Civil War Victory! 150 Year Anniversary.
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Civil War: 150th Anniversary Of Lee Surrender At Appomattox
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APPOMATTOX, Va. (AP) — The surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 150 years ago Thursday effectively ended the Civil War. This is a rolling account of commemorative events that include a re-enactment of Lee's last clash with Grant's troops, and of the Confederate surrender in a Virginia farmhouse on April 9, 1865. Interspersed are historical accounts from 150 years ago:
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2015
Amid booming, smoke-belching cannons and the crack of muzzle fire, Confederate and Union troops gathered on a vast green field to re-enact the decisive Battle of Appomattox Court House. It was a highly choreographed, mostly non-contact Civil War re-enactment, yet still difficult to follow for folks who aren't students of military science.
Greg Morgan, fresh from battle, posed atop his 11-year-old Tennessee Walker, Gabriel, with fellow members of the Virginia 14th Cavalry, Company H, as visitors took cellphone pictures of the men atop their wet horses.
"This was a little bit more rehearsed," Morgan, a southwest Virginia resident, said of the battle-re-enactment.
Morgan pulled his sabre from its scabbard and showed the deep notches in its blade from previous Civil War re-enactments.
"That's when we're allowed to engage," he said. "We really go after each other. It's all pushing and shoving. We're not allowed to do that here."
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2015
The National Park Service has 145 staff members helping with the commemoration, even a black powder specialist who watches after gun safety for the fighting re-enactments.
"He checks weapons to ensure they're safe and well-maintained, and also that there is no ammunition," explained Katie Lawhon, who came down from Gettysburg National Military Park to serve as a public information officer for Appomattox.
Appomattox is considered a plum assignment, she said. The 145 comprise what the Park Service calls an incident management team. Besides big events, they also respond to disasters, such as an oil spill on a National Parks beach or a natural disaster.
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1865
AP's reporting described the waning hours for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia: "After crossing the Appomattox the bridges were burned, and before our troops could get over the enemy had taken a position a mile from the river, where they erected works and made a stand in order to allow their wagon train to get out of the way ... The (Union's) 2d division, under General Crook, attacked them vigorously, driving them back some distance. But they had a force dismounted, lying in ambush, which poured a severe fire into our men as they advanced to the second attack, and they were compelled to fall back on their supports. The rebels soon after departed from this place, not being disposed to await another charge ... "
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2015
Many artifacts once used by Lee's fighting forces are preserved and many went on display at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and a nearby museum. Those included Lee's copy of Grant's terms of surrender. There's also an inkwell from the farmhouse parlor of businessman and slave owner Wilmer McLean, the reluctant host of the surrender. The inkwell was taken as a memento from the McLean house by the brother of Union Maj. Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan. A trove of battle flags and Lee memorabilia are also displayed — even a gleaming sword Lee carried to the surrender.
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2015
In a place where historically accurate fashions abound, the Rufeners of Ohio stood out.
Cousins by marriage, Kim and Mary Rufener carefully stepped through soaked turf and muddy roads at Appomattox to keep their hoop skirts mud-free. The two also wore bonnets as they watched Union and Confederate re-enactors clash.
Amid the hundreds if not thousands lined along a fence watching a battle re-enactment, the two women drew attention as they posed for photographs. Period clothing "just enhances the experience for us," Kim Rufener said above the noise of the clash. "It makes it more alive. It's an important part of history that we need to remember."
The Rufeners have been to other Civil War commemorative events, but Appomattox was the first in period costumes. "This is a big deal," Mary Rufener said, adding "We won't be around for the 200th."
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1865
Lee's forces were in increasing disarray in the hours before Lee formally called it quits in April 1865. So The Associated Press reported 150 years ago this week. AP reported that ragged Southern soldiers, many straggling while running from federal forces, began giving up alone and in small bunches even before the official surrender.
Lee's forces, seeking an escape route, had crossed the Appomattox River while burning bridges, AP reported then. Union forces "attacked them vigorously" in the hours before the formal surrender, convincing Lee the fight was over. AP reporting from accounts as saying "the road for miles was strewn with broken down wagons, caissons, and baggage of all kinds, presenting a scene seldom witnessed on the part of Lee's army."
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2015
The smell of wood smoke greeted the first of thousands of visitors thronging the park the next several days of commemorative events. The outline of Union troops in formation could be seen in fields as visitors approached.
Perry Miller of Salisbury, a re-enactor with the North Carolina 28th from Salisbury, explained the strategy succinctly: "We're trying to break through the Union lines."
