The Romance of the Confederacy

National Review ^ | March 28, 2015 | Josh Gelernter

[rockrr]

Kinda makes you wonder what he wrote in his editorials to fire up so many locals...

[rustbucket]

I’m headed out the door. When I get back in a couple of hours, I’ll post what I know about what the editor said in the paper (my info comes from one of the books I cited above).

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The only thing missing is standwatie rambling on incoherently about something.

Did someone mention standwatie?

I’M A LOST CAUSER FREEPER
or, The Ballad of Stand Watie

Oh, I’m a Lost Cause Freeper, now that’s just what I am.
For standard capitalization, I do not give a damn.
No tale’s too big to make up, no sources I will quote
And I don’t need no spell-check for anything I wrote.

I hates the stars and stripes flag, I loves the stars and bars
I stuck a big Third National on the bumper of my car
I got a Cherokee flag that I had special made
Most people when they meet me, think I’m touched in the haid.

I hates all things from up north. I really, really do
If Santa’s from the pole there, well then I hates him too.
I’ve been a Lost Cause Freeper for seven years or more.
I only talks ‘bout pancakes, and the late Civil War.

The Yanks killed all my kinfolk, ev’ry single one.
And there’s a captured U-boat on display in Galveston.
Quantrill spelled his name wrong, ev’ry single time
And ev’ry Union soldier shoulda been hung for a crime,

That I’m a protected poster many here can vouch
When Jim Rob comes to DC, he sleeps here on my couch
I can’t express myself in words like normal people do
My fingers hurt from pounding keys, I might have a loose screw.

Three hundred thousand posts here, they all read just the same
And if my facts are incorrect, I will not take the blame
I got it from a book I read, one you cannot find
And don’t you dare suggest that it’s a figment of my mind

I’m stuck in these United States, beneath the flag I hate
I sign my posts “free dixie” but am resigned to my fate
I’ll keep on fightin’ my war, on every single thread
I won’t stop actin’ crazy until I am dead

[rustbucket]

Kinda makes you wonder what he wrote in his editorials to fire up so many locals...

Here you go, rockrr. My information on what the editor of the destroyed Bangor, Maine paper said that provoked the crowd comes from the book, "Lincoln and the Press" by Robert S. Harper, copyright 1951. It is a really thorough and excellent book, by the way. It's long been out of print, but I found a copy for sale some years ago. The author gave two examples of what the paper editor had said:

"As war has been determined upon by President Lincoln and his Cabinet to subdue the South, these states will ward off the blow as best they can."

That is basically what a lot of newspapers throughout the nation had said after Lincoln's first inaugural speech. You may remember my old thread about newspaper responses to that inaugural speech. Every two or three years, I have provided a link to that old thread if the thread discussion merited it. See the old thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1183054/posts

Does the evidence support what the editor said above? As you may remember, I have posted my own thoughts about that in the past. My answer was a resounding yes. Here are links to two long posts of mine putting together what Lincoln did to provoke war and what some of the principal Union people involved said his actions meant: Post 54 and Post 167.

Here is another quote that the editor of the destroyed newspaper had printed:

"He (Jefferson Davis) is one of the very, very few gigantic minds which adorn the pages of history of whom it may be said: 'Desperate courage makes one a majority.' "

If the good folk of Bangor didn't like what the paper said, they should have stopped buying the paper instead of destroying it.

Say what you will about Jefferson Davis (he has his good points and bad points), he did do some good things for the United States Army as Secretary of War, in particular the creation of the Second US Cavalry. You might read the book, "Jeff Davis's Own" by James R. Arnold about that. From the book back cover:

"Established by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Second and its Officers were assigned -- disregarding Army tradition -- on the basis of merit and not seniority. Davis' innovation proved sound. Half of the full generals in Davis;s Confederate army had seved with the Second Cavalry prior to the outbreak of the Civil War."

"Led by mean such as Robert E. Lee (in his first independent command), John Bell Hood, and George Thomas, the troopers of the Second Cavalry schooled themselves in the tactics and strategies of mobile desert warfare, tutored by a skilled and tireless adversary."

Actially the Second Cavalry learned a lot from the Texas Rangers who had been fighting the Indians for many years.

At one point, Albert Sydney Johnston was in command of the Department of Texas. Robert E. Lee was second in command. When Johnston was ordered to Washington, Lee became regimental commander. After three months in command, his father-in-law died, and Lee took a leave of absence to handle family affairs in Virginia. George Thomas then became regimental commander. Other officers in the Second included Kirby Smith, Fitzhugh Lee, and Earl Van Dorn.

Davis promoted the idea of bringing camels to Texas. They proved much more tolerant of the Texas conditions than horses or mules, but the Civil War later caused the dispersal of the camels into the wilderness and the end of the camel experiment.