Eric Peterson, a Wisconsin native who lives in Gwinnett County,
and his son Max hope to start a Georgia chapter of the
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
Posted on 06/12/2003 8:12:02 PM PDT by Pokey78
A Civil War buff and northern transplant has a simple message for Georgians: The Yankees were the good guys.
Eric Peterson, born and raised in Wisconsin, is launching an effort this month to revive a defunct Georgia "camp" of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The Snellville resident wants the group to achieve what was once unthinkable: rehabilitate the name of William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general credited with burning Atlanta to the ground.
"It will be a real hard sell here, and that's part of the trepidation," said Peterson, an insurance collection manager based in Duluth. "Did they do a lot of destruction? Oh yes, but I want to get the story out that this was not some ravening devil just out to burn everybody out."
Peterson -- a former camp commander of the group in Wisconsin -- has approval from the group's national headquarters to restart the James McPherson Camp 1, named for the U.S. major general killed in the Battle of Atlanta. He plans to hold an organizational meeting by the end of the month.
The first Union Veterans' camp set up in Georgia was established in 1995, but disbanded in 1999, when one of the organizing founders died. Earl Zeckman, an insurance agent in Dacula who had been the former group's treasurer, said, "I would love to see it activated again. . . . There are a bunch of us here, we are just all spread out, sort of hidden."
Peterson has names of about 30 potential members. The group will work to raise money for restoration of Union monuments and graves. It also will visit schools and public events to educate the public on the Union view of the Civil War, Peterson said. Peterson plans to have the camp up and running this year so that it can participate in commemorations next year of the 140th anniversary of Sherman's march through Georgia.
Sherman's fiery legacy
Restoring Sherman's reputation among longtime Georgians may prove difficult, since many were brought up to vilify the commander who led 100,000 Union troops into the state in 1864. Sherman slugged his way to Atlanta in a series of bloody engagements and captured the city in September 1864. Much of what was left of the city then burned.
In November, Sherman set out on his famous -- or infamous -- March to the Sea, cutting a swath of devastation through Georgia. Before his march, Sherman telegraphed Gen. Ulysses Grant that "until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it; but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people, will cripple their military resources. . . . I can make this march, and make Georgia howl!"
Shortly before Christmas, he captured Savannah, ending effective Confederate resistance in the state.
Peterson's great-great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather fought in the Union army. One relative was wounded in 1862 and was sent home to Wisconsin. The other, however, marched with Sherman.
When Peterson and his family moved to Snellville about two years ago, he was shocked at how Union troops were portrayed at historic sites, museums and re-enactments, he said. Meanwhile, his son, Max, now 15, found himself sitting through history lessons at school that presented Union troops as wanton looters.
"It was the myth of raucous Vikings coming down from the North to destroy the South," Peterson said. "It started to dig at me."
When the national office of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War called about re-establishing a camp in Georgia, he quickly agreed to command the project.
Peterson's efforts parallel others in the South. With so many Northerners moving to the region for jobs and better weather, the Union descendants' group has seen growth in states that ancestors considered enemy territory, according to Steve Michaels, the organization's head of recruitment and retention.
In North Carolina, Douglas Elwell, who moved from Iowa, commands a camp that he helped start in Fayetteville. He said another camp has started in Charlotte and another is forming in Asheville.
"We haven't gotten negative responses," he said.
But the Union descendants' group has a long way to go to catch up with the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Although many more men fought for the United States than fought for the Confederate States (about 1.5 million compared with a little more than one million), Confederate descendants are much more active in commemorating Civil War heritage.
Yankees outnumbered this time
The Sons of Union Veterans has about 6,500 members in camps in fewer than 30 states, according to Michaels. By comparison, the Sons of Confederate Veterans has about 34,000 members across the United States, as well as Europe and Brazil, according to Denne Sweeney, a Texan who is the SCV's chairman of recruiting and retention.
Asked why he thinks the SCV dwarfs its Union counterpart, Sweeney said recent debates about the importance of the Confederacy and its symbols have angered many descendants of rebel soldiers. Many then joined the organization. "When these things flare up, they flock to us and we can't sign them up fast enough," he said.
Told of Peterson's plans to set up a Union descendants' group in Atlanta, Sweeney wished them well, but said: "It might be a little tough in the city that Sherman burned down."
