Confederate Memorial

TomD

TomD

e publius unum
This is at Arlington National

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Theres a confederate memorial at our local cemetary. The bodies had been buried in a mass grave without efforts to identify the dead, so its sort of a tomb to the Unknown Rebs.
We had a pretty hot battle here, with Calvary fighting in the streets and most older buildings were found to have cannon balls embeded in the walls during reinovations.
 
Tom, I am glad to see this beautiful monument to the people of the South. That was a terrible war fought for a poor cause among people who should have understood each other much better. Most all of the men and boys who fought in the War between the states were just farm boys. They were more alike than they were different. That war should never have been fought.

I remember walking around a park in Manchester, New Hampshire, that was full of glorious statues of their Civil War men. You have to think about the southern people who had that war fought in their farms and towns and front yards. They lost everything they had except the glue of their character and they have no monuments built for them at the time. It troubled me when we were made to remove the rebel flag symbol from our state flags. It was a part of our history. It is an insult to the good people of the South who fought so hard for a bad cause and lost.

All of my people were southern people. They made their homes in Arkansas and Alabama. Although they fought with all they had, I believe they would understand when I say I am glad they did not win.

Today we have the ability to travel easily. I could leave my home in West Texas in the morning and have supper with friends in any northern city on the same day. The more we know each other, the more we understand each other.

God, I love this country!

Concho Bill
 
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I'm from the Atlanta area, there was a little fighting around here too.

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I don't think states rights was a poor cause, slavery was not the cause of the war it was a convienent political ploy used by Lincoln when it was convienent to him. The north won thus they wrote the history so you get there version not the way things really were. The north was levying high taxes on all the south's goods to pay for improvements to the cities of the north. Steve
 
Steve, You are absolutely correct.

steve stanley said:
I don't think states rights was a poor cause, slavery was not the cause of the war it was a convienent political ploy used by Lincoln when it was convienent to him. The north won thus they wrote the history so you get there version not the way things really were. The north was levying high taxes on all the south's goods to pay for improvements to the cities of the north. Steve
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I was taught in school some 50 yrs ago that it was about slavery. The history chanel has now corrected that but nobody knows or cares now. The war started brewing when the rick textile mills of the north wanted to buy cotton for a low price. "Honest Abe" was pressured by the owners of those mills and he blockaded the ships from Europe where cotton brought a better price. As you mentioned there were other political ploys. And It was indeed about states rights and that is a very good cause. Lincoln first chose Robt E Lee, who did not believe in slavery, for the commander ( He had inheirited some slaves thru his wife but freed them) Gen Grant was a slave owner and was Lincolns 2nd choice, Lee said "Sir, I think it better to do right even if we suffer in so doing"
BTW None of the slaves Lee freed left, One insisted on going with him,and stayed with him throughout the war. That slave (Rev Mack Lee) spoke and wrote many good things about Lee.
I am not living in the past or bitter, just want to see history corrected
 
Decades of propaganda have had their toll, now 95% of the people on earth who have heard of the Civil War just automatically "know" that the Southerners were bigoted racists and the only issue was slavery. I'm a member of another discussion board but with photography as the subject. The members range from avid amateurs to professionals and are from a number of countries, just like br.com. About a month back some member posted a picture of some southern cemetery with Confederate burials where somebody had hoisted a St Andrews Cross Confederate flag. One of the British members posted a reply, and I quote"The only good racist is a dead racist." He then demanded that the original poster remove the picture because it was offensive to him. The site moderators, to their credit, told the Brit to sit down and shut up. Point being that the propaganda has been 100% successful.

The soldiers buried in the Confederate cemeteries had no slaves and weren't fighting for the institution of slavery. They were fighting for what soldiers have always fought for, their home, their family, friends and their pride.

BTW: The Brit on the photo forum really doesn't like Southerners now. I got pretty sarcastic with him, Great Britain having such a wonderful human rights record and all.
 
The really tragic occurrances of the war were the....................

abominable way ALL the people were treated. Southern blacks would flee to the woods when the Northern troops arrived, for they were impressed into the northern army, no matter. The northerners would not only take all the livestock if they could, kill what they couldn't, including chickens, destroy crops and any stores, seeds, and the EQUIPMENT FOR SOWING of crops, and fired many homes. Man just loves control over others, and that war was a fine example of how men became impressed w/themselves. One little fact I never knew until 5-6 yrs ago, was that the Southern memorials were erected from citizen's contributions, and ALL the cannon faced North. When the slaves were "emancipated", only the ones in the South were effected by that proclamation, slave markets were running full-tilt in the north, and the biggest was in Rhode Island, and the owner was flattered as, "....a fine gentleman..." a pillar of the community, never was called a racist.
 
