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.
You, sir, are an idiot with the canned mind of a college professor. Should you deign to open that mind and learn a little history one may take you seriously. Until then, we the people choose to ignore you.
free dixie,sw
why not head over to DU and join the other fools & VULGAR-talking HATERS?
free dixie,sw
"why not head over to DU and join the other fools & VULGAR-talking HATERS?"
uh.... no, my fuel dispensing, super action hero, professor
of whiteness.
this is where i belong.
helping you and your lighter shade of pale sstrooper wannabes to think......well, maybe that won't work after all.
"FREE sw versions of WILLY-DIXIE"
what is it about American Indians that you so hate?
free dixie,sw
The guy's a flaming mooncalf.
he seems incapable of posting without using at least one "toilet word" and/or making a racist slur.
free dixie,sw
hi alleged gunny!
hit the latin...spruce up the "cerebral" quotes in your about page...fix the stoves,ovens and refrigerators in the front yard.....heck, go blast some roadsigns with your handy rem 870......go milk your LUNAR CALFs LOL.....
LOL!!!!!
everyone inside of podunkville knows about those mooncalf
thingies!
got no time for you otherwise......pre-requisites you know.
dr winkie! i'll just post my response from the other confederate thread you are on and on which concurrent with this one, a relatively lively and steady blazefest is at occuring at your expense.
why, whatever do you mean professor fuel / policy wonk pumper?
you are so...........coherent. (sorry.... a simpler word didn't pop into my mind.....dictionary / helper time.)
your thought patterns and perceptions are actually fascinating.
to others who re: racism nonsense from dr winkie, he sees the white colored words like these:
see them?
no?
here they are again.
ok now?
out for now, oh great white wonkish purveyor of 87/89/91 octane policy.
remember the buck up thing jethro? try it if you can.
One certainly couldn't tell that from the idle verbosity of your posts.
free dixie,sw
he will end up EMBARRASSING the damnyankee coven on FR (to the point that they will demand that he be BANNED.), imVho.
i, otoh, want him around to ABUSE (bloodsports are a personal failing of mine. i have MANY.).
free dixie,sw
and a constant drinker of the damnyankee kool-aid.
free dixie,sw
and a constant drinker of the damnyankee kool-aid.
Either that or a constant drinker of something stronger. I'm still trying to make sense of his posts. LOL.
free dixie,sw
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