Use of the Confederate Flag
Some may wonder why I occasionally use the Confederate flag on one or more of my web pages and yes, even have the song Dixie playing in the back round. Well, I'm a 'Southern Sympathizer'. No, I'm not a 'Racist'! I get really upset when I hear people or groups getting riled about seeing a confederate flag flying. It really demonstrates their total ignorance of the civil war and why some of the southern states chose to leave the union. It shows they didn't study history or learn from it so, they are doomed to re-live it.
First off, the flag most often seen today, the one shown above, is not the one most used by the confederate states as their national flag. Nor is it the 'Stars and Bars' as many mistakenly call it. Over the course of the war, the Confederacy used several flags before they finally settled on one. The one shown above is the Confederate Battle flag and was always carried into battle. The 'Stars and Bars' much resembled the Union flag and because of this, was not used very long. It consisted of three bars, red, white, red with a field of blue in the upper left corner with a white star for each of the seceded states. A sample can be seen below along with the other flags they used for various periods of time.
The flag most used by the confederacy was the Third National Flag shown below but it was not usually carried into battle.
Now, why do I get upset when stupid people say the Confederate Battle Flag is a symbol of racism? It's because they're ignorant of why the southern states succeeded from the union. They think the whole reason was so southerners could maintain the tradition of slavery.............NOT SO! They seceded over the 'Rights of States To Govern Themselves' and not have an 'All Powerful Central Government' telling them everything they could do or not do. They felt the National Government should be restricted to country wide matters such as 'national defense' and the states should be allowed to handle their local affairs as best fit their circumstance. A feeling I strongly share today and what it seems, the founding fathers had in mind! Even today, a long discussion could be had to argue this point but it's too long to be argued here. But basically, the South felt that the Federal government should handle items like defense, interstate commerce, national transportation, national health concerns, food quality, develop and maintain a uniform currency and so forth. Then, leave the rest to the individual states who better had the pulse of their community. Alas, it's never to be. The opportunity ended on April 9 th , 1865 when Lee surrendered the army of Northern Virginia to Grant at the McLean house in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
The institution of slavery was only one issue in the civil war. Less than twenty percent of southerners owned slaves and a large percentage of them owned only a few. I'll not pretend to justify slavery but I will look at the facts and consider the national and world attitude at the time. Slavery had been around for hundreds of years all over the world. It had been carried over to this country primarily because of the need for a large labor force to prepare for, plant and harvest cotton. And cotton was this nations largest industry before the industrial revolution. Much of the nation depended on it for their livelihood. Not just southern planters. However, before the civil war, southern planters knew that slavery was becoming short lived for a couple of reasons. One was due to the changing values of the American public who were beginning to view slavery as immoral and wrong. Two was the ever increasing cost of slaves and the overhead involved in keeping them. They were loosing their cost effectiveness yet there was no machinery available to replace them. Also, southern planters who had owned slaves for several generations know that to release them overnight would be disastrous. They were ill equipped to function in society. Most could not read or write nor did they know the laws, know how government worked even knew the value of money. The planters knew that there must be some plan developed for their eventual release to help them obtain some basic skills required for their survival in the free world. Also, the planters wanted some measure of compensation for they had large amounts of money invested in their slaves. And, who today would want to give up a large percent of their net worth just for the sake of being a 'good ole boy'?
The vast majority; well over eighty percent, of the young, middle aged and even old men who fought and died for the confederacy did so not to keep the institution of slavery. They came from small farms, mills, stores, offices and even boats and they did not own slaves nor did they want to. They fought to maintain their way of life. They fought because they were being invaded and intruded on by a force they thought threatened that way of life. Many had their own reasons such as loyalty to their state, for the adventure, because their friends were doing it or even just for a chance to get away from what they considered the 'drone of ordinary life'. They fought and died bravely just as the northern solders did. They died by the ten's, no, hundreds of thousands (there were more American causalities during the civil war than in all our other wars combined). If not killed in battle, they died afterward from their wounds or the crude surgery preformed on them or from the diseases contracted in their camps. For whatever their reasons, both North and South, they died or were maimed and endured hardships many of us today cannot even imagine.
To me it is a 'grave injustice' to malign either flag that so many Americans fought and died under. I have the highest regard for the flag of the United States and what it stands for. After all, I have two sons in the military who are now (12/6/04) engaged in a fight started by this country. But, I also have a high regard for the other flag that brave sons of this country fought and died so bravely for.
Therefore, for those of you who turn thumbs down on this symbol of Southern courage and bravery, I suggest you take some time away from the TV and look past today's 'politically correct spin' on this issue and re-study this countries history. Then, you might view the Confederate Flag a bit differently.