On overview of the importance and the result of that great conflict, known as the War between the States... {1861- 1865} This is not you average view about the war...

Date:   12/3/2005 7:58:14 AM ( 19 y ago)

Chapter 1) This is an over view of how we got to where we are today... 

{Many know it as the so called "Civil War" which it was was not....  1) "Strictly speaking, there never was an American Civil War... A civil war is a conflict in which two or more factions fight for control of a nation's government... That was not the case in the United States during the war 1861 to 1865... The seceding Southern states were not trying to take over the US Government; they wanted to declare themselves independent.."  Thomas E. Woods, PhD., The politically Incorrect Guide to American History (Regney,2004), pp61... You may want to read this book, as it follows the truth very close... }    

We will start with the tail end of the War of Northern Aggression, or  War for Southern  Independence,  which ever you like....  April 1865.... BTW there are many titles for this period of disagreement between the States... We can debate the details and different usage on the titles for the war, later....

There is a very good book out  "April 1865.",  It covers this period, and explains how our nation today; is a result of the decisions made by key people during that one month in 1865...  We would be living in a different country if other decisions had been made during that month...  If you get the chance read the book... 

{ BTW, I do not get any kick backs on book sales..}

 I have quite a personal library on this historical conflict...  And  some  considered  me be an quasi authority on this period of American History....  So if you have any questions please let me know and we can seek the answers....

Historical Overview:

Just to give a quick historical over view;  the United States grew apart after Independence from England...  The North became more a copy of the industrial revolution in England, with factories and such;  while the Southland went on being an agricultural society...  This caused a division in the minds of the people in those days...   Each group had shared in the political power of the country up until the 1850's ....  But as more states were brought into the Union;  as so called "none slave states" there became a great difference of opinion, for the citizens in each area of the country... 

Historical note: Negroes [ Negro means black in Spanish] were not the first or only slaves...  The actual word originated with the Vikings, who enslaved some of the Slavic peoples of central Europe, in 900s...  [  thus the word slave ] Of course there have been slaves in almost every culture in history, and it even exist today in certain parts of Southeast Asia & the Middle East...   You may be surprised to find that Islam allows slaves in some African countries today...   We can cover the history of slavery in more detail later.... 

BTW; Even after the War between the States, and the passage of an Constitutional Amendment to end to slavery for the Negroes/Blacks in the USA;  Slavery still existed under the noses of the US Army, in both Arizona, and New Mexico with the buying and selling of young Native Americans (both male & female) as House hold slaves until both became states in 1912.... Huh!! What do you think of that folks??

The issue of slavery in the USA became of great important once Abraham Lincoln, became president in 1860...   I feel HE was a great American, and  stood alone as a giant for the rights of others... There is a very good book out "Team of Rivals" by Doris Goodwin... on his terms as president and the inter action with his cabinet... Once in a cabinet meeting, he purposed an idea, which was put to the cabinet for a  show of support or not by reply of either ya or Na ...  All the cabinet responded with na... then Mr Lincoln, in true form, said "The ya's have it..."  Meaning he would not be swayed from his ideas, by opposition, thank GOD... 

  BTW He once bought a slave in Kentucky.... Which he freed later...   Another little trait of his was, He was a self educated and acted on his own valishion...  This is a trait of a great leader, that is being a self thinker, and not following the crowd...  This is exactly what I advocate in many of my blog messages...  Think for yourself.... DUH!!   

Negro slaves were introduced, in North America, in the late 1600s ....  Slave labor was primarily used to produce crops in the south...  But it was on the way out and would have disappeared within a few years, even if this war had never been faught...  With the advent of the steam engine, and then the internal combustion engine, the days of keeping large numbers of people to work the fields  was limited...  Tractors and combines would and did replace human efforts on farms and in the fields...  So sooner or later "slavery would have ended"....   

FACT:  In most of the southern states; less than 10% of the population ever owned any great number of Negro slavese....   BTW there were many free or freed Negroes in the southland; and some of whom owned slaves to work their farms...  Also some of the Native Americans,  owned slaves on their farms...

Another interesting fact is that based on the best estimates out of over five million Negro slaves brought to the Americas, less than 10% came to North Americia...  {Yes, there were some slaves in Canada, and all the northern states before the early 1800s...}  So from that group of  500,000 Negroes, the Black population grew to over 4 Million by 1860... in a little over a hundred years...  Based on a study done by the National Geographical Society.....

