Back in October I drove up to Baltimore to visit my son. While I was there, he and I drove to Antietam Battlefield (he's a bit of a Civil War buff). We didn't tour the battlefield - it was raining intermittantly - but we watched the introductory film. There was nothing sympathetic to the South in that - it could have been made by Ken Burns. I found particularly offensive a prominent quote attributed to Lincoln where he alleged that if he could have his way the war would end, but God's will was otherwise. This blasphemous sentiment was repeated, as is well known, in the 2nd Inaugural.
My point is in short - I don't believe this BS about "Southern bias" at the National Parks. My son visits Gettysburg a lot, I'm going to email this Reuters article to him and will be interested to get his take on it.
The only Southern "bias" at Gettysburg is that the giftshop sells more Confederate Battle flags than any other item.
...he and I drove to Antietam Battlefield (he's a bit of a Civil War buff). We didn't tour the battlefield - it was raining intermittantly - but we watched the introductory film. There was nothing sympathetic to the South in that - it could have been made by Ken Burns.I had a similar experience at Andersonville. The film there repeatedly juxtaposed Nazi treatment of prisoners with Confederate treatment of prisoners, as though they were comparable.
The film was purportedly about prisoners of war in general, not just about Andersonville prisoners. However, it did not point out that the North withheld food and supplies from Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons, even though the North had the food and supplies to give them. By any standards, the North's actions in that regard were a war crime.
At Andersonville, the Confederate guards and the prisoners ate similar rations, and a large number of the guards died.