Call it what you will, but it was hardly civil
01/27/2011
There may be as many names for the American Civil War as there were contributing factors to the bloody conflict, which began 150 years ago this spring.
Some of the more popular monikers for the 1861-65 conflict include the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression and the War for Southern Independence.
Of course, who can forget the Late Unpleasantness and the War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance?
Bob Bradley, chief curator at the Alabama state archives, has come up with more than four dozen names for the war.
He took many names from “Our Incredible Civil War,” a book by the late historian Burke Davis; others he picked up while doing research over the years, according to a story in the Birmingham News.
“It’s like collecting baseball cards: ‘Oh, there’s another name for the war,’” he said.
Other, lesser-recognized names for the war include: the Second War for Independence, the Great Rebellion and the War for the Union.
And for a good bit of the first century after the conflict, the conflict was also referred to as the “Confederate War,” at least in the South.
That term is found throughout the WPA Slave Narratives, for example, the massive effort produced between 1936 and 1938 in which writers and researchers interviewed and retold the experiences of more than 2,300 former slaves.
Bradley chief historian at Fort Sumter National Monument from 1977-81, said the many names for the war illustrate a larger issue: People still disagree about the conflict and its causes.
“What this really symbolizes is that the debate on the Civil War continues. It’s one of the only wars where what you call it can provoke an argument,” he told the News. “Is it a war for secession … an abolitionist’s war … a war for independence? Each one of these reflects what somebody thinks that war was all about.”
Bradley said many veterans of the war, which resulted in the deaths of more than 620,000 soldiers, and their descendants simply called it The War.
Debate over names erupted after the U.S. government in the 1880s started publishing official records of Union and Confederate armies in what the records called “The War of the Rebellion,” Bradley said.
Many Southerners claimed the war wasn’t a rebellion, or civil war, against a lawful national government, but a war between states free to leave the Union, Bradley said.
01/27/2011 at 11:07 am
Call the Civil War exactly what the South called it, before it started.
Call it what Southern newspapers called it — call it was Southern leaders called it, in March of 1861.
The War to SPREAD slavery.
The Southern leaders issued Five Ultimatums, in March of 1861, according to Southern newspapers. These same Ultimatums were printed in newspapers, North and South.
Southern newspapers first picked up the Five ULtimatums, as Richmond newspapers called the Ultimatums “THE TRUE ISSUE”
What was the true issue? What did the Southern leaders say the true issue was in March of 1861?
All five Ultimatums were about the same thing — the SPREAD of slavery, by force, against the will of the people and states in the “territories”.
That is what the South’s ultimatums were about — all five. That is what the Southern newspapers headlines said was “THE TRUE ISSUE”.
When Lincoln refused to obey these Ultimatums, the South attacked, as promised.
So it was a war about the spread of slavery.
According to John Mosbey, Confederate leader, slavery was the ONLY reason he ever heard mentioned, but he claimed that later “men made up lofty sounding excuses” for why they fought (paraphrased).
It was about the spread of slavery. That is what the leaders said then, that is what the Southern newspapers said then, and it was later, after they lost, that the SOuth tried to make up other excuses.
What else do you expect from people who said God told them to enslave millions of humans, and that torture was ordained by God?
We have white washed (no pun intended) the crazy, insane, vile, evil period of our history. Men who tortured children and sold babies, our American history books have tried to tell us were “Good Christian men, just doing what they thought was right”.
Funny — because after Lincoln and SHerman kicked them from Maine to Montana, these good Christian men never again said God told them to enslave, or that God told them to torture. I guess God changed his mind when Lee surrendered.
This was essentially a religious war, another thing we don’t mention now. The Southern leaders were claiming God ordained not only slavery, not only the torture of slaves, but that “the great moral truth” of the Confederacy was that God wanted white men to enslave black race all over the world.
That comes from CSA Vice President Stephens.
Lee said that God intended pain and suffering for slaves — pain and suffering was “necessary for their instruction.”
How about let’s quit this nonsense white washing BS, and tell what the SOuthern leaders did and said themselves at the time.
Is it too soon? Is 150 years enough? Or do you need another 150 years to get real about this period.
http://fivedemands.blogspot.com
http://deathofsoutherngod.blogspot.com/
01/27/2011 at 11:13 am
Thanks for commenting, Mark.
Always good to have individuals with open minds contributing here.
01/28/2011 at 2:28 pm
I always get a kick out of the “War of Northern Aggression”. I guess the troops at Ft. Sumter were firing on themselves.