Posted on 09/30/2003 12:19:22 PM PDT by sheltonmac
The South's unconditional surrender in 1865 apparently was unacceptable to today's Neo-Confederates.
They'd like to rewrite history, demonizing Abraham Lincoln and the federal government that forced them to remain in the awful United States against their will.
On top of that, now they are opposing the U.S. Navy's plan to bury the crew of the CSS H.L. Hunley under the American flag next year.
The Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. In 1863, it rammed and fatally damaged the Union warship USS Housatonic with a fixed torpedo, but then the manually driven sub sank on its way home, killing its eight-man crew.
It might have been a lucky shot from the Housatonic, leaks caused by the torpedo explosion, an accidental strike by another Union ship, malfunction of its snorkel valves, damage to its steering planes or getting stuck in the mud.
In any case, the Navy found and raised its remains and plans a full-dress military funeral and burial service on April 17, 2004, in Charleston, S.C. The four-mile funeral procession is expected to draw 10,000 to 20,000 people, many in period costume or Confederate battle dress.
But the Sons of Confederate Veterans, generally a moderate group that works diligently to preserve Southern history and heritage, has a radical wing that is salivating with anger.
One Texas Confederate has drawn 1,600 signatures on a petition saying "the flag of their eternal enemy, the United States of America," must not fly over the Hunley crew's funeral.
To their credit, the funeral's organizers will leave the U.S. flag flying.
After all, the search and preservation of the Hunley artifacts, as well as the funeral itself, were paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
Also, the Hunley crew was born under the Stars and Stripes. The Confederacy was never an internationally recognized nation, so the crewmen also died as citizens of the United States.
They were in rebellion, but they were still Americans.
This whole issue is an insult to all Southerners who fought under the U.S. flag before and since the Civil War.
But it isn't the only outrage by rabid secessionists.
They are also opposing the placement of a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Richmond, Va., the Confederate capital.
According to an article by Bob Moser and published in the Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine "Intelligence Report," which monitors right-wing and hate groups, the U.S. Historical Society announced it was donating a statue of Lincoln to Richmond.
Lincoln visited that city in April 1865 to begin healing the wounds caused by the war.
The proposed life-sized statue has Lincoln resting on a bench, looking sad, his arm around his 12-year-old son, Tad. The base of the statue has a quote from his second inaugural address.
However, the League of the South and the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised a stink, calling Lincoln a tyrant and war criminal. Neo-Confederates are trying to make Lincoln "a figure few history students would recognize: a racist dictator who trashed the Constitution and turned the USA into an imperialist welfare state," Moser's article says.
White supremacist groups have jumped onto the bandwagon. Their motto is "Taking America back starts with taking Lincoln down."
Actually, if it weren't for the forgiving nature of Lincoln, Richmond would be a smoking hole in the ground and hundreds of Confederate leaders -- including Jefferson Davis -- would be hanging from trees from Fredericksburg, Va., to Atlanta.
Robert E. Lee said, "I surrendered as much to Lincoln's goodness as I did to Grant's armies."
Revisionist history to suit a political agenda is as intellectually abhorrent as whitewashing slavery itself. It's racism under a different flag. While it's not a criminal offense, it is a crime against truth and history.
I'm not talking about re-enactors here. These folks just want to live history. But the Neo-Confederate movement is a disguised attempt to change history.
In the end, the Confederacy was out-fought, out-lasted, eventually out-generaled and totally over-matched. It was a criminal idea to start with, and its success would have changed the course of modern history for the worse.
Coming to that realization cost this nation half a million lives.
So I hope that all Neo-Confederates -- 140 years after the fact -- can finally get out of their racist, twisted, angry time machine and join us here in 2003.
my business partner happens to be female,educated, Jewish & beautiful.
why is it that TODAY in the north there are numerous places where she is NOT welcome, but i am????
free dixie,sw
as usual, you are posting KNOWING, hatefilled LIES!
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
the damnyankees do NOT want to talk about THEIR racism.
free dixie,sw
traditional scholarship was/IS PRO-southern.
free dixie,sw
i DO intensely dislike damnyankee/leftist/damnyankee aplogists & hate FILLED LIARS, most of all.
AND i want the TRUTH told, rather than the leftist/statist/self-serving/self-righteous LIES that seem to pass for truth these days.
free dixie,sw
sorry, it just so happens that the bones i'm talking about are from the 1860s AND many of the skulls have .36 caliber holes in the right rear of the skull.
according to the OFFICIAL HISTORIAN of the state of MD Veterans Affairs, my estimates of the murdered POWs is CORRECT.
free dixie,sw
I have to admint though, that if I had been an American of African heritage in the south in 1861, the first think I wouldl have done is enlist in the Confederate Army so I could get my ass out of the south the first chance I had. LOL..
I am reminded of the two fine black regiments raised in New Orleans by the citizens of New Orleans at the start of the war. When the Davis government ordered that no blacks be trained and put into arms, they were disbanded, but when General Butler asked for volunteers to fight for freedom, they volunteered to the man for service in the Union Army. Those were great men.
Throughout the war, Lee frequently used the phrase *those people* to refer to his Union adversaries, rather than the word *enemy,* as he found the situation of making war against his fellow Americans distasteful at the very least.
It's interesting to see that phrase used in this context, as if referring to Grant and those who followed Lincoln and very possibly helped to murder him. You may well be right that Lee bore Lincoln no personal animosity, but that may not have been the case regarding the rest of that nest of vipers.
As for whether the Stockdale quote is accurate or not, I certainly don't know this far after the fact, and can only go by the governor's generally good reputation for veracity and accuracy in repeating the statements of others, at least as far as can be expected of anyone in politicial life. But voters were more concerned with such reputations then than now, and I believe my bet would ride on his quotation of Lee was more accurate than not.
In any event, it's clear that Lee was speaking privately, and not speechifying or expecting his remarks to be come known. Had he said them to an assembled crowd of southron Texians, they'd have likely had a far different meaning, and might well have produced results far outweighing their actual intent.
But I wasn't there, so can't be certain.
-archy-/-
In the military history classes presented at West Point, that figure is given as 15%. With about the same number of Tories/Loyalists in opposition.
Thus is it ever.
-archy-/-
Or vice-versa, emphasis on the vice.
Perhaps just on weekends, and around schoolyards.
-archy-/-
Me neither. Have a lemon to suck on. Tasty!
-archy-/-
I am reminded of Jackson's famous address to the Stonewall brigade after Lincoln requested the Governor of Virginia raise 5 regiments to be used to put down the rebellion. Looking over his brigade, Jackson said, "Tell them we have done so."
The 5 regiments would now be used to protect and defend Virginia. (I'm not even from Virginia, but I am proud of the Army of Northern Virginia and her generals)
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