S. vets; it refers to the war in which they fought — Mexican war veteran, civil war veteran, Spanish-American war veteran....
The fact that Confederates were recognized as “civil war veterans” means this legislation prohibiting their flag — which has apparently been displayed in these cemeteries for generations — is simply to insult and to stir up conflict and negative emotions.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson established that people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that governments are instituted to secure those rights. One right he specifically identifies is the right of the people to alter or abolish their government and create another that suits them better. This right both pre-exists and transcends the U.S. Constitution. How grotesque, then, that the only time Americans have attempted to exercise this right, the government that was supposed to secure it for them made brutal war on them instead.
Thanks, I was unaware of the distinction, I agree with your analysis of the motives of the flag ban agitators.
The little town I’m from in Michigan has an “old” cemetery where local Civil War vets are buried.
Several units of volunteers were recruited thereabouts; an artillery battery, a cavalry troop or two and a company of the 2nd US Sharpshooters.
The 2nd fought at Gettysburg, enfilading the Confederates from behind the stone wall connecting the Round Tops as they attacked up Little Round Top.
The town’s Carnegie Endowment library had a Civil War display in the basement museum featuring Civil War items, including a spectacle case that stopped a Minie ball from killing the owner.
When I was a boy Memorial Day observations were a Main Street parade to the Old Cemetery to decorate the graves, a speech by the mayor and a volley salute over them by the American Legion or VFW guys in their Ike jackets and overseas caps.
I marched in the parade with the Cub and Boy Scouts, in uniform as did everyone else, the high school band, the Brownies and Girl Scouts, the Vets organizations, Kiwanis, Eastern Star, the Masons...local car dealers provided convertibles for the vets too old to march..surprised there was anybody left to watch the parade.
That was in the late ‘60s, we also serenaded the Spanish-American and WW I vets at the local nursing home with patriotic songs for Veteran’s Day celebrations.
The country has changed so much since those days and not for the better either.
Bump!