Posted on 07/26/2021 4:33:01 PM PDT by ammodotcom
The Battle of Appomattox Courthouse is considered by many historians the end of the Civil War and the start of post-Civil War America. The events of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General and future President Ulysses S. Grant at a small town courthouse in Central Virginia put into effect much of what was to follow.
The surrender at Appomattox Courthouse was about reconciliation, healing, and restoring the Union. While the Radical Republicans had their mercifully brief time in the sun rubbing defeated Dixie’s nose in it, they represented the bleeding edge of Northern radicalism that wanted to punish the South, not reintegrate it into the Union as an equal partner.
The sentiment of actual Civil War veterans is far removed from the attitude of the far left in America today. Modern day “woke-Americans” clamor for the removal of Confederate statues in the South, the lion’s share of which were erected while Civil War veterans were still alive. There was little objection to these statues at the time because it was considered an important part of the national reconciliation to allow the defeated South to honor its wartime dead and because there is a longstanding tradition of memorializing defeated foes in honor cultures.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammo.com ...
A rubbish article ! Very passive-aggressive !!!
Notice he makes no mention of the Democrats actions regarding slavery... Just the Republicans.
“It is also worth pointing out that the North did not attempt to use the war to end slavery until several years in and then half-heartedly at that. “
It was the democrats who initiate the secession and the war OVER SLAVERY.
The village is famous for the site of the Battle of Appomattox Court House, and contains the house of Wilmer McLean, where the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant took place on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the American Civil War.
The interests against reconciliation also included most of the southern gentry and those New York neo-cons of the era who fought Lincoln every step of the way, particularly his issue of greenback currency. Back then, the New York Times was a mouthpiece for the financier elite and acted against Lincoln just like the MSM are acting against Trump, same philosophical source point - modern feudalism and that aspect of old money predatory oligarch capital that would be better termed “monopolism”.
I’ve yet to find a book that explores the European contribution to the Southern secession. It was much larger than we are led to believe. They put Maximilian in power in Mexico for the purpose of opening a southern front from the Mexican border that would wheel east and join the wilderness campaign against Grant.
I’ve also yet to find a book that goes into the recruitment of Native Americans in the Confederate cause or the role of Canada as an intel base of operations running British paid and supplied spy networks in the North. Aaand last but not least, a look at the anti-Union efforts of the enigmatic Southern Freemason Albert Pike in agitating and operating against the Union.
Giving respect to a defeated foe actually helps end the conflict. To engage in punishment only cements the enmity. The differences of the aftermaths of WWI and WWII demonstrate this principle.
That is what I was taught in schools in California.
But then that was before the LBJ Democrats took over, and then their kids went from war protests to the halls of government.
The populist 1913 16th and 17th amendments mortally wounded the USA. It took a little less than 100 years for it to fall. It now is breathing it’s last gasps as it lays paralyzed on the ground, waiting for death.
True words.
The ‘bloody red flag’ of the north continued into the 60’s. It only ended when the population growth of the southern states became too much to be ignored, too powerful in Congress.
Actually, no. The European Union eas founded on anti-Americanism.
Sad footnote about the owner of the “surrender house”. The family (the McLeans) got the house seized twice and then ultimately lost it to foreclosure four years after the war.
As Gen. Sherman might have told Wilmer McLean, “war is indeed hell”.
IIRC the first battle of the war was in McLean’s front yard. He lived near Bull Run and afterwards moved to Appomattox where he thought he would be out of harm’s way.
The South was economically and physically destroyed by Sherman, Sherridan, and even Grant himself. Lee was enough of a soldier to realize the hopelessness of their military position but none of Jefferson’s die hard cabinet was prepared to surrender and they attempted to flee to either Texas or even Mexico to set up their government in exile. Only Jefferson’s capture prevented this from happening.
The bitterness the South felt in defeat would be even more intensified by the Reconstruction period and Southern sympathizers on both sides sabotaged this period as quickly as possible leading to the Jim Crow segregation of the South. It would be a mistake to think things just “healed” with the signing at Appomatox.
What is different with the left today is that they are driven by an ideological dilusion similar to a cult that imagines they are on a “mission from God” to “save the planet” and anyone that opposes them is an infidel. An infidel is not entitled to any of the normal conventions of truth and honor. It is acceptable and praisworthy to lie, cheat, steal from, and otherwise punish the infidel as less than human. This key factor was never the case with the Northern and Southern cultures anchored largely by their common Christianity. They may have hated their adversary but they could not behave in a dishonorable way toward them which would have been “un-Christian”.
The Civil War was not over the slave but of the secession of the Southern States. Lincoln was said to have grave consternation on freeing the slaves. And it wasn’t until after the Battle of Gettysburg, over 2 years, July 1863, from the start of the war, that Lincoln gave his famous speech the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln was determined to keep the states united and that is what he set out to do. When asked about his decision to free the slaves, he quoted Madison who believed and wrote as much that the United States was destined to bloody conflict when the final colony ratified the Constitution. Lincoln also said (paraphrasing) that we could not be equal as in the Declaration if fellow men were enslaved. That was his decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
If the war was over slavery then Lincoln should have freed them at the beginning of the war, he did not.
