Leftists Purging History or Al Queda in America

[Rev. Rye]

A Theist does actually have a point, even if it is mired in all the revisionist "Lost Cause of the South" mythos that became endemic in the South in the years since the Civil War.

While the Confederacy's entire raison d'etre was the perpetuation of slavery, to the extent that, with a few exceptions, its constitution was a copy-pasted version of the US Constitution made more racist (to the extent that earlier this week, I found no less than three passages where they explicitly said Confederate States had to allow slavery as a condition of being part of it (not to mention all the articles of secession that explicitly state slavery was a major concern of theirs, and the quotes from members of the Confederate cabinet who outright stated it), there was a rather severe disconnect between the reasons the Confederate Government fought and why many individual soldiers fought (up to and including General Lee, who was considered a top contender to head the Union Army until Virginia seceded): many of the soldiers saw themselves as being invaded by the North over something they had no control over and felt it was their duty to defend their homeland. I mentioned before the story related by Shelby Foote where a Union soldier found a poor soldier from Virginia and asked why he was fighting, and he said poor Confederate soldier in Virginia and asking him why he was fighting and he said "I'm fighting because you're down here."


Also, the issue of Black confederates is actually pretty complicated, Throughout the war, Black people had been part of the Confederate army, but they were strictly forbidden from bearing arms for the vast majority of the war, and while the subject came from time to time, the subject of changing the law was actively suppressed until in January 1865, Robert E. Lee requested it. They finally allowed black soldiers to enlist on March 13, 1865, and even at the time, people were saying stuff to the effect that "if this works, the whole premise for our nation is fucked." I'm sure they used more delicate phrasing, but I'm having a bit of difficulty in finding the exact quote, but I'm sure someone willing to put the time (even if it's just watching the last two episodes of Ken Burns' Civil War series and waiting for the subject to come up) can find it. Less than a month later, Appomatox happened and the war was over, so they didn't have much of a chance to distinguish themselves.