Requiem for a Culture
Part 1: The Sentinel
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
— William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, Act I, Scene III (page 80 in the Vintage paperback edition)
I first read the above quote more than four decades ago, and in the years since then I have always associated it with the Civil War. However, upon looking it up while preparing this post, I noticed that the context is the personal history of one of the main characters, and refers to events in the early to mid-20th century. Nevertheless, the Recent Unpleasantness is woven into the fabric of the novel, so that relating it to the war seems appropriate.
For a Virginian whose family was caught up in the struggle, the 157 years since the surrender at Appomattox is a short time indeed. Generations in my mother’s family were long, so that I heard family stories about 1865 from a relative who heard them from an aunt who was alive at the time and witnessed the events herself. So that’s not really far back at all.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
Back in the 1990s I wrote a poem entitled “Mason Dixon” that concludes with these lines:
How can one forget? Millennia hence,
when English is just the language of the scholiasts
or the key to ancient software, Gettysburg
will mean no more than Thermopylae does to us,
and Jackson’s tactics, like Hannibal’s,
will be studied by commanders
training for the galactic wars.Then Appomattox will no longer appear on any map,
with Bull Run just a vague rumor,
a place somewhere off to the east
of the Blue Ridge Islands.
The War Between the States is something that one never quite comes to terms with. It is the wound that will not heal.
When you cross into Appomattox County, Virginia from one of the adjacent counties, you are greeted with a sign that reads: “Welcome to Appomattox County, Where Our Nation Reunited”.
To an unreconstructed Southerner, this upbeat sentiment seems inaccurate. A more apposite greeting would be: “Welcome to Appomattox County, Where Sovereignty Was Destroyed, and the Southern States Became Vassals of the Federal Behemoth”.
But I guess that’s too long and wordy to be euphonious.
I’ve been trying to write this post for almost three months. I kept thinking of new things I wanted to say, and amassed more material than would readily fit into a single essay. I’ve decided to break it up into bite-sized chunks to make it easier to write, and easier for the reader to digest.
This introduction to the topic concerns the proximate cause of my decision to finally become an official member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans: the removal of the Confederate rifleman who had stood sentinel for almost 120 years in a little park on High Street in Farmville, Virginia. There was never a referendum on whether the town’s inhabitants wanted the statue taken down, and the city council’s decision to do so was taken behind closed doors, with no public input.
I asked one of the members of the local SCV camp what prompted the council’s action, and he said, “Some a**hole at Longwood [University] complained about it.”
The removal of the statue occurred during the height of the George Floyd craze, when monuments, Confederate and otherwise, were being taken down all over the country. Farmville’s Confederate fared better than many others, which were broken up and/or melted down (presumably so that George Floyd statues could be cast from the metal).
Last year the Sentinel was relocated to the Confederate cemetery just across the Appomattox River, where he is safely out of sight of everyone except those who choose to visit the site to pay their respects to the 300-400 Confederate fallen who are buried there in unmarked graves.
Back in May I posted about the Memorial Day observance organized by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans in that same cemetery. Last year the Sentinel was relocated there, and stands on his reconstructed plinth behind the honor guard in the photo below:
Those who attended the ceremony came to honor the soldiers who died defending Virginia in the Civil War, and their ancestors who fought in the conflict.
I say “defending Virginia”, because Virginia was understood to be a sovereign state until 1865, when state sovereignty was overthrown, and modernity began. And also because Virginia was invaded. In 1861 a hostile foreign force invaded the Commonwealth from the north and the east, intending to capture Richmond and put an end to the nascent Confederacy. Thanks to the skill, determination, and courage of the forces commanded by Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, inter alia, that final reckoning was put off for four years, after which the former Confederate states were reduced to poverty and vassalage under the federal government of the United States.
The photo below shows Appomattox Courthouse being guarded by Union soldiers:
Just think how local residents of Central Virginia must have felt to see such a humiliating sight! Especially those who had fought in the war, or who had kin who died in the war. They had defended their homes with courage and honor, but lost in the end.
