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ORIGINAL: Dvr22999874

One man's traitor is another man's patriot.

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ORIGINAL: JVoV

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ORIGINAL: Dvr22999874

One man's traitor is another man's patriot.

And even the fallen soldiers of the Third Reich had families that mourned them.

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ORIGINAL: propertyowner247

Many of the men who served under the confederacy were veterans who had served the United States as commissioned officers. The United States government was instrumental and accommodating of slavery many years before the Civil War and slavery was legal in every state. Even the initial foundations of the White House were laid with slave labor and it's documented in the Library of Congress. Many slaves in the north were not even freed until the Emancipation Proclamation after the war was ended with some even owned by free blacks. Yes, the articles of secession for each Confederate state enumerates slavery as a driving factor, but it was not the only source of contention, just the "straw that broke the camel's back": a state's sovereign right to make it own laws and decide whether or not to be part of the Union was also at stake. New York had threatened secession even before war to leave the Union. These "traitors" as you call them, we men of principle and honor who held a difference of opinion with the political party who was in control at the time. The party of Lincoln were Republicans who ran on a platform vowing to outlaw slavery if elected. If you'd delve deep into their writings, you would learn that many of them were caught in an ethical dilemma with an allegiance to their mother states. Those who merely see the issue of slavery as the only political point of contention at the time, miss a great deal of the underlying principles that led to the war. Nor do the realize the price that was paid by civilian populations of the southern states during and after the war, as most every city was burned, railways destroyed and women and children left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Read some of the journals left by the women who suffered thru the raping, pillaging and burning of their homes, burying of their families, and how they were forced to survive on roots and weeds. Lincoln and the Congress issued a full pardon to every man who had served under the Confederacy better understanding the issues of their time than we ever will. If Lincoln had lived, former slaves would have been shipped back to their native lands, but many felt they would be better served in this country. It's amazing and disturbing that with over one million lives lost and 150 years later some people still cannot turn loose of the past yet we wonder why we cannot move forward with mutual respect.

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ORIGINAL: propertyowner247

"Without the money to attend a university, young Robert E. Lee instead entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. There, he quickly rose in the ranks and graduated second in the class of 1829. Lee first saw battle in the Mexican War, fought in 1846-48. He served as captain under General Winfield Scott."

"Trained as a civil engineer at the United States Military Academy, Beauregard served with distinction as an engineer in the Mexican-American War. Following a brief appointment as superintendent at West Point in 1861, after the South seceded he resigned from the United States Army and became the first brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He commanded the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, at the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Three months later he won the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia."

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Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_jefferson.html#a8uZgh9XB8LIBk4z.99

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Union General GeorgeThomas left no written record of his opinion on slavery, but the fact that he owned slaves during much of his life indicates that he was not opposed to it."[7] A traditional story is that Thomas taught as many as 15 of his family's slaves to read, violating a Virginia law that prohibited this,[8] and despite the wishes of his father

A fort south of Newport, Kentucky was named in his honor, and the city of Fort Thomas now stands there and carries his name as well. A memorial honoring Thomas, Major General George Henry Thomas, can be found in the eponymous Thomas Circle in Washington, D.C.[37]

A distinctive engraved portrait of Thomas appeared on U.S. paper money in 1890 and 1891. The bills are called "treasury notes" or "coin notes" and are widely collected today because of their fine, detailed engraving. The $5 Thomas "fancyback" note of 1890, with an estimated 450-600 in existence relative to the 7.2 million printed, ranks as number 90 in the "100 Greatest American Currency Notes" compiled by Bowers and Sundman (2006).[38]

Thomas County, Kansas, established in 1888, is named in his honor. The townships of Thomas County are named after fallen soldiers in the Battle of Chickamauga.[39]

In 1999 a statue of Thomas by sculptor Rudy Ayoroa was unveiled in Lebanon, Kentucky.[40]

A bust of Thomas is located in Grant's Tomb in Manhattan, New York.

A fine 3/4 length portrait of him, executed by US general Samuel Woodson Price (1828-1918) in 1869 and gifted by the heirs of General Price, hangs in the stairwell to Special Collections at Transylvania University, Lexington KY.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Thomas

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ORIGINAL: KenDckey

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I believe that those in the south thought they were patriots of their state. Their state left the union and therefore we no longer required to serve it, That is why some in the south still call it the war of northern aggression.

Considering the accounts of pillaging, looting, burning and destruction levied by the Union forces on the grounds and ports of southern states, the Union soldiers were the aggressors. Most towns of any size were burned, except New Orleans was spared after surrendering to Union forces with hopes that France would come to their rescue. Confederate soldiers never had the opportunity to create as much carnage and destruction on the properties of Union territories, nor did they actually want to. The southern position was more of a defensive posture instead of offensive, although with Washington, D.C. being so close to Virginia, there were attempts to potentially capture the Capital. And had Union forces not insisted on holding Fort Sumter and the port of Charleston (which South Carolina deemed to be part of the sovereign state) there would never have been an offensive move by the Confederates to oust them, thus the first shots of the war might not have been fired there. Again, a matter of state's rights versus an over-reaching federal government who insisted on holding and fortifying Fort Sumter.

Even to this day, the states are calling for a convention of states to curtail the over-zealous federal government as guaranteed by the Constitution (Convention of States Project).

< Message edited by propertyowner247 -- 12/20/2015 10:34:12 PM >

(in reply to KenDckey)

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What regiment did Thomas Jefferson fight in ? Was it a front-line unit ?............

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ORIGINAL: propertyowner247

According to what I'm finding via Wikapedia (which I understand is not always reliable), Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard (originally of Louisiana) led the initial Battle of Bull Run in the first offensive. He was later supported by troops under Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston arrived from the Shenandoah Valley by railroad. But keep in mind there were two battles fought at Bull Run.