For those who recognize it:
https://www.nps.gov/apco/planyourvisit/annual-commemoration-of-surrender-and-freedom-day.htm
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Meh… wake me up in June when Texas gets the memo. 
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Does anyone not recognize Appamatox? It was the largest surrender of Americans in history until Bataan.
Most interesting part about Appamatox was that Lee was given surprisingly lenient terms. Which wasn’t usually Grant’s memo. He was called unconditional surrender Grant for a reason.
His terms are Vicksburg where far more harsh than at Appamatox. I wonder if it was because he respected Lee more than he respected Pemberton.
Thus endeth the Republic
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It’s hilarious that you think that.
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Well the immediate aftermath of the war and how everyone mishandled everything, the Feds failing to crush Confederate nationalism and make things right for the blacks and the unrepentant Confederates acting like total asses didn’t make the Republic stronger. If anything we came out of the war more fragile than we entered it in. Well slavery was ended but the post civil war era was a ■■■■show overall.
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They were also hampered by their racist and paternalistic view of the former slaves.
They didn’t think that the former slaves knew how to farm for God’s sake?
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Well I mean they were indoctrinated into their views. Especially former Confederates. Their views of blacks was beat into them at an early age.
One only has to read Frederick Douglass to understand. He would give a fiery speech to anti-slavery Yankees and they’d all talk to him afterwards not understanding how he was so well spoken and articulate. Everyone back then thought blacks were dumb. Especially ex slaves.
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The hatred of blacks morphed into the “white man’s burden” not long after that era. Basically saying “well we don’t hate you as much anymore, but you clearly can’t do this without our sophisticated help.” It’s how colonization was justified. And it’s how some elements of civil rights were corrupted in my opinion.
Look at instances like the Nashoba Commune which was done with good intent but the latent racism behind it just makes you want to cringe.
They assumed they were inherently dumb. And underestimated them. Which is something stupid that white countries would end up doing a lot.
Plus it sounded like they were ultimately looking for a reason just to get of us anyway. Blacks didn’t want to leave America. We wanted to be a part of it.
It’s one of the reasons the Japanese kicked our asses for the first two years of World War II. They didn’t understand how a bunch of yellow people could have such good pilots and well trained ship crews. Their own racism led to needless American casualties early in the Pacific War because they underestimated the Japanese. Eventually that changed and we started taking them seriously and things got better for us.
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At the heart of it all, it was a war for Federal dominance, and the feds won.
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Nailed it
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Confederates were stupid for starting it. But ya know “let’s beat up the biggest kid in class” and all that.
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All sorts of people had all sorts of reasons to be involved.
Did states recede to keep slaves? Absolutely.
Did common folks in the South fight for their freedom against Northern aggression? Absolutely.
Did Yankee men fight solely to free slaves? Absolutely.
Did the Federal government seize the ultimate opportunity to consolidate supreme authority over the States? Absolutely.
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You would have hated the Confederacy as it actually operated more.
It was complex. Very complex. Like every other war.
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It ran as a proto-Bolshevik regime. The Bolsheviks ended up copying a bunch Confederate actions for War Communism during the Russian Civil War.
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Funny thing though: South Carolina’s statement on secession – the first one – made it clear that secession was intended to protect slavery and all but two of the other confederate states used the same language in their secession documents . I believe that the men who wrote those statements and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens who made the protection of slavery the center of his inaugural address were honorable men who spoke trhthfully.
Do you believe all those leaders of the Confederacy were lying?
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johnson and Grant totally mismanaged reconstruction.
thus the south was sick of it by 1876.
Allan