Out here in the deep hinterlands there are many families whose ancestors lived in and fought for the same communities where their descendants now live. The stories are remembered and passed down from generation to generation.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
Yet, as I understand it, we are now expected to repudiate those ancestors. All because of slavery, and Jim Crow, and segregation, and Trayvon Martin, and George Floyd. We must acknowledge that our ancestors were evil racists, pay reparations, and grovel before the altar of Diversity. We will not be forgiven — those who commit the evil sin of racism can never be forgiven — but if we abase ourselves for long enough, we might be allowed to go about our daily business without fear of assault.
All we have to do is repudiate those who went before us.
I refuse to do that.
My ancestor fought for Virginia in the War of Northern Aggression. Unlike most Confederate soldiers, he owned slaves, as did almost any well-to-do Southern gentleman before 1861. His family lost everything after Richmond fell, and was reduced to penury after the war. Such was the past; it cannot be changed.
He and all his comrades were defending their homeland, in an attempt to prevent the final catastrophe. It’s hard for us to grasp the awful reality of that time.
The South lasted for as long as it did because its soldiers were fighting for their communities, which were being looted and torched by the invading Yankees.
Our Appalachian correspondent Apollon Zamp had this to say about the Southern cause:
It was in reading about the Battle of Suomussalmi in the Winter War between Finland and what was then the USSR that I noted what “hometown morale” can do for a military force. The Finns were outnumbered, outgunned, and had inferior equipment in comparison to their Soviet counterparts. What they did have was knowledge of the terrain and incredible esprit du corps that can only come from fighting for the defense of one’s beloved homeland.
It’s not that ideals aren’t important in the context of a war. Plenty of the World War Two veterans that I interviewed showed a knowledge of, and appreciation for, the ideals that caused them to join up in the first place. However, ideals only go so far when you’re fighting in a strange country, especially when the ideals aren’t ones to which you have an immediate connection.
This really drives home the heart of the ongoing conflict about our nation’s historical take on the Civil War. Yes, morality was on the side of the Union; slavery was and is a great evil and deserved to be abolished through force of arms. But the ideal of ending slavery, we have to imagine, was a lot less potent to the average Union soldier dying on the battlefield than the thought of defending the Commonwealth was to the average Virginian dying just a few feet away.
Last Saturday I went to Farmville to help the Sons of Confederate Veterans man their booth (and the little bivouac next to it) at the Heart of Virginia festival. We were a hundred yards or so up the street from where the Sentinel used to stand on his plinth. His absence created a gap in the landscape that is hard to get used to.
One thing I learned from standing in the booth talking to visitors was that there are an awful lot of people besides me who mind the fact that the statue was removed. White people, yes, but not racists in any meaningful way; simply people who understand and appreciate their Southern heritage.
There was only one fellow who came by the booth with the express purpose of arguing with us. This was our exchange, as well as I can remember it:
Visitor: “I just want to know why you people think it’s a good idea to do this, to pay respect to traitors.”
Baron: “We’re here to honor our ancestors, who fought to defend the Commonwealth of Virginia. We were invaded, you know — just like Ukraine was invaded by the Russians.”
V: “But Ukraine is different. It was invaded by the forces of a completely different country.”
B: “Exactly. And Virginia was sovereign until 1865. Did you know that? It considered itself a sovereign state. You can see it in the printed materials from the time: ‘The Sovereign Commonwealth of Virginia’. Union troops came up the Shenandoah Valley, torching the fields, requisitioning food and supplies, and taking prominent citizens hostage for the good behavior of their fellow townsfolk. We were invaded, and we were defending ourselves.”
V: “Well, I have an ancestor who fought, and I don’t want to honor him. I don’t know anything about him, and I don’t want to know, because he was a traitor.”
Later in the day I thought about what he said and tried to make sense of it. In what sense could a Confederate soldier be seen as a traitor? Whom did he betray? He answered the call of duty to defend his homeland against invasion. If he had not done that, then he might have been called a traitor.
The only way to see the Confederate soldier as a traitor is to anticipate the outcome of the conflict and acknowledge in advance the tyranny of the federal government, so that any action that opposes the diktats of the mandarins of Washington D.C. is prima facie evidence of treason.
I refuse to accept that formulation. And I will not repudiate my ancestors.
