Posted on 12/16/2004 6:48:26 AM PST by cougar_mccxxi
Americans Owe Confederate History Respect
By CHRIS EDWARDS
The Time Has Come To Take A Stand After attending the Confederate Memorial Day service on June 1 in Higginsville, I found myself believing our nation should be ashamed for not giving more respect and recognition to our ancestors.
I understand that some find the Confederate flag offensive because they feel it represents slavery and oppression. Well, here are the facts: The Confederate flag flew over the South from 1861 to 1865. That's a total of four years. The U.S. Constitution was ratified in April 1789, and that document protected and condoned the institution of slavery from 1789 to 1861. In other words, if we denigrate the Confederate flag for representing slavery for four years, shouldn't we also vilify the U.S. flag for representing slavery for 72 years? Unless we're hypocrites, it is clear that one flag is no less pure than the other.
A fascinating aspect of studying the Civil War is researching the issues that led to the confrontation. The more you read, the less black-and-white the issues become. President Abraham Lincoln said he would do anything to save the union, even if that meant preserving the institution of slavery. Lincoln's focus was obviously on the union, not slavery.
In another case, historians William McFeely and Gene Smith write that Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant threatened to "throw down his sword" if he thought he was fighting to end slavery.
Closer to home, in 1864, Col. William Switzler, one of the most respected Union men in Boone County, purchased a slave named Dick for $126. What makes this transaction interesting is not only the fact that Switzler was a Union man but that he bought the slave one year after the issuance of the Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Of course, history students know the proclamation did not include slaves living in the North or in border states such as Missouri.
So if this war was fought strictly over slavery, why were so many Unionists reluctant to act like that was the issue?
In reviewing the motives that led to the Civil War, one should read the letters soldiers wrote home to their loved ones. Historian John Perry, who studied the soldier's correspondence, says in his three years of research, he failed to find one letter that referred to slavery from Confederate or Union soldiers.
Perry says that Yankees tended to write about preserving the Union and Confederates wrote about protecting their rights from a too-powerful federal government. The numerous letters failed to specifically say soldiers were fighting either to destroy or protect the institution of slavery. Shelby Foote, in his three-volume Civil War history, recounts an incident in which a Union soldier asks a Confederate prisoner captured in Tennessee why he was fighting. The rebel responded, "Because you're down here."
History tends to overlook the South's efforts to resolve the issue of slavery. For example, in 1863, because of a shortage of manpower, Lincoln permitted the enlistment of black soldiers into the Union Army. Battlefield documents bear out the fact that these units were composed of some of the finest fighting men in the war. Unfortunately for these brave soldiers, the Union used them as cannon fodder, preferring to sacrifice black lives instead of whites.
These courageous black Union soldiers experienced a Pyrrhic victory for their right to engage in combat. However, history has little to say about the South's same effort in 1865. The Confederacy, its own troop strength depleted, offered slaves freedom if they volunteered for the army.
We know that between 75,000 and 100,000 blacks responded to this call, causing Frederick Douglass to bemoan the fact that blacks were joining the Confederacy. But the assimilation of black slaves into the Confederate army was short-lived as the war came to an end before the government's policy could be fully implemented.
It's tragic that Missouri does not do more to recognize the bravery of the men who fought in the Missouri Confederate brigades who fought valiantly in every battle they were engaged in. To many Confederate generals, the Missouri brigades were considered the best fighting units in the South.
The courage these boys from Missouri demonstrated at Port Gibson and Champion Hill, Miss., Franklin, Tenn., and Fort Blakely, Ala., represent just a few of the incredible sacrifices they withstood on the battlefield. Missouri should celebrate their struggles instead of damning them.
For the real story about the Missouri Confederate brigades, one should read Phil Gottschalk and Philip Tucker's excellent books about these units. The amount of blood spilled by these Missouri boys on the field of battle will make you cry.
Our Confederate ancestors deserve better from this nation. They fought for what they believed in and lost. Most important, we should remember that when they surrendered, they gave up the fight completely. Defeated Confederate soldiers did not resort to guerrilla warfare or form renegade bands that refused to surrender. These men simply laid down their arms, went home and lived peacefully under the U.S. flag. When these ex-Confederates died, they died Americans.
During the postwar period, ex-Confederates overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party. This party, led in Missouri by Rep. Dick Gephardt and Gov. Bob Holden, has chosen to turn its back on its fallen sons.
The act of pulling down Confederate flags at two obscure Confederate cemeteries for the sake of promoting Gephardt's hopeless quest for the presidency was a cowardly decision. I pray these men will rethink their decision.
The reality is, when it comes to slavery, the Confederate and United States flags drip with an equal amount of blood.
Chris Edwards is a local musician and MU graduate student of history. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and of the board of Missouri's Civil War Heritage Foundation.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
if you went to public school in damnyankeeland, you've been lied to, fed a platter-full of self-righteous PROPAGANDA and made a fool of.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
I never SAID I hated or was offended by the flag; it merely surprised me. And I love the South, especially Charleston, it was a charming wonderful FRIENDLY city with wonderful people in it. And if you read my post, I said that local people told me just what you re-iterated and I learned something. I visited the Confederate Museum run by the Daughters of the Confederacy and they couldn't have been more gracious. Plus the museum was fascinating! So no, I won't stay home, I plan to go back to Charleston and visit the plantations that I missed because there wasn't time, and especially want to see the famous Hunley. So find someone who really is a hater of the south, you definitely missed your mark with me.
what was their crime, that deserved "summary execution"????
btw, (Fr's own) SIRENA's gr-grandfather was MURDERED in cold blood by the damnyankees while a POW at one of the damnyankee's concentration camps.
free diixe,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
Oh brother, what are you dueling with me for? I was the one who pointed out these atrocities in the north! I do not regard myself a yankee. I am an AMERICAN. And many of my cousins were born in the south and have lived their for years. You can find a much more appropriae target for your hate than me.
SADLY, he was just a CHEAP, scheming shyster lawyer & politician, who was interested only in $$$$$$$ & political power.
thus a MILLION people NEEDLESSLY lost their lives.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
!!!!!!!!!!!
free dixie,sw
If you would have read some of my posts, I think you would see that I was arguing basically the same thing. The only difference between a "revolutionary" and a "traitor" is which side wins the war. Ask the Brits which they consider Washington, Adams and Jefferson to be?
Uhhhhh . . . what's your point? Do you think that both sides did not commit atrocities during the war? Might be why the phrase "War is Hell" was coined.
the HATERS are the "unionist coven" of lunatics,idiots, haters & LIARS, who are most ably led by N-S, the Damnyankee Minister of Propaganda.
if i've offended you or MISjudged your words, i'm suitably sorry.
my ostrich-plumed, gray slouch hat is off to you.
free dixie,sw
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