Posted on 06/21/2002 7:41:57 AM PDT by Aurelius
Which, of course, would be false. Everyone knows the real number is not 100%, but 99.999%.
Deo vindice!
Slavery issue aside, had the Confederate states been successful in establishing their independence, it would have opened the door to future secessions. We would almost certainly have had a separate nation on the West Coast, for example (California and Oregon were talking about just such a thing). Before long, the United States would have totally disintegrated and we would have ended up looking like Central America - a bunch of failed republics ruled by despots and military leaders.
It's a damn good thing we were able to reunite this country and put the Civil War behind us (at least most of us). Otherwise, we wouldn't have been in position to stop Hitler and Imperial Japan in WW2. The world would be a totally different place today - for the worse.
As would Nebuchadnezzar, and Atilla the Hun. he would have fit in well in the Red Army. Is that what OUR culture and nation is all about? Not mine, thank God.
Headquarters Forces on Blackwater, Franklin, Va, January 1864Gen. Wilde, commanding Colored Brigade, Norfolk, Va. Sir – Probably no expedition, during the progress of this war, has been attended with more utter disregard for the long-established usages of civilization or the dictates of humanity, than was your late raid into the country bordering the Albemarle. Your stay, though short, was marked by crimes and enormities. You burned houses over the heads of defenseless women and children, carried off private property of every description, arrested non-combatants, and carried off ladies in irons, whom you confined with negro men. Your negro troops fired on Confederates after they surrendered, and they were only saved by the exertions of the more humane of your white officers. Last, but not least, under the pretext that he was a guerrilla, you hanged Daniel Bright, a private of Company L, 62d Georgia Regiment (cavalry), forcing the ladies and gentlemen whom you held in arrest to witness the execution. Therefore, I have obtained an order from the general commanding for the execution of Samuel Jones, a private of Company B, 5th Ohio, whom I hang in retaliation. I hold two more of your men -in irons- as hostages for Mrs. Weeks and Mrs. Mundin. When these ladies are released, these men will be relieved and treated as prisoners of war.
Col. Joel R. Griffin
Union officers had threatened to hang to the two civilian women mentioned in the letter above if anyone was hanged in retaliation for the hanging of Daniel Bright.
I think you need to check your timeline. Chambersburg was burnt in July 1864 while Sheridan went through the Shenandoah Valley in September and October of 1864.
Supposedly Chambersburg was burnt in retaliation for the damage done to VMI by General Hunter. I think that the case can be made that VMI was a legitimate military target. It provided hundreds of officers to the confederate military. It would be as if the south had ever made it to West Point and burned it to the ground.
And if burning a town in retaliation is acceptable then if Sherman used Chambersburg as his reason for burning Atlanta then would you find that OK?
OK, how about this one then?
War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want; not a word of argument, not a sign of let up, no cave-in until we are whipped - or they are. -- William T. Sherman
War was the path that the south chose to follow in April 1861 and it seems to me that for them to complain about the damages done is the height of hypocracy.
A few posts up you asked why Davis was a fool. Well a big reason for that was he ignored the advice of his own cabinet and started the war at Charleston. His own secretary of state gave him the following warning:
Firing on that fort will inagurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen...At this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend in the North...You will wantonly srike a hornet's nest which extends from mountains to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it put us in the wrong; it is fatal." -- Robert Toombs
Well, Toombs was right. It was wrong, it was unnecessary and it was fatal. So it can be accurately said that if any one person is responsible for the destruction of the southron dream of independence, then that person is Jefferson Davis.
Which, of course, would be false. Everyone knows the real number is not 100%, but 99.999%."
Yes, and all southerners (Rebels) have no teeth, own 3 legged hound dogs, have cars on blocks in the driveway, dead appliances on the front porch; onto which they have tied said 3 legged hound dog, and belong to the KKK. Never let the facts get in the way of a good stereotype I always say./sarcasm off
I’m not an uptight northerner, but I am dressed as one.
President Lincoln and the loyal people throughout the country saw the folly of separating.
President Lincoln once even referred to the example of Europe as something to be avoided.
What these "self determination" fanatics fail to see is exactly what you point out. We are stronger together than we could ever be apart. This is so obvious it makes me think that what the neo-rebs -really- want, is what really was lost in the ACW -- white supremacy. President had a part in ending white supremacy. That is what galls them about Lincoln, and that is why he is a tyrant to them.
It would be nice to have the freedom of a 19th century "mountain man" like Jeremiah Johnson, but it is just not doable.
Walt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.