[HRH1948]

Excellent points Fucking Rotter.

I had a great, great grandfather, two great, great uncles, a great grandfather and a great uncle that fought with Hood’s Brigade. I have read what remains of their diaries and their letters home. None of them had ever seen a black person until they crossed the Mississippi River. To them, the war had nothing to do with slavery. Had they thought that, they wouldn’t have been there. They had never owned or ever intended to own slaves.That was true of the vast majority of the Confederates. As Texans, they simply wanted to raise their families, protect themselves from Mexican and/or Indian attacks and sell their cotton to the British without federal intervention and without constraints applied by federally backed monopolies that through legislation was trying to divert cotton from the British to the northern cotton mills and reduce the price per pound. Remember, that cotton was the 19th century equivalent of today’s oil. The northern monopolies and their purchased legislators desperately wanted to control the production and profits from cotton. The south's ability to sell cotton directly to Britain had to be stopped at any cost.

A number of the Union troops (but, certainly not the majority) felt that slavery was a part of their cause. If not so, why did Lincoln issue his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 at the beginning of the third year of the war and not at its onset? Why was Lincoln responsible for the formation of Liberia? Read the Lincoln Douglas debates and learn of the Great Emancipator’s views regarding the assimilation of Blacks into the American culture. If the war was really about slavery, explain the riots in New York in July of 1863 that were directed against the rich elite of the city and its black population.

During the civil war, the most popular song in the south was “Dixie”. In my youth, every major city in the south had at least one high school and one junior high school with “Rebels” as their mascot. “Dixie” was played at every sporting event by the school bands. Radio stations across the south would sign off their broadcasts each day by playing “Dixie”.

The day after the surrender of Lee to Grant, Lincoln addressed an audience regarding, among other issues, the song. He stated that “Dixie” was one of his favorite songs. He also stated that he had conferred with the attorney general and that they considered “Dixie” to be captured property. He asked the band to play “Dixie”.

During the Civil War, the second most popular song in the south and one of the most hated songs in the north was “the Bonnie Blue Flag”. That blue flag with a single white star was the actual national flag of the Confederacy.

The politically correct crowd doesn’t know or respect their history , so unlike “Dixie”, it’s still widely available. But, what do you expect from a group of misguided zealots that have no idea who Andrew Johnson or Jefferson Davis was, never heard of the Lincoln Douglas debates or for that matter can’t name the current vice president.

For shits and giggles read the lyrics of “The Bonnie Blue Flag” and find a mention of slavery.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I tend to be a bit passionate regarding this subject.