the war for southern independence

The Civil War is my new topic of interest, and as such, I listened to two audiobooks on the subject on my way up north.  The first was “The Road to Appomattox”, a fairly brief overview of the events that led to Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox.  After hearing that book and the description of Sherman’s march to the sea, I can understand how southerners might have held a grudge against the Yankees for Sherman’s complete disregard for the people of the south.  However.   This was 150 years ago*.   I learned a lot from this book, but the biggest one was about Lee’s personality. The implication is that he didn’t really think the war between the states was a good idea and had said he didn’t think the slave issue was worth it, but fought for the south out of duty to his home state of Virginia. 

The second book I listened to (and am not quite done with) is “Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from and Unfinished Civil War”.   This guy traveled through the south, interviewing people who were keeping the Civil War alive.   But they don’t call it the Civil War, they call it the War Between the States, or better yet, the War for Southern Independence. The people he interviewed said things along the lines of – “we aren’t racist, of course not, but we think the war was really an issue about states’ rights, and the North completely overruled the opinions of the south, that’s why we fought.”  As if enslaving a race of people was simply a matter of personal preference.  The most shocking thing that keeps popping back into my head is a description about a 12-year-old member of the children’s group of United Daughters of the Confederacy.  She was doing a paper in school on the Holocaust, and how the Jewish people were oppressed.  She drew a comparison between the Jewish race and the people of the south.   They both wanted something and couldn’t have it, and were oppressed by a higher power (north = nazis, apparently).   I, personally, would draw a parallel between slaves and the Jewish race, or Nazis and Southerners.  However, this is my own personal opinion.

* I thought (mistakenly) I was very American in this fashion — I think we should move on and live an pleasant life and not hold grudges for things that happened to our “people” hundreds of years ago. I feel the same way about centuries-old conflicts in other parts of the world. Hey! It happened a thousand years ago!! Get over it!! This idea is apparently not something that all American share.  

Posted by Marie on November 27th, 2006 under US History

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