In the Declaration of Independence, per Madison, the word “slave” was purposefully omitted and we know what was put in its place.
Some other issues the Civil War originations lie in were the Sovereign State Laws in the 1850s. This law said that when a territory entered the Union to form a state, the citizens of that state could decide whether or not that state would be a free state or a slave state. This ultimately turned into a bloody conflict which led to the Harper’s Ferry incident/raid then to the first shot being fired at Ft. Sumter.
Besides Sovereign States Law, the Southern States were counting on the Democrat candidate to win the Presidency. Lincoln won as a member of a new party called the Republican Party. Lincoln is erroneously referred to as the Father of the Republican Party. Before Lincoln was elected, the Southern States took offense to a plethora of laws Congress was passing from the 1830s to the War in 1861. States claimed that the Federal Government was grabbing power from the States that was not present in the Constitution. When Lincoln won and was sworn in in March (April?) 1861 this lit the fuse to the Civil War and there was nothing either side could do.
Claiming the Civil War was over slavery is wrong and people have been taught wrong in the publik ejumukashun system. Lincoln as a candidate never said he would free the slaves and even as President he had no will to free the slaves. This is one of the biggest lies about the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln.
Not in Texas, where they remember the last battle of the war, the Battle of Palmito Ranch--a Confederate victory. The Civil War Museum in Fort Worth features a huge diorama of the battle.
“The surrender at Appomattox Courthouse was about reconciliation, healing, and restoring the Union.”
Not only did Lee, in recognizing the reality of the situation act to minimize further pointless bloodshed by urging reconciliation but so did Nathan Bedford Forrest, probably as hated by the holier-than-thou contemporary wokists as any Confederate general. His farewell address to his troops is a study in magnanimous classiness:
“SOLDIERS:
By an agreement made between Liet.-Gen. Taylor, commanding the Department of Alabama. Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and Major-Gen. Canby, commanding United States forces, the troops of this department have been surrendered.
I do not think it proper or necessary at this time to refer to causes which have reduced us to this extremity; nor is it now a matter of material consequence to us how such results were brought about. That we are BEATEN is a self-evident fact, and any further resistance on our part would justly be regarded as the very height of folly and rashness.
The armies of Generals LEE and JOHNSON having surrendered. You are the last of all the troops of the Confederate States Army east of the Mississippi River to lay down your arms.
The Cause for which you have so long and so manfully struggled, and for which you have braved dangers, endured privations, and sufferings, and made so many sacrifices, is today hopeless. The government which we sought to establish and perpetuate, is at an end. Reason dictates and humanity demands that no more blood be shed. Fully realizing and feeling that such is the case, it is your duty and mine to lay down our arms — submit to the “powers that be” — and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land.
The terms upon which you were surrendered are favorable, and should be satisfactory and acceptable to all. They manifest a spirit of magnanimity and liberality, on the part of the Federal authorities, which should be met, on our part, by a faithful compliance with all the stipulations and conditions therein expressed. As your Commander, I sincerely hope that every officer and soldier of my command will cheerfully obey the orders given, and carry out in good faith all the terms of the cartel.
Those who neglect the terms and refuse to be paroled, may assuredly expect, when arrested, to be sent North and imprisoned. Let those who are absent from their commands, from whatever cause, report at once to this place, or to Jackson, Miss.; or, if too remote from either, to the nearest United States post or garrison, for parole.
Civil war, such as you have just passed through naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings; and as far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly feelings towards those with whom we have so long contended, and heretofore so widely, but honestly, differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals meet them like men.
The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully, and to the end, will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have undergone.
In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without, in any way, referring to the merits of the Cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command whose zeal, fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms.
I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous.
N.B. Forrest, Lieut.-General
Headquarters, Forrest’s Cavalry Corps
Gainesville, Alabama
May 9, 1865
Not really it was after the Battle of Antietam or Battle of Sharpsburg which was fought on September 17, 1862. The announcement was made by President Lincoln on September 22, 1862 five days after the battle. It emancipated was all slaves in states still engaged in rebellion against the Union. Although implementation was strictly beyond Lincoln’s powers, the declaration turned the war into a crusade against slavery. It went into effect on January 1, 1863.
And secession was over what? Slavery. Pure and simple. You can read the stump speeches of the Confederate politicians, the editorials of their newspapers, and most importantly the resolutions of secession of each of the Confederate states - slavery. Go to the original source documents. *They* said it was about slavery.
I agree that the North initially would not fight a war just over slavery. The aim of the North at the start of the war was to preserve the Union of the existing states. The aim of the South in attempting to succede was about preserving slavery. There were probably other minor issues but had a Democrat won the election and presumably been open to the expansion of slavery the War would not have started as it did. So to say it wasn’t about slavery is wrong. Slavery was the dominant issue.
Ping.
As of 1994, the courthouse still ajudicated civil and criminal cases.
Don’t ask.
5.56mm
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