With the possible exception of the Ku Klux Klan, there is no more politically incorrect organization in the U.S.A. than the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Everyone who belongs to it understands the opprobrium that the larger culture attaches to us. And yet we join anyway. To do so is to resist the woke juggernaut that aims to grind us into nothing, along with all the other reservoirs of Western culture and tradition.
In the face of the coming Troubles we will need to build and maintain parallel institutions that have no truck with the globalist monstrosity that is in the process of rending the very fabric of our culture. It occurred to me last weekend that the Sons of Confederate Veterans can serve as a major node of the alternate culture — dare I say Counterculture? We are already set apart from the zeitgeist, and understand ourselves to be at odds with it.
As Ernst van Zyl (hat tip WRSA) said, in “A Time to Dig Trenches”
The time has come for Western communities to stop running and start digging trenches. These trenches will have to be dug in the field of parallel institutions and in the ground of identity and the mountains of heritage. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said: “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.” Just as a military and economic balance of powers facilitate world peace, a healthy pride in one’s own cultural identity is essential for coexistence with other cultures. We should encourage healthy cultural pride and a sense of identity in our own community, as well as in neighboring ones. When you remove the cultural heritage of any human being, you uproot them. Anchorless, they float with the currents into the boundless ocean, until one day they are spat out on an unfamiliar beach as driftwood and picked up by strangers as firewood.
There will be additional parts to this series, as I find the time and the energy to put them together.
Deo Vindice!
If I recall my research on the causes of the War between the States correctly, the plantation owners were being squeezed by both the textile mills here and the customs offices in New York when they tried to sell their cotton on the world market. The Plantation owners were being squeezed into bankruptcy and foreclosure in a concerted attempt to escheat the plantations so that the fabric mills wouldn’t have to pay for the cotton as it would be theirs, less the costs to grow of course, which would be kept to a minimum by the continued slavery of those who did the work. My father’s side of the family came from Wales via south Carolina to Missouri and then California. I have heard a few of the tales about the family’s past and it is not a pretty picture of this country’s conduct.
Like Rhodesia, whose white leadership wanted 10 years to train the blacks to transfer control to the black majority to ensure precisely that the destruction of the country, renamed to “Zimbabwe,” would not happen, were denied this transition period. And the country was totally destroyed as they predicted because of outside interference.
America, ignorant of Africa and its people, thinks the same dynamics of the American Civil Rights movement applied to Africa… which is absolutely insane. I know, I lived there out with the black Africans. The West made decisions that were an abomination and have destroyed Zimbabwe and South Africa, along with all colonies previously turned over to the blacks at a moment’s notice.
Even my black combat partner feared for the destruction of his Mashona Tribal Trust Lands. His words to this American were… “the Americans and British are foolish, why is your country supporting the Communists!?”
I dedicate my book “The Slavers Wheel” as such…
“We dedicate this book to the children of Africa, of both the white and black tribes. It is our hope that among them now, are those men and women to be, who will be giants in character and who will hold the welfare and well-being of their people before their own interests. Virtuous, decent and selfless people like Morgan Tsvangirai, Roy Bennet and Thomas Sankara. Despite some mis-direction of ideological beliefs, these men put their people’s well-being above their position of leadership, even with the enormous temptations of power and wealth that were theirs for the taking.”
The know-it-alls pushing the false narrative of American African History also forced the immediate transfer of power to the black majority. Rhodesia was changing prior to the war and could have been the economic and racial powerhouse showcase of Africa. All that went down the toilet… along with the financial and economic destruction of the country. Where are the famous American blacks who played and hosted the “Independence Party” for that brutal, demented robert mugabe? Why aren’t you celebrating the “utopia” you played your instruments for? Not a peep from them. Fools.
Much the same happened in the 1830s in the South. Southerners knew slavery had to be abandoned and created a plan to eventually abandon it and free all black slaves… which needed to be done to end that cruel and barbaric treatment of blacks. The blacks took the brunt of this system, however the Irish, Italians and my French Canadian ancestors were also treated horribly.
