We tread on very thin-ice when we declare that we "agree" with ANYTHING that this homosexual hater of everything Southron writes. At last check, Ed is still living with his black gay lover.
to be polite here let me just say that I have been fighting the "crawfish" for over 14 years, over Southern Heritage issues. He works very closely with Kyle Vanlandingham (who is also gay) & Morris Dees, Mark Potok & Heidi Berich of the SPLC.
President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black chief executive, will be getting a thank you note from the Sons of Confederate Veterans for continuing a tradition of honoring the Confederate dead on Memorial Day.
A group of 48 historians, including one from Coastal Carolina University, had asked Obama not to send a wreath to an Arlington National Cemetery monument honoring Confederate dead — a practice started in 1914 by Woodrow Wilson, who was born in Virginia and lived in Columbia as a young man.
Obama sent the wreath to the Confederate monument, but he also sent one to a Washington, D.C., cemetery that honors black Union soldiers.
The president’s actions pleased Chuck McMichael, commander in chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
“The president did very well by sending a wreath to honor American veterans of all types,” McMichael said. “He upheld the tradition of the office to which he was elected. I do intend to send him a thank you letter. This is the kind of thing that transcends politics.”
Orville Vernon Burton, who teaches Southern culture and history at Coastal Carolina, was among the 48 historians who signed the letter asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Confederate monument.
Burton said there is not enough appreciation for the many Southerners — black and white — who fought to keep the Union together.
On Memorial Day, presidents typically lay a wreath at Arlington’s Tomb of the Unknowns, a monument to U.S. service members who have died without being identified.
Presidents also have directed that a wreath be sent to the Confederate monument.
Burton said he was concerned that Obama would be “singling out a group that wanted to split the Union” unless he also sent a wreath to a Union monument.
“People don’t know how close we came to not having a Union, and what that would mean for freedom today,” he said.
Burton said he learned about the historians’ letter through one of its two authors, James Loewen. A sociologist, author and professor, Loewen also has argued the statue of former S.C. politician “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman on the State House grounds should be toppled because of Tillman’s career-long support of white supremacy and violent black disenfranchisement.
Officials at the White House did not respond Tuesday or Wednesday to questions about Obama’s decision to send a wreath to the Confederate monument.
McMichael of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said he was glad the president did not address the letter. “I thought the letter was absurd and should not have been taken seriously.”
Burton said he does not know of any official response to the historians’ letter, which detailed the Confederate monument’s history, its Latin inscriptions and the words of those who have spoken in its shadow.
“The monument was intended to legitimize secession and the principles of the Confederacy,” the letter states. “It isn’t just a remembrance of the dead.”
In not responding to the letter, Obama steered clear of the passions that still exist regarding slavery and the Civil War.
Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, said in 1861 that “African slavery” was “the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution,” a verdict many present-day historians accept.
But the Web site for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which describes itself as “the oldest hereditary organization for male descendants of Confederate soldiers,” says the “citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South’s decision to fight the Second American Revolution.”
Burton said Obama’s decision also to send a wreath to a cemetery honoring black Union soldiers was “extremely diplomatic.”
Not sending a wreath to the Confederate monument “would have been harder for him because he’s African-American,” said Burton, adding Obama would have encountered a backlash from some white Americans.
In the end, Burton said, he can accept Obama’s decision to send a wreath to both Union and Confederate monuments.
“It does represent the reconciliation of North and South,” he said.
RE the Sebasta material: one of the documents listed no longer seems to be available. Sebasta is only a symptom of a much larger problem and the fact that his particular "hobby horse" has garnered the approval of men who are considered "historians" like McPherson clearly shows that these decisions are being made on matters not concerned with history but with ideology. Well, if that is the case (and it is), we'd better be prepared to defend not only your history, but our ideology or the facts simply won't matter at all.
I notice he placed a wreath for the USCT. I find it a bit amusing that they were segregated in the WBTS and are still segregated today. I think it is great we have a Confederate Monument to honor all races that fought for the Confederacy.
I'll admit I haven't researched this a lot, but from what I have read, the USCT mostly freed more whites to die. I did some research sometime back and the best figures I could find was a high of 3,500 USCT dieing in battle.
Good point George, just look at the Battle of the crater. With the tunnel approaching success, preparation began above ground for a possible assault. Burnside selected his largest and freshest division, his Fourth Division for the attack. His other three divisions had been in combat since the Wilderness, and were in no fit state to launch another attack. The only problem was that this division contained mostly black troops. In something of a catch-twenty two situation, the Fourth Division had been denied combat because it had no combat experience. Now they were to get their great chance. They were as keen as any unit in the Union army, determined to prove their fighting ability.
Right at the last minute they were denied that chance. Despite eleven days of intense training, on 29 July General Meade decided to withdraw them from the operation. There appears to have been a combination of reasons for this. First was the concern about using an inexperienced division, especially on such a complex operation. Second was a general worry about the consequences of using a black division in such an attack. If things went wrong, Grant and Meade could have been accused of using their black soldiers in an unjustifiably risky attack. The Fourth Division had been trained to take advantage, advancing rapidly, avoiding entering the crater itself, securing the flanks of the breach in the lines and hopefully preventing the Confederates from forming a new line further back. Ledlie’s men knew none of this. They advanced slowly towards the scene of devastation. Many went straight down into the crater, instead of splitting left and right around it.
All of this gave the Confederate artillery time to target the crater, slowing down the Union advance even more. Meanwhile, Confederate troops who had fled the area, fearing a second explosion, began to return. A counterattack, organised by William Mahone, soon forced the confused Union attacks back out of the crater, with heavy losses. The Fourth Division managed to get into the battle just in time to take many of these losses.
