Peachy's Ramblings & Muses

Foreward:

Especially to all my liberal and progressive friends, I am asking your understanding of my special feelings toward the south, and ask that you also look objectively at a very emotional and human aspect of the southerner’s plight in the Civil War. Thank you.

I watched the Rose Parade today, and as always was thrilled to see the amazing creations made from flowers. The artists who put this together are just too incredible for my words for I cannot begin to imagine myself being able to do this! So, Rose Parade Float makers..Thank you every year for this wonderful treat!

There are paraders other than the floats in the Rose Parade though. Marching bands from various high schools, among others…splendid troops on horse back. I was sitting comfortably enjoying it all when a group of infantry men in the traditional blue and gold of the Union Army marched by on horseback. The commentator made the obligatory comments, mentioning how much the Union soldiers suffered in the Civil War. I thought for sure that what would follow would be a group of Confederate soldiers, but they never marched by. When I realized there would be none, I got a twinge of pain for those young Confederate soldiers.

Let me explain why. I firmly belief the Civil War was about slavery, but as in almost all wars, the conflict was started by people much more powerful than the ordinary citizen. Confederate soldiers for the most part did not own slaves, so this would not have been an issue for them. Actually, only about 6% of wealthy southerners owned slaves, and Lincoln’s proposition to forbid expansion of slavery was definitely an economic issue for these landowners. That would mean slave owners could not transfer slaves to states that had abolished slavery, therefore, rendering profits less substantial than they would be with slaves.

The young soldier who fought on the Confederate side seemed to be of the belief that the war was being fought for states’ rights, and not slavery. The southern rich cleverly masked the real reasons for this horrible war in the same way they manipulated poor whites to believe that blacks were inferior in order to prevent white uprising against the wealthy masters. ”

“By and large, owning slaves was the privilege of the well-to-do. The rank and file of the Southern armies was composed of farmers and laborers who volunteered to protect home and everything dear from Northern invaders, to keep their traditions and be left alone.”

To preserve those traditions, they paid a severe price: Confederate soldiers suffered up to 12 percent killed versus 5 percent of the Union Army. Killed in action totalled 74,542 plus another 59,297 dead from disease (this figure is generally considered underestimated). Of the 214,000 Confederates imprisoned in the North, 26,000 (12 percent) died.” This as written in the article at the link shown below.

I do not think a celebration of the Confederacy is in order for two reasons: 1. The Confederate states were attempting to pull apart a United States that had promise of becoming great; and, 2. The overall reason for the war was slavery, regardless of what the poor confederate soldier and his family thought.

I do think the Confederate soldier should at least be honored. Not the war, but the individuals.

http://vaudc.org/confed_vets.html