But the Civil War of Northern Agression basically ended our States Rights. That’s a shytte stom for all races, ethnic groups that’s coming to fruition… that’s coming down on my multi-racial family, regardless of the color of each member’s skin or the shape of their eyes. Each will suffer equally.
Criminal.
Jack Lawson
Associate Member, Sully H. deFontaine Special Forces Association Chapter 51, Las Vegas, Nevada
Author of the “Civil Defense Manual,” “The Slaver’s Wheel,” “A Failure of Civility,” “And We Hide From The Devil” and “In Defense.”
“Whenever there is a jackboot stepping on a human face, there will be a well-heeled Western Liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100% literacy” – John Derbyshire
From Jack Lawson… an American in 1RLI Support Commando and attached to Rhodesian “C Squadron” SAS Africa 1977-79
That’s not the story that I was told in school, and neither in the media. The “Believe what we tell you” machine appears to have been around for at least 150 years.
Rhodesia was thrown to the wolves by those effing marxists in the West including Sweden and that bloody commie Brit Wilson, At least the South Africans got even with the Swedes by eliminating Palme and a few others responsible for that bloody mess. The West knew what was going to happen to Rhodesia once they handed power to Mugabe, just like any other African sh**hole, so your take that the African’ts would have turned Rhodesia into a multicultural paradise if they had ten years to be trained really is wishful thinking on your part.
If you want to read what really happened to Rhodesia, Read When a Crocodile eats the Sun by Peter Godwin and Pamwe Chete By Lt Col RF Reid-Daily for an eye opener.
The same bloody African nonsense that happened to Rhodesia and South Africa is now being used by the Africans here in the US, and unlike the African countries, this will not end well for the Africans here. Ole Lincoln after the civil war was going to ship all Africans back to Africa but ironically got killed by a southerner for his efforts. There never has and never was unity in diversity and always, without exception, devolves to bloody conflict.
I was in South Africa recently and saw what a difference when the Boers ran things to now the ANC, and the graft, corruption has run it into the ground, the whites there no longer hold any respect for their rule of law and are handling things themselves, so there is hope they will take back the country at some point or parts of it.
May God grant the Boer the power and the wisdom to reclaim their lands from the Africans.
If I remember correctly the white minority population of Rhodesia was never over 7%, and in the RSA it was appx 15%.
Here in the Dis United States the estimated black population is listed at 13%, with almost half too old, fat, or undisciplined to be useable as anything but cannon fodder, and too disjointed to be uprisable. The 13% is not spread evenly across the country, there are pockets of heavy concentration of blacks, and vast swathes with none.
Any uprising would fail badly, but cost all their supposed moral high ground and forfiet any good will towards the survivors.
This is only my opinion, and doesn’t constitute prophecy, or legal advice.
Your mileage will vary.
@ Jack Lawson
Re: “Like Rhodesia, whose white leadership wanted 10 years to train the blacks to transfer control to the black majority to ensure precisely that the destruction of the country, renamed to “Zimbabwe,” would not happen, were denied this transition period. And the country was totally destroyed as they predicted because of outside interference. ”
Rhodesia was known as the “Bread Basket of Africa,” was it not? … prior to the dissolution of that nation and the formation of Zimbabwe. Almost overnight, the nation went from being a net food exporter who could itself and many others besides, to being a basket case pummeled by famine, chaos, and violence.
A starving child, whether black or white, when hungry does not care who grows its food.
How does it serve the interests of anyone in that misbegotten place to throw white farmers off their ancestral lands – people who’ve been there in some cases for centuries and know how to get the best out of those farmlands – and then hand them over to blacks who aren’t even farmers and don’t know the first thing about how to do that kind of work? It’s absolute madness.
These people may be of European ancestry, but many are as African as anyone, having been there for generations.
The communists absolutely destroyed that country, there’s no question about it. Mugabe himself was a blood-thirsty tyrant and butcher, one of the worst even by African standards.
The book “The Real Lincoln” by Thomas J. DiLorenzo isn’t especially well-written, but it is a thorough account of how the North’s economic exploitation of the South was the real trigger of the war, not slavery per se. Lincoln’s many depredations are well-documented in the book and are disturbingly parallel to current events (punishing dissent, violating the Constitution, using blacks as political pawns, provoking your enemy into firing the first shot, etc.).
