Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
The study of the blackpower marksman led to the Civil War. The Civil War has a wealth of information and hence I tend to read more regimental histories, diaries, journals and memoirs than works by professional historians.
The Civil War is the turning point in United States history -- the time when the the concept of "united" was tried and ultimately proven in the crucible of war. It set in motion the industrialization and expansion which would make the United States the modern superpower it is today.
When I do my talks to schoolkids on the Civil War, I try to tie it to things that they can relate to... free home mail delivery, "In God We Trust" on coins, a woman's paycheck, and an IRS tax form, among other things!
Thank you for your posts, they all make for interesting reading.
Myself, I did not care one whit for Civil War history as I was growing up or while I was in high school. I even managed to go 19 years in the US Army without ever experiencing much interest for that time period. It was in 1991, when the movie 'Glory' came out in movie theaters did I get the bug.
Then I saw the movie 'Gettysburg' and noticed that at the end credits that there were a lot of 'reenacting' units that participated in the making of the film. In 1993, I joined a local reenacting unit here in Columbus, Ohio, and the rest, as they say, is history.
My main interest in the study of the Civil War is how ordinary people do extraordinary things during the war. People, just like us, doing things that I shake my head in wonder at or read the pages of their exploits in sheer awe. That inspires me to read, but the main thrust of my intense interest is WHY. Why did the war come about? Why did people choose to fight, and more importantly, why did they stay and fight when things became so miserable? What drove them?
Another thing of interest to me is just how horrible and hard it is to get men into a position where they can kill a large number of their fellow human beings in large numbers. Especially during a time when it was so hard to get from one place to another with the men and means to do so. I was always amazed in the modern military at just how tough it was to prepare, train, equip, then place a modern soldier in a position to kill another human being. It always seemed like a tremendous waste of resources and effort that could have been much better spent on building a school or a hospital. And that effort is with ships, aircraft, computers and modern weapons with GPS and sattelites, etc. Trying to do the same thing with the support structure of the 1860's just amazes me.
Always as I study that time, I learn more and more just how little I know about history. And more and more, I have learned that my ancestors, on both sides, are someone that I admire and can be proud of. I will never come close to experiencing what they went through, and I thank God for their sacrifice so I don't have to. I have learned that much, at least.
I look at my grandchildren, all age nine, two girls and a boy, and I think about their comments about grandpa's funny hobby. I'm taking my grandson on his first reenactment in Marietta, Ohio, this weekend. Got him to dress up in wool and brogans and to sleep out in a tent. Hope it teaches him things were a bit different in those days. Hope it is a memory he will keep with him for a while. I think its important.
Thanks again for the responses.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
I've always had at least some interest in the war. I became serious about it after I began researching my family tree and discovered so many ancestors who were involved in so many ways. The more I've learned, the more questions I have.
My reason lies in many of the threads that have been posted before me.....a pinch of this and a dash oh that. The main reason I became just about obsessed with it, is the notion that a country calling itself America would go to war with itself. Reading how each state would rather be looked upon as a separate entity from the rest, like a mini- country with its own sovereignty; telling others to stay out of their "biz"and killing over such a notion, just baffles me to this day. On the flip side of this notion, I have an audio tape called "Voices of Gettysburg- Pickett's Charge". It has a personification of an actor speaking as a soldier witnessing a strange phenomena. At the end of the first day (an overview) those that "thirsted for the blood of their foes. Now with the campfires of the field hospitals lighting the fields of the wounded, their rancor gone, now search to comfort their wounded enemies..... the Texan with Maine, the New Yorker with the Mississippian, The Virginian with the Ohioan." It makes you think the war was fought with a bunch of schizophrenic people.It never ceases to amaze me.
Just listened to a webcast of Edwin Bearss delivered at the Pritzger Military Library in Chicago in June 2006.
He is asked if the study of the Civil War has any type of religious aspect to it. He, as typical, rephrases the question, then replies that is is something like 'going to church'.
Other from this webcast:
Bearss likens those who focus on the Eastern theater as having VD - Virginia Disease!
He also mentions something I had never noticed before - that tho Lee was given the position of 'General in Chief' on feb. 22, 1865, he resigned from that position on April 7, so as not to be reponsible for surrendering the entire Confederate army should it come to that, and so only surrendered the ANV.
He also mentions something I had never noticed before - that tho Lee was given the position of 'General in Chief' on feb. 22, 1865, he resigned from that position on April 7, so as not to be reponsible for surrendering the entire Confederate army should it come to that, and so only surrendered the ANV.
Sam: I've not seen any kind of reference to that. You've dug up a little tiny piece of history with what should have some bouncy-bouncy in thia forum. Good stuff, Sam. Thanks.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
It started out for me as a lad in 2nd or 3rd grade receiving from my parents some books on the Civil War as a birthday present. I remember being disappointed because I wanted books on my preferred era- the Revolutionary War. But dutifully I read my new books and started a life long (with periods of inertia) study and joy of the Civil War. It helped that my cousin, when I was younger even than that, got a huge set of Marx Toys blue & gray soldiers called the Battle of Gettysburg- must have been what looked to a kid like a zillion wonderful pieces! We would spend days drawing terrain features and setting up armies and having at it in the finest WBTS tradition! At that time I even liked being the Rebels!
In later years, I came to realize just how closely issues and problems of that era are reflected in current times, and how what our ancestors did, successes and mistakes, prove valuable in understanding and judging our own times. A perfect example would be how closely the current Democratic Party reflects the Northern antiwar element that plagued President Lincoln, reflecting as well how President Bush is also plagued. Another example is the bulldog and fighting spirit of the South in the War years and that kindred spirit alive and well and worthily carried on our Southern friends now.
__________________ 'It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag'
My reasons are the same as many of yours so I want bother to repost whats been said..
I would like add..
American fighting americans believing in the same God.
Knowing I had relatives fighting relatives.
Being able to stand on a piece of ground just few miles from my house & saying Although both where american this many confederates and this many federals died and were wounded on this date in history.
Men killing each other in as if it was nothing & then trying to ease the suffering of the ones they just tried to kill.
May we remember that this is the anv. of the Battle of Chickamuga the bloodest two day battle of the war.
Regards, Steven
I remember witnessing a very pathetic seen early sunday morning soon after the fight opened. Lt. Renefro of the 22nd Alabama Regiment who some days before the fight had got leave of absence to visit his home at Jacksonville, Alabama (his father kept the hotel there at that time) and his father had brought him back to the army in a buggy arriving there on the evening before. Sunday morning Lt. Renefro joined his command and went into the fight and was killed on the first charge. When I saw him, his father was carrying his body off the battlefield in the buggy in which they had come and my information was that he brought his body on to Jacksonville to be buried.
Captain William P. Howell Co. I 25th Alabama Infantry Deas Brigade - battle of Chickamauga
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
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