[chickens]

Correction to above: Not William and Mary College -- but Washington, later to become the College of Washington and Lee.

However, they were required to leave their weapons at the front gate and also cover their buttons in observance of the estate's neutrality.

I knew they had to check their weapons at the gate, but I thought soldiers always had to cover their buttons.

[chickens]

Before the Civil War, there was no United States. In other words, until there was a Confederate States of America, no United States need exist. Before the Civil War, being a union or the United States was a non-issue. The fledgling Union had to decide what it was going to call itself. The name Confederate States of America was already taken. The initials CSA fit neatly on the brass belt buckle. The United States, instead of the Divided States, seemed a better publicity choice. The initials US also fit easily on the brass buckle. The concept of the USA was in the works. The State of New York -- everyone who was anyone in America before 1860, was either from Virginia, or New York -- wanted to keep their autonomy. The New Yorkers rejected the US emblem, and emblazoned the initials SNY or State of New York on their brass. Since the South had a smaller manufacturing base, its soldiers soon discovered that a captured US buckle, turned upside down, worked just as well. It was the Civil War that defined the US, and it is the Culture War, and or multiculturalism that is redefining it today. Simply put, multiculturalism, is the privileging of one race over another. The unabashed goal of multiculturalism: destroy the "white hegemony." History no longer matters, so long as Washington, Lee, and the like are expunged. Diversity, favors the founding fathers even less. Its goal: institutional autonomy, and respect for the homosexual agenda. The name Robert E. Lee may make some people uncomfortable, but obliterating the nation's hard fought history, in the name of diversity and multiculturalism, turns the US upside down again.