The Civil War Was NOT fought over slavery as some people say. It was found over tariffs. Lincoln wanted access to Southern Ports and he betrayed the south.
True, Theresa
In August of 1862, Abraham Lincoln wrote these words in a letter to Horace Greeley “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”
[Library of Congress]
Confederate apologists love to quote that line, and ignore the rest of the letter, where he wrote that he personally hoped for abolition but refused to conflate his personal desires with his duties as the leader of a country.
Leftists love to quote things out of context…
We are reliving the 1930s.
Sad trombone spoiler-this thing called Human Nature insures that the New Man utopia is banished for all eternity.
Secession was about slavery but the war was about preserving the union which led Lincoln to invade the southern states. He was quite clear about this. See, for example, his letter to Horace Greeley. And the war didn’t even end slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation applied only where the Union had not control. It was essentially a PR stunt to keep England and France from intervening. After a short interregnum, slavery simple morphed into Jim Crow which persisted for almost 100 years.
Too bad Lincoln didn’t live long enough to see his plans of shipping the Africans back to Africa.
Instead of saying “preserving the union” say “creating an empire held together at gunpoint”. That’s what we call it when other countries do it.
Abolitionists made war on the United States. Lincoln refused to present his case against secession. Federal solders held two southern forts and threatened violence when told to leave. It’s pretty clear who the aggressor was.
New England violated the US Constitution, and the Radical Republicans backed them up. To the South, “the union” was the Constitution, not real estate and certainly not the power of the federal government.
We have just passed the anniversary of Antietam, probably the turning point of the war. McClelland had Lee’s battle plan and still muffed it, the slaughter was outrageous.
The minie ball rifle turned war into a bloodfbath.
Once more the unintended consequence of precipitous action. Personally I suspect that Lincoln believed that the ends justified the means, and as insurance, immediately post Antietam, he passed the emancipation act to justify to posterity his previously illegal acts that were proving so expensive in blood and treasure.
If the civil war was all about slavery then why was the State of New Jersey (s slave state until 1863) included in the Union camp?.
But what do I know about it all. I’m a despised Israeli enslaving poor Palestinians….
Yes, the poor Palestinian Arabs who could live like kings had the Saudis not decided to sponsor rich golfers instead.
@ tedh754
The Sunni Arabs use the Palestinians in much the same way the Democrats and the American political left use blacks. During and immediately after the formation of the new state of Israel in May, 1948, attempts were made to arrange a destination and home for Palestinians who did not wish to live in a Jewish homeland. Trans-Jordan, as it was called at the time, refused to take them, and so did other Arab nations.
Cynically, these nations and their political leaders saw that by blaming the problem on Tel Aviv, the Palestinians could be used as a de facto club or weapon with which to attack Israel with negative propaganda, poor PR and otherwise tarnishing her reputation and image internationally. When all of the time, they had it in their power to help their Arab brethren, but would not.
That state of affairs continues today. The wealthiest oil kingdoms of the gulf have more than enough wealth and land to take in the majority of displaced Palestinians – but their inaction speaks louder than words.
Fakestinians don’t exist, only arabs of Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
Reading “Killer Angels” gave me a new and broader perspective the Civil…, um, War of Northern…uh…the Unpleasantness…well, the ongoing conflict.
As a wise man said: the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.
One thing I continuously marvel at is how the women of the South managed to survive and overcome the atrocities committed upon them by the Federal troops.
The way women and children were treated, the absolute destruction of everything by the Lincolnites: wantonly shooting animals in the fields leaving them to rot , pillaging homes, the looting of everything leaving many women and children with just the clothes on their backs, threatening to shoot a mother defending her home from yet again another looting spree as her daughter was having a baby. being told they would be back that night and burn the house over their heads. How the Bluecoats would search time and again over and over homes on some pretext, breaking open anything, smashing furniture, stealing virtually every scrap of food leaving the women and children to go hungry, demanding a woman’s petticoat to haul off loot. They treated the Negroes no better in many cases looting from the quarters, abusing the women and leaving them hungry also, dragging off the men, those who had not run to the Federals, to do manual labor for them. They cared not for freeing the slaves as a noble and moral thing as much as what that meant in terms of crippling the South. I’ve been reading diaries and they are heartbreaking. And enlightening.