Oh, and The slaves themselves were exploited by their brothers.
The African tribes on the coast would go inland and capture people from the other tribes. And sell them for hooch and tea....Then the coastal tribes would take their land.
 
Jerry Dailey said:
The war started brewing when the rick textile mills of the north wanted to buy cotton for a low price. "Honest Abe" was pressured by the owners of those mills and he blockaded the ships from Europe where cotton brought a better price. Gen Grant was a slave owner and was Lincolns 2nd choice, Lee said "Sir, I think it better to do right even if we suffer in so doing"

I am not living in the past or bitter, just want to see history corrected
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The South had really bad political leaders before and during the War. Where were the cool heads?

Let me help you as you correct history Jerry. The war had already started in South Carolina and other places in the South before Lincoln was in office. Grant was not Lincoln's second choice behind Lee. When the war started, Grant was a struggling civilian and totally unknown to Lincoln and Sherman was a school teacher in Louisiana. There were at least four Generals in command of U.S. forces before Grant took charge in late 1863.

It was a terrible war that should not have been fought and the aftermath has been hard.

Concho Bill
 
I stand behind my statements

The cowardly blockades was one of the deciding factors in the southern states forming a confederation and was one of the events that led up to the war between the states. Yes there was other rifts going on over states rights but not enough to cause a confederation between all the other southern states. All that I have read indicates that Gen Lee was indeed Lincolns first choice.and Slavery did not become an issue till the emancipation proclamation. I respect others oponions and I realize history differs depending on who wrote it and how one interpets it. I have read all the documents that have merit and have made my stand. Having said that: I respectfully back out and leave others to their opinions so as not to start another rift
 
What an outstanding photograph TomD. I was at Arlington last summer and did not see this. Good discussion here of the War Between the States here by the way. This very interesting subject was foremost in my thoughts over the weekend as I visited an old family cemetery near Wilkesboro, NC were I honored 5 civil war veterans, one veteran of the War of 1812 and two Revolutionary War veterans (one of these was lost at the Battle of Kings Mountain NC, October 7, 1780) all carrying my name, Gilreath. No Brit should ever be able to lecture anyone about slavery; they brought the first slaves to America. Another interesting fact: President Andrew Jackson narrowly avoided South Carolina’s succession from the union over the “tariff of abominations” in the 1830’s and the real shooting war started in Kansas and Missouri around 1854. This conflagration festered for a long time before full scale war broke out in 1861 and we are still talking about it.
 
over the past three years I have visited Arlington and a number of the Battlefields, etc having visited Gettysburg three times. Each time I visit one of these sites I am always in awe of the actual barbarity of that war and wonder how people who were of the same blood could do those things to each other. Imagine marching into a hail of bullets without hesitatiogn to do so! Politics were and always be Politics but - - - - - -.

My question is, " Why, when none of us living today had anything to do with any of it, do feelings of outrage still linger"? There is nothing any of us living today can do about anything that happened that long ago. Why don't we let it go and carry on. We are all brothers in that most of us are prepared to shed our blood for our country as it exists now. There is not North and/or South any longer. Why can't we just let it go?


Every War's history is "Sanatized" , as I found out whren I went looking for the history of my War. The only way to know the truth of it is to have lived it.
 
native texan

We are headed for another armed rebellion in order to take our country back.The "south"will win this time.
 
Pete, You know that I consider you and many others from the north land as friends and I don't care where a person lives, it's all about how they live and treat other folks that makes them a friend or not. I am proud to be an American and I'm also proud to be southern. I think what pisses me off the most about the whole history thing( a lot of it is pure BS) is that a white southern male is the only group of people on the face of the earth that are not suppose to be proud of their heritage in this PC country that we live in. I'm proud to be a son of the south land and proud of the men who fought and died for their beliefs in that war and I hate to hear people attribute the war to some political grandstand move that was not the reason for the war.Practically no one that fought in that war owned slaves they were just dirt poor country boys that were defending their homes and families. It was a terrible war and the brutality was unbelievable on both sides as are all wars, There has never been a good war, justifiable and necessary ones yes, but never a good one. This is not meant to piss anyone off and Pete you know that you are my friend so read this in the spirit it was meant. Steve
 
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