Gene DeMambro wrote:And I still have no sympathy for the South during Reconstruction, Virginia's monuments to the treasonists not withstanding. That's just me.
I wouldn't have expected otherwise... however, history has already passed judgement (prior to certain revisionism that has been in vogue for the past few decades) on the government and military of the Confederacy. History, as well as the U.S. Congress after reunification, both say that those who fought for the C.S.A. did not commit treason. One simply can't have it both ways... either the Southern States seceded from the Union and became a separate nation (as put forth in many history books) or they never seceded and it was an internal war of the U.S.A. (as put forth in many history books... sometimes even in the same ones that have stated that they seceded!) It isn't both, but most people, who haven't fully researched the War for Southern Independence, seem to take both as being true. After the War was over, the U.S. Congress
originally invited the delegates from the Southern States to simply be reseated (giving credence to the internal war stance)... Unfortunately, when it was quickly learned that those delegates would not go along with the post-War scenerio laid out for them, things were changed. At that point, those pre-War Southern delegates were told to leave, the States that comprised the C.S.A. were "readmitted" into the Union, and NEW elections (rigged for the outcome desired) were held to insure that the seated delegates from the South were amenable to the post-War plans for their States' wealth. By making that change, the U.S.A. had to acknowledge, for all history to know, that the Southern States which comprised the C.S.A. had, indeed, seceded and become a separate independent nation. With that in mind, looking back at the beginning of the War, belies the fact that the C.S.A. was invaded, unprovoked, by the U.S.A. Not a debate, just history.
Sorry I haven't been around for the past few weeks, but I got a call that things weren't well with my Mom. She lost her 16 year battle with cancer on Oct. 5, 1/2 hour after I got there.
Now that I'm back, I hope some of you can start toning down your rhetoric, because coming back and reading the threads certainly doesn't help my already pi$$-poor mood any at all...