Was Jefferson Davis fair & balanced? I think he was. West Poimt graduate. Col. & Maj. Gen. In the U.S. Army, Sec. of War, U.S. Congressman & Senator.
Was slavery wrong? ... 1,000%
Was it a fact leading up to the war? Yes it was, but it was not the *only* reason for the war.
Do I wish there were two nations still today? That's kind of a stupid question to consider, and it's never one I've ever considered or even contemplated.
Why do people romanticize the fact our ancestors were the first to join & walk 100 miles to do so? It was because after the Deep South States seceded, the union amassed an army to force the South back into the U.S., and Johnny Reb signed up on the threat of an invading army. The South did not declare war on the U.S. They wanted to live peaceably. They signed up for sovereignty.
You have to remember that the upper Southern States did not join the Confederacy until After the U.S. started to amass an army for invasion.
Yes, the first shots were fired by the CSA at Fort Sumnter. It was at a ammo supply ship they shot at. The CSA viewed this as the union preparing for war, and the South struck the first blow. Fired First, by Edmund Ruffin, of all people.
I personally don't think the remembrance of the war would be as much, if the brutal crimes against common citizens had not occurred.
I do remember one time as a child of 8-10 years old, I said something about the war that set my great aunt Ruth *OFF* about Sherman. Screaming, turning red with intense rage about what he did to the poor women & children & aged of our County & evidence is still left here today. That's the first time I learned about the New Manchester Mill and the fate of those working there. The utter cruelty he imposed on civilians does carry down.
That, and all my whole life hearing northerners still continue to perpetuate stereotypes that Southerners are stupid, hicks, rednecks, inbred, and on & on & on & on.
In 1968 my first grade class in Georgia was the first year of school integration. Fast forward to 1973 & my Dad took a promotion & we moved to Worcester, MA. ... Right into the middle of the Boston School Busing Riots. The white residents of Boston were Losing Their Minds over integrated schools & causing riots. It was quite the lesson for this Southern Boy in 5th grade who found himself in Massachusetts. Throw in one of my first days in school, looking up to be surrounded by 10 kids when one of them said, "Talk for us", and when I did, I became the laughing stock of the school, and then the English test I took with the instructions to mark out all the silent letters in the words. Well, there were none, so I turned it in blank. I got two wrong. I didn't mark out the "silent" L's in the words Walk & Talk. I kid you not. By this time, I had made up my mind that the sanctimonious & holier than thou & righteous yankees were nothing but a bunch of dicks.
Yes, yes, yes, slavery was wrong, but my fascination of this great event in our nation's history is not to defend slavery, but to learn as much as I possibly can about the exact reasons in the minds of the men who wanted to start their own country, as had been done 85 years prior, and then be left alone.
In 1850, of the 9 million people in the South, it is commonly agreed that only 5% of the population owned slaves.
I just receive an original 1868 copy of Alexander Stephens (CSA VP) book, A constitutional view of the late war between the states: its causes, character, conduct and results. And, an original copy 1888 of Jefferson Davis book, The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy. I'm most interested in these two books on the men's personal take on their actions, in their own words. Not some historian who wrote about it 150 years later. Supposedly these two books lay out in great detail the Constitutional Reasons of the Legality of Secession, and THAT will be interesting to read.
My entire animosity over the Civil War, was the war crimes committed against women, children & the aged. And to those that find glee & joy in that, I would not want to be associated in any way with such a person.
And if anyone that didn't read the long account of Sherman in Cheraw, SC, what he did to white folks, he did to black folks, too.
Grave robbing looking for gold & silver just didn't happen in my hometown, it was a common occupancy everywhere Sherman went, and that is truly despicable, to dig up the dead, to pull gold off their teeth.
And some here have the nerve to compare the CSA to Nazi's.
