Old times not forgotten: Civil War at 150

hosted ^ | Apr 2 | CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN

[JoeProBono]

A hush fell over the crowd filling the elegant hall in downtown Richmond, Va. The vote was about to be announced, and a young staffer of the Museum of the Confederacy balanced his laptop across his knees, poised to get out the news as soon as it was official.

Who would be chosen "Person of the Year, 1861"?

Five historians had made impassioned nominations, and the audience would now decide.

Most anywhere else, the choice would be obvious. Who but Abraham Lincoln? But this was a vote in the capital of the rebellion that Lincoln put down, sponsored by a museum dedicated to his adversary. How would Lincoln and his war be remembered in this place, in our time?

A century and a half have passed since Lincoln's crusade to reunify the United States. The North and the South still split deeply on many issues, not least the conflict they still call by different names. All across the bloodstained arc where the Civil War raged, and beyond, Americans are deciding how to remember....

[jmacusa]

Because I live in the greatest country in the f’ing world, under the Stars and Stripes , that’s why Johnny Reb. You don’t like it here in the good ol’US of A in 2011, pick a better country.

[EternalVigilance]

There's no doubt that Union and Confederate soldiers foraged, and yes, there was a lot of burning that went on from both sides. War is hell.

Your rape and murder charge is pretty thin, though.

Although, what Forrest did at Fort Pillow sure looks like murder to me.

And what Confederate Lieutenant-colonel James A. Keith did to suspected Union sympathizers in the Shelton Laurel Valley of North Carolina was murder too, not to speak of the fact that he tortured women and killed kids.

And then there were the anti-slavery, pro-Union Texans who were massacred on the Nueces River as they were fleeing martial law and forced conscription into a cause they didn't believe in.

Or, we could talk about the 24 unarmed captured Union troops who were executed at Centralia, MO by William T. Anderson and Jesse James.

Or what Quantrill did to Lawrence, KS, "to plunder, and destroy the town in retaliation for Osceola." They massacred pretty much the entire male population of the town, including boys. Or what they perpetrated at Fort Blair.

And that's without even bringing up the thousands of Union prisoners who died under the most horrific conditions at places like Andersonville.

[aruanan]

Would this be the RE Lee who impregnated his and his father in law’s female slaves so he could profitably sell the female children to brothels? That fellow?

I so wish that Robert E. Lee could be around to deal with you personally for such a despicable and untrue besmirching of his character.

[jla]

To 29 - LOL Quite an imagination, or is lying your wont?

[EternalVigilance]

I look at the War Between the States as the beginning of our end as a country. It marked the death of the country that our Founders started, and the birth of the country that is in serious decline today.

If you're right, all I can say is that it's a hell of a thing to sacrifice for an imagined "right" to enslave other human beings.

[central_va]

Because I live in the greatest country in the f’ing world, under the Stars and Stripes , that’s why Johnny Reb. You don’t like it here in the good ol’US of A in 2011, pick a better country.

FedGov™ is an entity whose time has passed. This is a republic but personages of lower cognitive abilities seem to forget that. I call that statist line of thinking the Lincoln curse.

PS Like my ancestors I consider Virginia my country. I pay homage, by threat of force, to the Federal Empire you so admire.

[central_va]

Wasn’t me who made that psychotic rant!

[Himyar]

How dare you! To try an besmirch the reputation of General Lee is beyond the pale! Many things on both sides of the War were bad, but General Lee conducted himself with honor his whole life. To imply other wise is despicable.

[Nuc 1.1]

Yes, even though we shot first. ;D)

I wonder how events would have progressed if Toombs counsel to not attack the north had been headed.

"Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal."

[razorback-bert]

Pinging you for some old photos, which are supposed to coming soon.

[central_va]

This one is getting nasty.

[jmacusa]

You’re too much! Your ‘’country’’ is one of fifty states subject to the laws the rest of the other 49 are. So have at it you deluded fool, for you its 1861 isn’t it?

[central_va]

You’re too much! Your ‘’country’’ is one of fifty states subject to the laws the rest of the other 49 are. So have at it you deluded fool, for you its 1861 isn’t it?

You are gone. It was supposed to be the other way around, the FedGov™ was to be subservient to the states EXCEPT for a few things codified in the USC. This is why I think things are hopeless, I come to a site called FREE REPUBLIC, for God's sake, and I get lectured by a foolish Federal apologist(I'm being nice).

[APatientMan]

“...Your ‘’country’’ is one of fifty states subject to the laws the rest of the other 49 are.”

Sad.

[XRdsRev]

Actually after the Spring of 1863, the Federal Cavalry in the Army of the Potomac handled itself pretty well. It bloodied Stuart’s cavalry at Brandy Station and beat them at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Stuart paid with his life fighting the “inept” Federal cavalry at Yellow Tavern in 1864. And it was Federal Cavalry that contributed greatly to the failure of Lee’s Army to escape from Appomattox C.H. in 1865.

Early in the War, the Federal cavalry was hampered by command which didn’t utilize them very effectively and often relegated them to the status of simple scouts and vedettes. By Gettysburg, a generation of younger officers were at the reins (pun intended) who were much more willing to use the Federal cavalry as a mobile fighting force.

The Federal cavalry almost always had the advantage in weaponry (small arms and horse artillery) and in the quality and quantity of mounts (the Giesboro Point Depot alone trained, readied and rehabilitated thousands of cavalry mounts for Federal service).

[central_va]

Sad.

Depressingly so.

[central_va]

I would put it this way,

Infantry - even
Cavalry - edge to the South
Artillery - overwhelming Federal advantage

[jmacusa]

I’m not aplogizing for anything dupe, I can vote for whom I choose. You live in Virgina, one of fifty states in the nation. You can think it separate all you want. Your Confederate utopia is a dream and nothing more.

[XRdsRev]

I disagree that it was their biggest blunder of the war. Frontal assaults against enemy positions were not an uncommon tactic during the Civil War. The federals did the same thing many time (Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg). I would submit that the Confederacy’s biggest tactical military blunder was not pushing on to Washington DC after the First battle of Manassas in 1861. They were facing a disorganized and shattered Federal Army in full retreat and did not press the advantage they had. Never again did they have such an opportunity as presented itself then.

[jmacusa]

Sad? Sad fools like you don’t realize that. Where do live?