Dear Mr. Gregory,
First, let me thank you for responding to Mr. Purvis regarding his contact with Florida Governor Scott. Having been active in the field of "correcting" (not "revising") the history of the mis-named "Civil War," I am used to all such communications being tacitly ignored when they are not outright condemned by those who have embraced the establishment's version of "history." It is pleasant indeed to find not only a response, but a courteous one albeit, I cannot agree with the points you make.
If no blame were to obtain in this war, if what had happened had been very much the same as the events leading up to the First World War - which on the whole seemed to be a combination of extreme hubris, bad luck and stupidity by both sides - then I might grant you some reason to honor the fallen on the federal side. But such is NOT the case. This was a war of conquest and subjugation levied against sovereign States exercising their constitutional right to leave a compact - the Constitution - and a "union" which had become burdens on their people and which promised to be - given the political situation - eternal in nature. Even the excuses for the war whether it be slavery or Fort Sumter were lies. Slavery was not the cause, else the Corwin Amendment which put that institution into the Constitution in perpetuity would not have been offered to tempt the Cotton States to remain in the Union. And Sumter was a false flag operation from the beginning, an effort by Lincoln and his advisers - civilian and military - to force South Carolina to fire what was described as "the first shot" of the war for political purposes! Of course, the "first shot" - or at least the first hostile act - predated the firing on that fort by some four months! When Major Anderson vandalized Fort Moultrie - the actual federal installation - and took ship to Fort Sumter which had reverted to the hands of South Carolina when the government failed to live up to its lease agreement, war had already been declared! Anderson overwhelmed the civilian workers in that fort and at bayonet point, drove them out. In other words, federal soldiers attacked and occupied a fort that was the property of the State of South Carolina!
No, Mr. Gregory. The War Against Succession was an illegitimate and cruel war from the beginning. Lincoln and his government targeted non-combatants, a situation that only became worse and more egregious as a war Lincoln believed could be won in a few weeks lingered on for years. Only now are the war crimes committed by the federal forces and the federal government becoming known while all of this is somehow "justified" by the claim that all was done to end slavery. But as one author pointed out, while some people were indeed emancipated, EVERYONE - including those who had been emancipated - became enslaved by a central tyranny which has only grown in size and power. Considering that slavery ended everywhere else in the world without the loss of what may be a million casualties, I do not believe that any cogent, reasonable or defendable argument can be made for the war waged by Lincoln and his minions against the people of the South.
You may not remember, but many years ago, in celebration of D-Day, President Ronald Reagan went to Europe. While there he visited cemeteries in which the dead from the war had been laid to rest. The visit to one cemetery, however, brought a storm of criticism down on Reagan's head. Why? Because buried within it were the bodies of some SS troops and the visit was seen as paying homage to these war criminals. It was a tempest in a teapot for us in this country, but not to the people in the country once occupied by these criminals. After 150 years of "revised history" which has made heroes of monsters and monsters of heroes, it is understandable that you and others might not see these "Union dead" in the same light as those people saw members of the SS. But if you were to see what has for so long been hidden by academia and the establishment, you might see the matter very differently.
I do not suggest that the Union soldiers buried there be "disrespected," but I do not believe that invaders and conquerors who killed, raped, robbed and waged a genocidal war against the people of the South should be honored either. What they did and the cause they followed do not deserve honor, especially from those against whom they waged unjust and unconstitutional war. Let them lie in peace, but let them lie in silence.
Valerie Protopapas
Huntington Station, New York
Huntington Station, New York