*A note of history: Except for this group and some of those sent to Brazil, the majority remainder of the Negroes perished, in slave labor camps ran by the Spanish...  That means most the over four million or 80% of the Negroes brought to the Americas were worked to death or died of disease...   So if you were a captured Negro { Negroes sold other Negroes into slavery} sitting on the beach in Africa, and where there were two ships taking on slaves,  one bound for North America and the other bound for one of the Spanish colonies;  if you ever expected to see any grandchildren; you would have wanted to be on the ship going to North Americia...

This is not an attempt to say that slavery was wonderful or any such; but for the most part the Negroes brought to North America were treated much better and prospered; compared to those 80% sent to the Spanish areas...  Some did survive in the Spanish colonies, but they did much better in the British or French Colinies...

BTW: One of my heroes, and people I admire is John Newton, the inspired writer of the most famous Hymn in the world... "Amazing Grace"   He was a slaver, at one time...   We will look more at his life in a future blog.... 

Chapter 2) Interesting facts as to the support and participation of Negroes or Blacks on the Confederate side during the  War Between the States....  

This is not what TV, the movies, and most history books show about the South during the war years, 1861 to 1865...   BTW there was never any TARA, "Gone with the Wind " was made up folks...  Not true, so do not tell me that Rhett and Charlotte did this or the other....  It did not happen....  DUH!!  

When Lee and Grant met in April 1865, { in one of my distant relatives house in Virginia;} which one had slaves.....  Well it  sure was not General Robert E. Lee....   So what you had thought all these years was wrong ...  Huh!!     

Now on to some more little known items about the war...  The battle of Gettysburg was fought in July 1863; it was the largest Land battle ever fought on the American continant...  Over Seventy Thousand (70,000) On the Confederate side  and over One Hundred Thousand (100,000) on the Union side...  Some where around two hundred thousand men, not counting the support troops, and supply personal involved.... On the afternoon of the 3rd of July; this is where "Pickett's Charge" was made and may forever remain the battle where more men died in that short a period of time; in any battle, before or since, period....   BTW; This is also the place where President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, lasting only a few minutes, but burned into history forever..... 

Well I bring this up so you will understand what happened on July 1913; the fiftieth Anniversary of this great conflict...  Well since the Battlefield has been made a National Park, the Rangers sent out invitations to all the veterans of both sides to attend a reunion....  They had set up camps for the Confederate and Union veterans....  To their surprise several hundred Negro/ Black Confederate veterans showed up, and were welcomed into the Confederate camp, as comrades in arms....   Bet you did not know that one either... Huh!! 

Now during the war there were many different groups of Negroes / Blacks who contributed and supported the Confederacy...  Another example was on one of the islands on the Mississippi River, during the war...  After the first year the Union Navy had control of the River or so they thought...  BTW; Mark Twain was on the Confederate side, during the first part of the war...   He was a river pilot,and as such was familiar with the system; where they numbered the islands on the river so they could keep track of the shifting channels of the river...  Starting at the junction of the Ohio the islands were numbered on down past New Orleans, there were over a hundred islands... 

 Well the Confederates were using Island # 63, down below Memphis as a point to shoot up the Union Navy Boats...  The Union Navy, decided to land marines and stop the shooting...  They made it a fuel stop for Union Gun Boats, and moved some "recently liberated slaves" to the island to load fire wood on to the Union Gun Boats....  You may notice that Negroes were not paid for this opportunity, call it what you will...  Any how not long after these Negroes had to be removed, since they were strapping Dynamite to the fire wood  which was blowing up some of the Union Navy Gun Boats....  Funny thing,  wonder if those boys were supporting the Confederacy??  Huh!! { This info can be found on a historical marker, on Mudd Island off Memphis Tn, at the scaled model of the Mississippi River...   Yes the kids can even wad in the model of the river if they like....}

Then where was the case where one of the best and most famous Snippers In the Army Of Northern Virginia, was a Black man who would sit up in a tree and shoot Union Officers at over 600 Yds...  The Union Army put a price on his head...  Huh!! 

Another example was one of the Negro/Black crewmen on the CSS Alabama...  On of the most famous and successful Confederate Naval ships....  He was approached time after time in foreign ports, by US officials, to desert the Alabama...  His reply was always that he was a crew member and did not want to desert and be sent back to the USA...  BTW; He went down with the sinking of the Alabama in 1864 during the Naval battle off the coast of France,  forever a  hero in the Confederate Navy...  

These are but a few of the many stories about the support and service of Negroes/Blacks in and for the Confederacy during the war...  So you see some times it helps to hear the truth and see the real picture...  Just maybe you learned something... Huh!!     

We will pursue this further, we have the references in interested, so stay tuned, friends....  We seek the truth, not what someone wants to see...

  More later..   see ya K

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