@ Bastet
You are speaking of the ‘bummers,’ which is slang for what the free-ranging looters, rapists, thugs and thieves tailing along behind the Union forces were called. These thugs were often not members of the army, but deserters, former soldiers, or men displaced by the war in some manner. Some ‘bummers’ were simple criminal opportunists came from many states away to partake in the mayhem and chaos.
To the extent that the Union forces took part in such activities, it is a stain upon their honor, and not merely a crime. Today, these would be called atrocities or war crimes.
If you haven’t read the history of the prisoner of war camps on both sides, that is eye-opening, too. The appalling conditions in places like Andersonville Prison in Georgia during the war could be blamed at least in part upon the increasing poverty of the South as the war went on, but the North had no such excuse for their mistreatment of prisoners.
Lincoln approved and rewarded the actions of the Kansas “Jayhawkers”. He suggested that “a little salt be sown” in the Shenandoah valley and the “march through Georgia” was nothing unusual. The Red River campaign was called “the cotton stealing expedition” by the US Navy’s lower ranks.
The federals were encouraged to hate the South, many already did because they were economic, social and political rivals. Looting and other atrocities were not universal but were well known.
@ Ned
I applaud your decision to stand up for your heritage and the heritage of all Virginians and all Europeans who came to the New World. The communists and their pals on the left want people of European ancestry, a.k.a. whites, to feel ashamed of who they are and where they come from, but that’s rubbish.
If identity politics is the new coin of the realm, and we are all to be classified by which identity groups to which we belong, then what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If blacks, Latinos, gays, feminist women, Muslims, and all of the other privileged identity groups on the left are encouraged to “celebrate” their heritage and who they are, then those same rules ought to apply to everyone else. Including Europeans (whites).
The communists have attempted and are still attempting to gaslight the public into conflating any sign of pride in our history as being racist, xenophobic, and bigoted. In other words, even when Europeans celebrate something from our history worthy of respect, such as inventing antibiotics or space travel, we’re not allowed to do it….
Stand up and be heard in opposition to such hateful tactics. Of course, no one ought to praise evils or wrongs done in the past, but there is absolutely no reason that people of European ancestry (whites) can’t be proud of who they are, where they come from, and what their civilization has accomplished. Fact of the matter is, we built the modern world and almost everything in it. If others can’t handle that truth, it isn’t our problem.
The unspoken aim here is the creation of a new apartheid here in the United States, one inverted in comparison to that seen in the old apartheid nations in Africa, namely with all of the privileged identity groups on top and Europeans (whites) on the bottom.
The left had made considerable progress on that goal, as you know, since the 1960s… but finally, more and more people are waking up to the ridiculous double-standard going on, and they are decided not to participate any longer.
The left believe that they are righting a historic wrong by punishing Europeans (whites) of today for crimes which may have been committed by their forbearers, but the whole notion of inherited guilt is a logical and moral fallacy. How can any “white” person alive today be guilty of crimes which took place before he/she was born? It’s madness, but then you already knew that.
In actuality, what the left/communists are doing is perpetuating a historical wrong by continuing the cycle – this time with new victims. They’re doing it for the lowest and most-cynical of reasons, too, namely political power and financial gain. What ever happened to “Two wrongs don’t make a right!”?
One other aspect of this whole subject deserves mention. Europeans (whites) are hated and resented not because of their failures, but because of their successes. If you dig deep-enough into this subject, that’s what lies at the bottom of a lot of the thoughts and emotions being expressed.
The Balkanization of the west is almost complete, when this one kicks off, it will make the Balkan wars in the former Yugoslavia look like a walk in the park in both scope, scale and the willingness to eliminate entire cites of people, for when these leftist unleash the Conquer all and killem all and let God sortem out for the devil will know his own, in the European DNA, nothing will stop it until all of non European extract are gone. Don’t think it can happen? History says otherwise.
