Featured The Civil War - Why We Care

Niggling is a word often used in my family.
nig·gle
ˈniɡəl/
verb
gerund or present participle: niggling
cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety.
"a suspicion niggled at the back of her mind"
synonyms: irritate, annoy, bother, provoke, exasperate, upset, gall, irk, rankle with;More
informalrile, get to, bug
"his behavior does niggle me"
find fault with (someone) in a petty way.
"colleagues say he loved to niggle and criticize people"
synonyms: complain, quibble, nitpick, fuss, carp, cavil, grumble, gripe, grouse, moan
"he niggles about the prices"

BUG - there's your colloquialism!
 
Niggling is a word often used in my family.
nig·gle
ˈniɡəl/
verb
gerund or present participle: niggling
cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety.
"a suspicion niggled at the back of her mind"
synonyms: irritate, annoy, bother, provoke, exasperate, upset, gall, irk, rankle with;More
informalrile, get to, bug
"his behavior does niggle me"
find fault with (someone) in a petty way.
"colleagues say he loved to niggle and criticize people"
synonyms: complain, quibble, nitpick, fuss, carp, cavil, grumble, gripe, grouse, moan
"he niggles about the prices"
I forgot the origin: Early 17th century (in the sense ‘do something in a fiddling or ineffectual way’): apparently of Scandinavian origin; compare with Norwegian nigla . Current senses date from the late 18th century.
 
It started when I was very young, during the war's centennial, and my grandfather, whom I adored, gave me a (facsimile) confederate kepi and from that day forward, never called me by my name. Henceforward, I was always "Reb" right on to the day he died decades later. All those years later, I continue to struggle to put distance between my self and the southern soldier and try to view him more objectively.

The pull continued, growing more and more...
...discovering R.E. Lee, whom I still view as an inspirational model for personal character.
...reading Abe Lincoln's speeches and wondering how and where did that amazing poetic stuff come from.
...setting foot on Shiloh battlefield and tingling the entire day, feeling I was on deeply holy ground (haven't felt that anywhere else.
...standing on the shore of Lake Erie, peering through a blinding snow toward the island that was a POW camp and wondering how a southern boy could survive such a winter.
...holding Gen. Sterling Price's sword in my hands and literally touching the past.
...stumbling upon a hidden away cemetary right around the corner that was the site of a freedmen's village...and my head spinning at the thought that people were enslaved right where I lived.
...and every single time I hear old "negro spirituals" and feeling the utter pain and powerlessness that give those songs a beauty like none other.
 
It started when I was very young, during the war's centennial, and my grandfather, whom I adored, gave me a (facsimile) confederate kepi and from that day forward, never called me by my name. Henceforward, I was always "Reb" right on to the day he died decades later. All those years later, I continue to struggle to put distance between my self and the southern soldier and try to view him more objectively.

The pull continued, growing more and more...
...discovering R.E. Lee, whom I still view as an inspirational model for personal character.
...reading Abe Lincoln's speeches and wondering how and where did that amazing poetic stuff come from.
...setting foot on Shiloh battlefield and tingling the entire day, feeling I was on deeply holy ground (haven't felt that anywhere else.
...standing on the shore of Lake Erie, peering through a blinding snow toward the island that was a POW camp and wondering how a southern boy could survive such a winter.
...holding Gen. Sterling Price's sword in my hands and literally touching the past.
...stumbling upon a hidden away cemetary right around the corner that was the site of a freedmen's village...and my head spinning at the thought that people were enslaved right where I lived.
...and every single time I hear old "negro spirituals" and feeling the utter pain and powerlessness that give those songs a beauty like none other.

That pulls at the strings, Man!

You ever play the blues? You got soul.
(Ever heard the Randy Travis song, "I Thought He Walked On Water"? (let me know))
 
"The Civil War is not only the central event of American history but its a central event in large ways for the world itself. If we believe today in the 20th century, as surely we must, that popular government is the way to go, it is the way to the emancipation of the human spirit; then the Civil War established the fact that a popular government could survive, that it could overcome an internal secession movement that could destroy it. So the war becomes, in essence, it becomes a testament for the liberation of the human spirit for all time."

--Stephen B. Oates

That's why I care.

That's why everyone should care.

Sincerely,
Unionblue
 
Niggling? Is that a thing? A word? Did you have to drop back to the Oxford English Dictionary to get it?
What was it's origin?


Why don't you take your fresh, young mind to a moderator and further press this point so that us old farts can get 90% of the benefit that you don't really need, but are nice enough to act like it?

You've had a smart phone in your hand since you could walk and computers are your thing.

Typewriters were my thing.

In my first year of college while writing for the Chart at MSSU my prof invited me down to the basement under the Communications department to write my next article on the "word processor".

It was as big as a couch and had a crappy monitor, before Windows, and was weaker than Microsoft Word.

But it was HUGE step up from my MANUAL typewriter!
Niggling is always a word I've used for pestiferous comments. Never did look it up. Stuff that you shake off. Not important.
 
For me, it started when I was in middle school ('89 or thereabouts). I learned about the ACW in the first American History class I ever took. Don't know what, but I think it was somthing about the evocative nature of the names of the battles and leaders that drew me in. I wanted to learn more. I read everything I could find about the ACW in my local library - Catton, Foote, those Time-Life books with the silver covers, you name it. My enthusiasm may have waxed and waned over the years, but I have never looked back.

For me, the ACW is the Great American Drama that made this nation what it is - for better or for worse.
 
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For as long as I can remember, I've had one history book or another close at hand. But this one was my closest friend for many, many years...

Also, I don't know exactly who my Virginia ancestors were during that time, but the war - good, bad, and ugly - was literally "a new birth of freedom" for half of them.
Ol' Shelby put it best, I think: "It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a h--- of a crossroads. ..."
 
I seem to have had an inherent interest in history from the beginning. Being reared in Northern Virginia seemed to feed that interest. Any time in history class we talked about the Civil War my interest seemed more focused and heightened. It's never really gone away. I've added a bit of an interest for local history since I graduated college. And, within the last few years, I've added some genealogical interest as well.
 
My first experience with anything having to do with the ACW took place when I was about 5 years old. My Poppa (dad) took me to Fort Pillow. I didn't have the slightest clue what was going on, but I did know there was a really cool swinging bridge we could cross.. and for my 5 year old attention span that was sufficient enough to justify the time spent with my Pops. Even though I was only a mere five years old, I could see the respect and reverence my father had for such a sacred place. That stuck. Later on in my youth my boy scout troop frequented the same site and we camped out several times. It took about 15 years for that same reverence to surface in my own life. Searching for a sense of nostalgia and a cool place to go "ghost hunting" I remembered the old Civil War Fort my Poppa had taken me to when I was a very young boy. We went on Halloween in twenty ten.. I didn't find any spirits but I did find a "ghost" within myself. My father had since passed away, but upon my return I felt this overwhelming sense of respect for what had taken place.. the same feeling that I could feel that my father had a decade and a half earlier. This was the tip of the iceberg...

Since then I've found out that both sides of my family actually fought in the Civil War. I am a direct descendant of men that fought and bled for their Confederacy and that is something I am very proud of. I even found out that I have a collateral connection to the American Revolution!

I care because this period in American history, as many have stated in prior posts, is slowly fading from the memory of our fellow citizens. As citizens of the United States we are torch bearers corporately and as individuals. It is our responsibility to never let the flame of our fore fathers become extinguished.
 
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