Posted on 04/12/2010 12:12:09 PM PDT by wolfcreek
Based on the hundreds of e-mails, Facebook comments and Tweets I've read in response to my denunciation of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's decision to honor Confederates for their involvement in the Civil War -- which was based on the desire to continue slavery -- the one consistent thing that supporters of the proclamation offer up as a defense is that these individuals were fighting for what they believed in and defending their homeland.
In criticizing me for saying that celebrating the Confederates was akin to honoring Nazi soldiers for killing of Jews during the Holocaust, Rob Wagner said, "I am simply defending the honor and dignity of men who were given no choice other than to fight, some as young as thirteen."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
If it happened again today, would you still think the *right* side won?
Depends.
Quantrill’s Raiders? Maybe.
Forrest’s “Critter Company?” They were terrifying, but not terrorists.
Confederate Regulars? No way.
Excellent point.
I did forget about the guerilla wars in Kansas and Missouri during that time.
TY for reminding me!
Wow!
You were actually *there*?
[I’ll give you a dollar if you go to Frederick and yell that in the public square]....:)
Apocryphal or not, it typified the treatment offered by Southern troops, as a whole.
Here’s something *not* apocryphal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_%28abolitionist%29
From the Pottawatomie massacre to poor Heyward Shepherd, ol’ Crazy Eyes Brown was a terrorist without conscience.
Well I won't place any money on that not happening. But say before that General McCrystal launched an offensive into the tribal areas of Pakistan with the goal of removing all local support for Bin Laden, would you oppose it? If he blew up roads and paths, destroyed opium fields that provide al Qaida and their supporters financial support, leveled villages that provided bin Laden shelter, removed anything and everything that might provide any asset to bin Laden and his followers in any way, would you condemn him as a war criminal as well?
Good lord, why do you bother with this one?
His very user name underscores his brand of “logic” and no matter *what* you may say, “North = good. South = bad”.
I’ve never seen a CW thread where he wasn’t calling Southerners “terrorists/traitors/treasonous” and worse.
Or is this more typical?
WAR DEPARTMENT, C.S.A,
Richmond,
November 22, 1861.
John Letcher,
Governor of Virginia:
SIR:
Will not your convention do something to protect your own people against atrocious crimes committed on their persons and property? There are in the Army, unfortunately, some desperate characters - men gathered from the outskirts and purlieus of large cities - who take advantage of the absence of the civil authorities to commit crimes, even murder, rape, and highway robbery, on the peaceful citizens in the neighborhood of the armies. For these offenses the punishment should be inflicted by the civil authorities (...) There are murderers now in insecure custody at Manassas who cannot be tried for want of a court there, and who will escape the just penalty of their crimes. The crimes committed by these men are not military offenses. If a soldier, rambling through the country, murders a farmer or violates the honor of his wife or daughter, courts-martial cannot properly take cognizance of the offense, nor is it allowable to establish military commissions or tribunals in our own country. I appeal to Virginia legislators for protection to Virginians, and this appeal will, I know, be responded to by prompt and efficient action.
I am, very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
J.P. Bemjamin,
Secretary of War
Refresh my memory. Are you talking about Fort Sumter? Wasn’t the contingent there given the opportunity to withdraw peacefully before firing began? If the North had chosen to let the South be, would there have been a war regardless? Is so, please explain why? Back to you. Now where’d I put that popcorn?
Then of course you can provide some links to where I made those comments?
“He’s the greatest divider of Americans since the Civil War. I believe that there’s nothing this man would rather see than a weak, divided America. “
And now you know why so many of us literally cringed when he was touted as the “new Abe Lincoln”.
How’s ~that~ working out for us, so far?
Why should they withdraw? It was their fort.
If the North had chosen to let the South be, would there have been a war regardless?
If the South chose to start one. Which they did.
George Washington fought a guerilla war? Washington commanded a regular army in the type of formal battles that were fought in those days. He deplored militias and irregular troops. Certainly some guerillas, notably Francis Marion, played a significant role in the revolution, but Washington wasn’t one of them.
I commented on this article but CNN has banned me from posting. Jeezz! They are worse than the mods.
Roland Martin is directly insulting the protections of the Geneva Convention and CNN’s editors are acceding to publishing this savagery?
Ackward and peacocked display of lack of knowledge of American history, Muslim history, the history of European and Middle Eastern warfare, the Geneva Conventions, and the concept of the nation-state, all rolled up in to a single vile ball of utter f***ing stupidity and foisted upon the American and world populace by sociopaths running the eidtors’ desks at CNN HQ.
Another incident I read about in Shelby Foote's narrative history concerns General "Spoons" Butler's occupation of New Orleans.
After the occupation began there was a civilian protest where the United States flag was burned. Days later a civilian wearing a piece of the burned flag in his coat button hole was arrested by US military police.
He was tried by a military court and executed.
Terrorism or just plain tyranny?
"Some"
There are "some" in our current great military who are not exactly of exemplary character.
So, what's your point?
Is it *so* necessary for you to disparage southerners that you will seize upon "some" as your "proof" of their inherent evilness?
Those country boys on both just fought like they were told. I guess they do the same in Afghanistan. On both sides. The old men talk tough, the young men do the killin and dyin.
Anybody and their dog can click on your posting history and read for themselves.
I don’t care enough about you to actually waste my time archiving them.
Yes.
This from a man who seizes on a work of fiction to glorify them to begin with? Can references to "Outlaw Josey Wales" or "Gangs of New York" or "Gods and Generals" be far behind?
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