Today is Confederate Memorial Day in a couple of states below the Mason-Dixon line - as Ulysses S Grant wrote, "... that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."
I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who deny the American Civil War was about slavery. Alexander Stephens - their only vice president - declared loud and strong, that they were doing exactly that.
But then, I'm also amazed at the number of southerners who have *no* idea who Alexander Stephens was! Yeesh.
History is in the past, time to let it go. I once cleared a large section of people at a Civil War Re-enactment (family got hand made shirts ONLY if they were on the Northern side). A lady sat next to me and said "The North cheated" Me -"What?" "They cheated by hiring mercenaries to kill our boys" As a New Englander for generations I could not stop my mouth "Well good for us, you still lost". BOOM! 20 people moved. My dad came over to see what was up and I told me I was a proud Yankee. Let's just say i went to the mall instead of the ball that night.
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I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who deny the American Civil War was about slavery. Alexander Stephens - their only vice president - declared loud and strong, that they were doing exactly that.
But then, I'm also amazed at the number of southerners who have *no* idea who Alexander Stephens was! Yeesh.
History is in the past, time to let it go. I once cleared a large section of people at a Civil War Re-enactment (family got hand made shirts ONLY if they were on the Northern side). A lady sat next to me and said "The North cheated" Me -"What?"
"They cheated by hiring mercenaries to kill our boys"
As a New Englander for generations I could not stop my mouth "Well good for us, you still lost". BOOM! 20 people moved. My dad came over to see what was up and I told me I was a proud Yankee. Let's just say i went to the mall instead of the ball that night.
Amazing how, in the teeth of historical evidence, people cling to the stories their families tell.
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