Society & Politics

4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions

Civil War Myths and Misconceptions.

So its memorial day. A holiday made after the civil war to honor those who have fallen in service of this country. Now I've seen A LOT of misinformation about the civil war on both sides on here. Now, Me I actually do know quite a bit about it. So I thought I'd clear a few things up for people.


Myth 1. The North Started it


4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions


Now, The CSA seceded in 1860 and the war broke out in 1861. Now I'm going to go right off the bat and give my somehow unpopular opinion that secession is treason which means the south started it. But lets ignore that. Lets say if a state wanted to secede then then could do it.if you say the north still had no cause for war because what they did was legal. Now take a good look at the map of the CSA and tell me whats wrong with that train of thought take a look at what is west of Texas.



The South didn't just try to secede, they tried to take the territories of New Mexico and Arizona with them, which was hard won in the Mexican American war. So yes by any train of thought, the war was started by traitorous confederates. There should be zero debate about that.


Myth 2. There was one confederate flag


4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions

When most people think of the Confederate Flag, they think of that. However, that is not actually the confederate flag. That up there is the battle flag of the army of Northern Virginia.


The CSA went through a number of different flags none of which were that one.

4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions


Those were the actual flags used and they all failed for one reason or another. The second one failed because it looked too much like waving a white flag.


Myth 3. The war had nothing to do with slavery


4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions

The war very much had to do with the issue of slavery, though it was not the only cause. That up there is a picture of the U.S after the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The compromise was that both maine and missouri would be granted statehood. The problem was that divisions were already growing over slave and non slave states so the response was the missouri compromise, that started the trend of only allowing equal amounts of slave and non slave states. Which in turn increased the tensions even further. This division is probably the largest reason behind the American civil war.


Myth 4. Britain and France had clean hands
4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions


Oh, I'm not leaving Non-Americans out don't worry.



See that gorgeous rifle-musket (and yes, that is the proper term, its a rifle that loads like a musket.) up there that is the Pattern 1853 Enfield. The main infantry weapon of the Confederacy. However thats not all. It is in a fact a British made and British designed. It was the main weapon of the British empire till 1867 in fact.



Take a look at some other weapons of the CSA:



A. Lemat Revolver (built in france.)


B. Kerr's Patent Revolver (Designed and built in the U.K by the london armoury company)


C.Pattern 1861 Enfield musketoon (Again, made and Designed by the British)


D. Three Ironclad Warships for the CSA built in the U.K



Then you had the fact that in the years leading up to the civil war, France and The U.K were heavily profiting from Slave made Cotton. France and the U.K were far from Blameless, Hell, remember the British Started slavery when we were just a colony.



I feel a certain Poem by Henrik Ibsen to be apropo:



The Murder of Abraham Lincoln by Henrik Ibsen



They let off a shot over there in the west
And all Europe jumped up in shock.
What a switch for the stuffy and overdressed
To become such a lively flock!
Dear old Europe, so well-stocked with order and right,
With law and justice and jail,
With a sneer for each stain on your scutcheon bright,
With virtuous wrath for the slightest slight—
You certainly did turn pale!
Eagles and unicorns thronged on the seals
Of your mourning, with other beasts;
The mail boats delivered the cables in reels;
Dispatches swarmed to the feasts.
The cotton magnates, that glorious band
From the land of lies, came ahead;
They all stood with the palm branch of peace in their hand,
While that one revolver shot rang unplanned,
And the one lone man fell dead.

Oh, sages of Europe, was that your fear?
Why, bless your innocent souls!
That sort of thing never happened here—
No Russians oppress the Poles!
“The raven is not by the crow attacked”—
Would the English bombard the Danes?
No besieging of Dybbøl, no low Prussian act,
No tomb at Flensburg, was ever a fact,
And at Sonderborg quiet reigns!1

The rose, so red that it frightens you
As it crimsons America’s coast,
Is an offshoot of one that Europe grew
And let the New World play host.
You planted the cutting and watched it bear fruit
In the fertile soil of the west.
Your own eminent hands affixed to his suit
The martyr’s ribbon, that blood-red root
On Abraham Lincoln’s breast.

With forgotten promises, phrases bland,
And torn-up treaties to wield,
Last year’s vows ground down into this year’s sand,
You fertilized history’s field.
And you still stood calmly, expecting to reap
A rich harvest from your words.
Now see how your seed grows, a glittering heap!
You scatter, amazed, like a flock of sheep—
Instead of grain, you grew swords!

Where justice rests on the point of a knife
And law on a gallows-walk,
Dawn’s triumph is surer, and nearer to life
Than here, where they kill with talk.
A will awakens, the case to try,
And for lies it’s a crushing cure
But first the worm must suck the skull dry
And the time itself into knots must tie
As its own caricature.


A demon rules with eternal power
But he still must be defied!
The gilded grandeur was dust in an hour
And rubble was Nero’s pride.
But first Rome’s crime had to grow and extend
Through the earth, from pole to pole.
To fall, the tyrant had to transcend,
And Caesars their golden portraits to lend
As gods to the Capitol.

Then it all came down, every dome and bust,
Circus, temple, columns in rows,
Palaces, arches, all trampled to dust
By the hard-hooved buffaloes.
Then they built again, on all the old land,
And the air was pure for a while.
Now they tell us a new era is at hand,
While the plague from the marshy swamp is fanned;
As it hovers, it seems to smile.

But if through the swamp of decay we must go,
I refuse to groan and whine
Over every poisonous flower to grow
So thick on the tree of time.
Let the worm dig in. Roof and wall will burst
Soon enough when the skull’s sucked dry.
Let the system twist up and do its worst;
The case will be tried, the revenge rehearsed,
And this epoch of lies will die!


Myth 5. The South was completely unified as the CSA.


4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions

Now not all southerners turned on the country. Those men up there are members of the First Alabama Cavalry, Union. Every single state of the CSA had entire regiments that fought for the union and a good chunk of these were made up of former slaves. Some such as the 1st Alabama Cavalry were entirely white. The men you see up there were part of one of the hardest fighting regiments in the war and were General William Shermans Bodyguards and right hand during his march to the sea.


Then you had the fact that West Virginia was formed because a part of Virginia for the longest time had wanted to become a state and they used the war to secede from Virginia and join the Union as a state. Hell by the end of the War Georgia had secede from the Confederacy to BECOME ITS OWN FREAKING COUNTRY.



Now I am expecting mountains of hate for this take from people who don't know what the hell they are talking about, the thing is, I actually do, so go ahead Confederate apologists make my day.

4 Popular Civil War Myths and Misconceptions
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