Peterson believes his group has fewer members because Southerners are brought up near many of the Civil War battle sites, so the history remains more immediate. "We have a bigger potential membership. . . . but there is just not that commitment in the North as there is in the South," he said. "You can see things in a museum, but it's not the same as visiting a battlefield."
Peterson's son Max had a blunter assessment for the disparity. He said Southerners join because they still are angry that "they got their butts kicked."
When I lived in Wisconsin, more people tried to engage me in some stupid discussion about the WAR, than any place in the North, I had ever been.
Now, don't get me wrong, I like history but I much prefer the Revolutionary War as a subject.
I have never been a avid CW fan, sorry. My Great-great Grandfather died at the Battle of Atlanta in a charge on the yankee breastworks and in my family, we thought that to be a tragedy. We just did not talk too much about it. Perhaps, the wound was too "fresh". He was killed only about 35 miles from home and was brought home to be buried. His daddy lived to see his son come home and be buried... then, he died in deep sorrow.
My family has been in every war this country ever had... before the WAR and after. That's history. That's our tradition. We have lost numerous loved ones to wars. The most recent loss was Viet Nam. Almost too painful to speak about to this very day. Tears still flow when we talk about it.
I think that yankee boy from Wisconsin is a big stupid cheese-headed jerk who is spoiling for a fight. He just might get one in Georgia.
A real bore.... snooooozzzze.......time to move on boys and just have fun at the re-enactments and joint Union-Confederate functions.
I'm also a Son of Union Veterans (not a member of the group, but I would qualify) as my g-g-g-grandfather fought with an Iowa regiment under Sherman and Grant in the Vicksburg campaign.
I was stunned at how the Union is talked about and portrayed, in the south. Especially around Vicksburg.
First, the victories of Grant are all but ignored - it's almost like he wasn't there - like they just don't want to talk about how he whipped them.
But what you do hear about (endlessly) is the "War of Northern Aggression" and about the occupation of Vicksburg. Hell, there's almost more talk about what happened after Vicksburg fell, and the occupation, than there is about the damned campaign and siege itself, even at the military park!
All in all, I was disgusted with the entire thing. The way things are portrayed certainly make the south the supreme "martyred vicitm" of "hostile, alien, invasion". And the entire northern campaign and victory is all but ignored.
It really did strike me, after nearly a week there, that they just don't want to talk about it. You bring up Grant's name and it's like everyone looks at their feet, or turns away having suddenly forgotten to arrange something on that high shelf...or makes this noise like "Hrrrmmmmhominahominahominahrrrrrmmm" in their throat.
They do not want to be reminded (by anything or by anyone) what really happened.
We drove the route of Grant's crossing up through Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, over through Champion's Hill and Big Black River....nothing. Nothing is preserved. Barely a marker (there was one small sign at Raymond...oh, and a badly painted mural on the wall of a building). Champion's Hill isn't even there anymore, nothing is owned by Civil War preservation group, it seems, it seems to all be in private hands...and there's barely a thing preserved or marked.
Our assessment after our trip was that it's simply something they don't want to preserve, because they lost. Unlike Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Manassas, etc, where they won (and where Robert E. Lee led them)...the western campaigns seem like something they just want to forget because they lost so badly. It was a depressing experience.
So I certainly relate to this guy's sentiment having to live in Georgia. If it's anything like what we saw in Mississippi or Tennessee then it's no wonder.
I had to repeatedly remind them, when I was there:
"Oh, who was it that won? Oh, that's right, it was U.S. Grant who won, here, wasn't it?"
Pathetic.
People don't visit places like that to be told one side of a story, especially when it exaggerates one side beyond the limits of credibility.
But don't worry, I won't be going back. I saw it, and I got to gloat anyway.
Can't wait to go to Chattanooga...and Appomattox.
But the rangers and guides were so pro-Confederate it was too much.
I didn't go there to "gloat", but I couldn't help but do so after the attitude we ran into everywhere.
I used to think the old "they're still fightin' the war down there" stereotype was just that - a stereotype. I was wrong.
Thus, I go back to my original point which was that I understand what this guy from Wisconsin must be enduring down in Georgia. I wish him luck getting his camp going.
Guess I should join the Sons Of Union Veterans too.
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