On July 30, Union military engineers exploded a vast amount of dynamite in a shaft that had been dug under Confederate lines. Five regiments of Colored Troops had been assigned the task of spearheading the resultant Union attack into the gaping hole in the Rebel lines. The 28th USCT was one of the regiments selected. The black troops from the divisions of Generals Ledlie and Ferrero stormed into the massive crater caused by the explosion amid a maze of broken bodies and bloody rivulets. While the black troops gathered in awe at the base of the crater, their generals remained behind, drinking liquor in a dug out bomb proof hut. Without effective leadership, the impetus and surprise of the attack died out and gave Rebel forces under General William Mahone time to counterattack. The Rebel counter stroke was brutal in force and ferocity. Black soldiers in the crater tried to surrender, but Mahone’s men refused the surrender and shot down and bayoneted the leaderless Union troops. The attack that had been so promising now devolved into a foot race back to the safety of the Union siege lines. Behind them, the 28th USCT left nearly half of their brothers dead or wounded, including seven of eleven officers.
It wasn't Meade, it was Grant. Burnside did his homework and had a great plan in motion but Grant wouldn't permit the black troops to lead. One Yankee who presented it said he was afraid of negative publicity if the death toll was too high (try making that point about the black troops wiped out attacking Fort Wagner). Another more cynical fellow said that Grant didn't want the blacks to get the credit of the victory and so Burnside had no choice but to send in white troops who had not been prepared. They marched into instead of around the pit and were shot like ducks in a barrel. By the time the black troops were allowed to assist, Mahone had arrived with his cavalry and the end result was not pretty.
One fellow Confederate reported that a lot of the casualties suffered by the black troops resulted from cries as they attacked that they were fighting "under the black flag" and would kill every white including civilians. Now I've heard that before, but whether it is an accurate report or simply something that is an "urban legend", I don't know.
Regardless of the losses at the crater or anyplace else, the total number lost is battle wouldn't scratch the surface of what the white troops for either side lost. That is the point I am making in reference to the 8 massacres mentioned in the letter. I just do not see it. Hopefully by the end of next week I will get started on some letter writing.
Well, one thing that I have heard and is supposedly well substantiated. Black Confederate prisoners of war were often shot when they reached the prison camps to which they were sent. Hardly an "enlightened" act on the part of the noble Union.
Also, with regard to Union "buffalo soldiers" as the Indians called them, well when they died at the hands of Confederates it is presented as if they were singled out rather than just being another casualty of war. Black federals however, were often used to guard Confederate prisoners and took an especial delight in tormenting them, especially the officers. One former slave found himself guarding his former master and took delight in tormenting him by shouting "Top rung on de bottom now, Massa! Top rung on de bottom!" It is not unusual therefore, that the reaction of many Southern soldiers towards black Yankees was more than ordinarily hostile.
Still, I am reminded of what an Indian chief told members of Congress when he testified about the war in the west: "When the white man wins, it is a victory. When the Indian wins, it is a massacre." The same can be said for black Union casualties.
During the day the platform around the pen is constantly paced by sentinels chiefly of the Invalid Corps, whose duty it is to see that the prisoners are orderly, and particularly, that no one crosses “the dead line.” This is a shallow ditch traced around within the enclosure, about fifteen feet from the fence. The penalty for stepping over this is death and although the sentinels are probably instructed to warn any one who may be violating the rule, the order does not seem to be imperative, and the negroes, when on duty, rarely troubled themselves with this superfluous formality.
Last night the negro regiment which constitutes part of our guard and which had been raiding over in Westmoreland and the adjacent counties returned. Their captives consisted of a hundred head of cattle-principally poor women’s cows-several ploughs, buggies, primeval sulkies, harrows, beds, chairs, etc and who knows what else they may do and all from twenty to thirty decrepit CITIZENS. Every month and sometimes more frequently, they are sent across the river by their officers on a plundering tour. These raids, usually made in a country entirely devoid of Confederates soldiers, are not reported by the yankees but are used to keep alive the martial ardor and fidelity of the black troops. ...Sgt. Anthony M. Keiley, POW, Pt. Lookout
Sorry I know I got off topic, but as you can see in this letter there were bad things going on that many folks have never heard of.
Over 180,000 African Americans fought in this war, on both sides of the battle. The total number of African American soldiers who died during the Civil War was around 40,000.
Letter of Private Frank Bailey, 34th New York Infantry Regiment USA to his brother in Middleville, New York: -
"West Point, Virginia, 12 May 1862 - I hear that the Rebels sent out a Regt. of niggers to fight our men and that they were as naked as when they were born, except the brogues on their feet, and they incited to all sorts of cruelty. It is said that they cut the throats of our wounded and then rob them of every article of any value. The soldiers are death on niggers now. If they catch a [censored] in the woods, and there is no officer near, they hang them without any ceremony. Now if this is true that the Southern chivalry as they style themselves put these niggers up to such deeds as this, may the curse of good light on them. It is worse than the English were in the Revolution to hire the Indians, but their race is about run when the stoop to such barbarism as that. Yesterday there was two niggers hung close by here by our men. One of them had $20.00 government note in his pocket. There is no mistake but the Rebels have black soldiers for I have seen them brought in as prisoners of war. I hear most are killed even before they reach the prison which serves them right.I saw one who had the stripes of an orderly sergeant on his coat. I don't beleive in taking them prisoner, but kill them where ever they find them, that they may never more curse the land with their hateful presence."