It would have been interesting had the confederacy survived, to compare it alongside a federal union a century and a half later. I would think each state within the confederacy would still be small enough to be governable – but I am a distant observer.
“…a federal union….”
Aah! but that was the the deepest wound, arguably purpose, of the War. It killed Federalism and made the government Nationalist, which has grown, like kudzu, ever more constrictive and debilitating since.
Hello Baron, I dont know if you know the page, butt here are some articles from a page, where the South and its soldiers are described as Traitors, treasonous etc:
https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/08/02/winning-the-civil-war-finally/
https://angrystaffofficer.com/2017/09/01/guest-post-a-current-officers-thoughts-on-robert-e-lee/
https://angrystaffofficer.com/2021/06/20/we-believe-in-making-treason-odious-u-s-veterans-of-the-civil-war-attack-the-lost-cause/
Very good.
The people who fought the war didn’t dare bring the Confederate leaders to trial because everything, EVERYTHING they could charge them with hinged on whether or not secession was legal in 1960 and 1861. If they couldn’t prove that the war was an act of aggression against a foreign nation and all those men would have died for a lie.
Actually, it had more to do with the president and civilian public being so tired of killing that they demobilized and turned their backs on victory, allowing a power vacuum to be filled by ex-Confederate paramilitaries. Kinda like if we defeated a communist revolution and then neglected to destroy the communist party.
Well spoken Sir, and coming from the shirt tail descendent of an obscure Union General. I whole heartedly agree with you. How does one faceless whiney bitch (male or female) over the phone get to change a towns heritage? If slavery is so evil then why are we not moving against the resurgent slave trade in North Africa-oh thats right, there’s nothing currently in it for the US. And its okay to arm the brave freedom loving citizens of the Ukraine while our own citizens get politically dogpiled with anti-gun legislation on a regular basis.
Funny how Kentucky was perfectly able to declare neutrality and not be “invaded” by the Union, while Virginia was compelled to by unstoppable forces of nature (except the western half which fought for the Union).
This collectivist mindset of “we must serve the state, even if the cause is not just” is antithetical to Americanism. 180,000 white southerners (mainly from the hill country) fought for the Union, in addition to 175,000 black southerners. Two of Robert E. Lee’s nephews and one cousin fought for the Union. It is always a personal choice. Fatalistic collectivism is how cultures die.
Solid observation about “hometown morale”. Regarding my Mississippi, via Virginia, ancestors, it was said : “The 34th was a large regiment, probably the largest in (its) brigade. It was not so large as some of the others at the first but the great numbers of additions to its ranks, and their zeal in keeping up a large average, always gave them a massive appearance. In their rank and file were some of the foremost men in North Mississippi and many sons of such men. This gave them pride of character, an essential limit of true bravery. In the grand shock of battle… this regiment gave good measure.” Reverend E. A. Smith, 1904
There is a place in downtown Lynchburg, Va. called Monument Terrace. At the bottom stands “The Doughboy” – a statue of a WWI soldier (where some [epithet] glued a USMC Globe & Anchor to his helmet!) honoring those locals who died in that war. At the very top of Monument Terrace is a statue of a Confederate soldier. Yes, that statue is still there. How I don’t know. How much longer is anyone’s guess. Lynchburg was a hospital town for convalescing Confederate (and Union) soldiers as well as a railroad crossroad. There was a Battle of Lynchburg where convalescing soldiers and anyone else who could hold a rifle ran Union General Hunter most of the way back to Martinsburg, W.V. after he showed up to capture and tear up the RR. Lots of history here. Most of it is no longer being taught to the younger generations. Our culture might be mostly invisible these days but its far from dead.
A simple concept: (States were allowed to vote to accede into the Union and were therefore able to legally vote to secede from the Union.) That was the premise on how things were supposed to work at the time and was taught at West Point, but Lincoln’s sole goal was to keep the Union intact mostly due to economic reasons. He didn’t give a whit about slavery. If the war was about slavery, why did he wait so long to issue his proclamation? Which of course had no legal basis. He stated “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” Lincoln carefully noted that this represented his official position.
Get and watch the movie Valley of Lost Shoes the sculptor mentioned above was on eof the VMI cadets who defended the Shenandoah Valley!