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Walt, buddy, yer apparent blindness to the fact that there were two very real--yet very opposite--versions of what happened regarding the War of Northern Aggression belies the fact that you may indeed, be a Victim of Yankee Propoganda. Of course, this is only My Humble Opinion, but please let me explain...

"I seem to recall that both Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, the head traitors, don't you know, both wrote long tomes justifying their wartime actions after the war."

First off, Davis and Stephens were far from "Traitors"...they were simply representing their constituents who had exercised their Constitutional Right to leave the Union. Why does that bother you so? And BTW...did the Public School you attended up North assign either Davis' or Stephens' book as required reading?! No, I didn't think so.

"No single person was hanged for treason after the ACW."

And Sherman's March to Atlanta in which hundreds of homes were burned, livestock was slaughtered, and innocents were RAPED and MURDERED never happened, right?! SHEEEESH...do you even realize how inanely-biased yer argument is, my Yankee FRiend?!

"On the -other- hand, loyal citizens were hanged by the dozens in East Tennessee and in Texas by CSA authorities--simply for professing loyalty to the old flag."

Perhaps I need to do some additional reading because I have never heard that this was a major problem and common occurence...can you suggest a reference to buttress this allegation?

"What the record shows is that losers had a great hand in writing the history of the war, and losers perpetuate it unto this very day."

Calling those who did not prevail in this most-avoidable war "losers" does not decrease the legitimacy of their argument one iota, IMHO.

MUD

N.B. Forrest (now there's a man our Yankee friends must love! Hee-hee..) once rounded up some known Yankee symapthizers while on a long raid in West Tennessee, which was occupied at the time by Northern forces. He had them stand alongside a road for a little while, under guard, and while they were standing there, he bagan to march his meager forces by, which at the time were somewhere between 1200 and 2000 strong (various portions were spread out over the area). At first he marched his men by on foot, playing infantry drums he had brought with his calvary. After all his troops had marched by, he had them circle around and mount up on horses, then ride by the Yankee symapthizers. He repeated this a couple times, then released his prisoners. As he expected, they ran off to the nearest Federal officer and reported all they had seen. By the end of the expedition, Federal reports on the size of Forrest's little army ranged from 7,000 to 15,000 to, according to one poor officer, 20,000! His ruse worked, drawing off massive numbers of troops to hunt him down, which of course they failed in (though they had a fine opportunity to do so at Parker's Crossroads). He would not infrequently use similar tactics to convince large Union garrisons to surrender when they still had a chance of defeating Forrest's calvary.

First off, Davis and Stephens were far from "Traitors".

They were clearly traitors under the definition given in the Constitution.

But you might argue that what they did was justified--you know, like what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson et al did. After all, they were called traitors under British law-and they clearly were.

And that would be when I ask you what had happened prior to 1860 that would justify taking up arms against the government in Washington and firing on the US flag. Why couldn't they just be cool and talk it out?

Walt