re: How are you remembering Union Soldiers that died in the Civil War

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How are you remembering Union Soldiers that died in the Civil War

I remember them as Instigators of the War of Northern Aggression invading sovereign states that no longer wanted to be a part of a union they felt was unjust.

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One of the smart things that Alexander Hamilton did was to get the federal government to assume the debts of all the states.

Hamilton Lays It Out


This would help cement nationalism. When the Navy Act of 1794 was passed, it was suggested that all six of the frigates funded be built in New York Harbor. President Washington nixed that idea. He had the building sites spread out - again to foster a sense of nationalism:


USS Chesapeake Gosport, Virginia
USS Constitution Boston, Massachusetts
USS President New York, New York
USS United States Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
USS Congress Portsmouth, New Hampshire
USS Constellation Baltimore, Maryland

But the main proof that the States surrendered their ultimate sovereignty to the national authority were the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, adopted in 1779.

Did you catch that? Perpetual Union.

When the Articles proved unequal to the task (there was no president, no judiciary, and no taxation), the Constitution was adopted. Note the Preamble:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

What is more lasting than a perpetual union made more perfect?

You should know that the Rebels did not claim to acting within the law when they published secession documents. They clearly new their actions were extralegal -- outside the law. Laughably, to cement this, they put chief revolutionary George Washington on the Great Seal of the so-called CSA. They even adopted his birthday -- 22 February.



There he is. To use a good old Marine Corps term - they trick-fricked the common people of the South.

Washington was a strong proponent of Union.

"In all our deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view, that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected; and thus the Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable."

9/17/87

A this is a key thing thing: "led each state in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected..."

Each state. There was no question of the permanence of the Union, and the secesh didn't claim that in 1861. It was after the war that some former secesh started pushing the idea of the Club of states from which any of them could withdraw.

"During both of Robert E. Lee's invasions of the North—the Maryland Campaign during the fall of 1862 and the Gettysburg Campaign the following summer—the Army of Northern Virginia suffered serious attrition from "straggling" and desertion. Lee himself estimated that a third of his force was absent at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862."

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In just over one week before the battle at Appomattox Court House, Lee had lost more than half of his army.

During the Siege of Petersburg from June 1864 - April 1865 Lee had about 60,000 men under his command to oppose more than 100,000 Union troops. On April 1, a Union victory at the Battle of Five Forks made it possible for Grant's forces to wrap around Petersburg, leaving Lee’s entrenchments vulnerable. When Federals broke through Confederate defenses at Petersburg the next day, Lee was forced to evacuate."

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The rebels were not defeated in battle. They went home. They had all they wanted of being confederates.

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You don't have to agree with the motivations of the bureaucrats who started a war to take arms against an invading army that brings death, ruin & starvation to you and your loved ones.

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While the intricacies of individual campaigns and battles will find heroes and villains on both sides of the war, boiled down to its very base, the reality is that the war was fought to preserve slavery. That honorable men got drawn into it is a sad causality of the inability of the very bureaucrats and wealthy land owners to keep from letting go of the institustion of slavery.

The facts that you often post are your biased opinion and not historical fact about the war. In other words, your facts are sketchy at best. You only represent your biased opinion. Your claims about Union desertion or lack of it are ridiculous and not based upon fact. In other words, you have an extreme prejudice and refuse to be honest regarding both sides of that war. During both of Robert E. Lee's invasions of the North—the Maryland Campaign during the fall of 1862 and the Gettysburg Campaign the following summer—the Army of Northern Virginia suffered serious attrition from "straggling" and desertion. Lee himself estimated that a third of his force was absent at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. Some of these men were too weak to maintain the year's punishing schedule of marching, especially after the grueling campaigns from the Seven Days through Second Manassas. Men suffered from a critical lack of shoes, clothing, and food, and, following the campaign, Lee quickly moved to fix problems in the Confederate quartermaster department. Other soldiers deserted not for lack of supplies but because they opposed on principle Lee's decision to take the war north. It is a documented fact that Lee's army was in its worst physical shape of the war during the Sharpsburg campaign. There are countless eye witness accounts about how bad they were supplied and how dirty they were. Even about how bad they smelled. Even with reduced numbers Lee fought McClellan to a standstill at Sharpsburg. McClellan had 87,000 troops to Lee's 45,000 at Sharpsburg. The ANV had not even achieved its greatest success yet. Take at look at the battles in Virginia after Sharpsburg and up until the Gettysburg camapaign. The ANV was winning the war during that time. Lincoln was going through army commanders with the AOP as often as he was changing underwear. If your propaganda was true and all Confederate troops were deserting how did Lee and the ANV win all of those battles during that time?
At Five Forks those men did not desert, they were overwhelmed by far superior numbers and by Confedrate commanders attending a Shad Bake and being caught with their pants down. Pickett was one of those commanders. At this time Grant had as many as 120,000 troops compared to Lee's 52,000. Pickett was outnumbered 2:1 at Five Forks. Lee had to abandon Petersburg and Richmond after FIve Forks because that reduced his supply lines for his army to only one not because of desertion. During the Petersburg and Appomattox campaigns most desertions were North Carolinians and Virginians.
My last ancestor with Lee's army was wounded during the breakthrough at Petersburg. He was left behind but he did not desert or surrender. He started walking to try and catch up with Lee's army and was finally captured and paroled at Farmville, Va. He never caught up to the army so he wasn't present at Appomattox.

Five Forks

You claim to have had ancestors that fought for the Confederacy. Here is something that someone should have taught you growing up:

“Sirs, you have no reason to be ashamed of your Confederate dead; see to it they have no reason to be ashamed of you.”
Robert Lewis Dabney, Chaplain for Stonewall Jackson

Just a little technicality. The south was not an enemy of the north. Just wanted a little independence, that's all. Just wanted to be left alone... was not until ole Abe sent 75000 troops through Virginia did the south get riled up.

Links are great. I appreciate them but some of your personal opinions are just outrageous. You come across as very biased and unfair. There are two sides to every story you know. That war was the most complicated event that has ever occurred to this country. Look I don't won't to argue with you. Personally I have been involved in over 100 programs at state and national battlefields regarding that war. Many of them NPS endorsed. I have led tours at Chickamauga, Shiloh, Gettysburg and Sharpsburg. I have helped raise thousands of dollars over the last 30+ years for battlefield preservation and for the maintenance of those parks. My ancestors fought for the Confederacy and I respect their sacrifice and service. But when I did those things mentioned above it was for the preservation and to honor the sacrifices/memories of both sides. My interest has been to promote education regarding that war. I am very proud of my Confederate ancestors and will not apologize for their service.

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While the intricacies of individual campaigns and battles will find heroes and villains on both sides of the war, boiled down to its very base, the reality is that the war was fought to preserve slavery.

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Despite all the denials and bullshite, this is the bottom line. Although the election of Lincoln showed how things -might- be going, there was no overt threat to slavery and Lincoln made clear that he would take no action.

"I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution--which amendment, however, I have not seen--has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable."

3/4/61

Just even a hint of what -might- happen to the institution of Slavery set off the planters and they trick-fricked the common people into fighting for them.

That said - Lincoln made clear that as president he would not allow slavery into the national territories. This would begin to end slavery. And the Slavers couldn't let that happen.

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Anyone else thankful the stars and bars won that war?

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They didn't, dipshit

I will do the exact same thing I do to remember all soldiers that fought to keep citizens under the control of a regime against their will. Nothing.