Thomas Holbrook, a park ranger on loan from Gettysburg, went down the line of re-enactors for a quick briefing before battle.
"This is part of what I like to call the armistice that was signed on April 9, when Gen. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia," he said.
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2015
Ahead of the battle re-enactment, the boys of the Confederate 11th Virginia were as pretty a cool bunch as those portraying Union troops gathered several fields away at Appomattox Court House amid the rolling farm country dotted by brick buildings and white picket fences.
But Chris Ferree couldn't contain his excitement when asked about his role in the 150th commemoration of Lee's surrender.
"This is an awesome place to be," said Ferree, a Roanoke resident. "We're all excited to be here."
The Confederate re-enactors were a ragtag, mismatched group of heavy wool coats, ill-fitting trousers and more types of hats than a haberdashery. Dozens stood along a rough wooden fence, their muskets at the ready.
The Union and Southern re-enactors spent the night encamped in tents at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
Editors: The Associated Press was at Appomattox for the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1865 and on Thursday for the 150th anniversary of this milestone usering in the end to the nation's bloodiest conflict on American soil. This account draws from reporting by an AP reporter Thursday at Appomattox and from historical reporting. For historical background, material is drawn primarily from wartime dispatches credited to The Associated Press.
Re: Civil War Victory! 150 Year Anniversary.
And of course, there is always "the other side" to every story...
The Power of Lies By Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org April 14, 2015
It is one of history’s ironies that the Lincoln Memorial is a sacred space for the Civil Rights Movement and the site of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Lincoln did not think blacks were the equals of whites. Lincoln’s plan was to send the blacks in America back to Africa, and if he had not been assassinated, returning blacks to Africa would likely have been his post-war policy.
As Thomas DiLorenzo and a number of non-court historians have conclusively established, Lincoln did not invade the Confederacy in order to free the slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation did not occur until 1863 when opposition in the North to the war was rising despite Lincoln’s police state measures to silence opponents and newspapers. The Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure issued under Lincoln’s war powers. The proclamation provided for the emancipated slaves to be enrolled in the Union army replenishing its losses. It was also hoped that the proclamation would spread slave revolts in the South while southern white men were away at war and draw soldiers away from the fronts in order to protect their women and children. The intent was to hasten the defeat of the South before political opposition to Lincoln in the North grew stronger.
The Lincoln Memorial was built not because Lincoln “freed the slaves,” but because Lincoln saved the empire. As the Savior of the Empire, had Lincoln not been assassinated, he could have become emperor for life.
As Professor Thomas DiLorenzo writes: “Lincoln spent his entire political career attempting to use the powers of the state for the benefit of the moneyed corporate elite (the ‘one-percenters’ of his day), first in Illinois, and then in the North in general, through protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare for road, canal, and railroad corporations, and a national bank controlled by politicians like himself to fund it all.”
Lincoln was a man of empire. As soon as the South was conquered, ravaged, and looted, his collection of war criminal generals, such as Sherman and Sheridan, set about exterminating the Plains Indians in one of the worst acts of genocide in human history. Even today Israeli Zionists point to Washington’s extermination of the Plains Indians as the model for Israel’s theft of Palestine.
The War of Northern Aggression was about tariffs and northern economic imperialism. The North was protectionist. The South was free trade. The North wanted to finance its economic development by forcing the South to pay higher prices for manufactured goods. The North passed the Morrill Tariff which more than doubled the tariff rate to 32.6% and provided for a further hike to 47%. The tariff diverted the South’s profits on its agricultural exports to the coffers of Northern industrialists and manufacturers. The tariff was designed to redirect the South’s expenditures on manufactured goods from England to the higher cost goods produced in the North.
This is why the South left the union, a right of self-determination under the Constitution.
The purpose of Lincoln’s war was to save the empire, not to abolish slavery. In his first inaugural address Lincoln “made an ironclad defense of slavery.” His purpose was to keep the South in the Empire despite the Morrill Tariff. As for slavery, Lincoln said: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” This position, Lincoln reminded his audience, was part of the 1860 Republican Party platform. Lincoln also offered his support for the strong enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, which required Northerners to hunt down and return runaway slaves, and he gave his support to the Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, already passed by Northern votes in the House and Senate, that prohibited any federal interference with slavery. For Lincoln and his allies, the empire was far more important than slaves.
DiLorenzo explains what the deal was that Lincoln offered to the South. However, just as empire was more important to the North than slavery, for the South avoiding large taxes on manufactured goods, in effect a tax on Southern agricultural profits, was more important than northern guarantees for slavery.
If you want to dislodge your brainwashing about the War of Northern Aggression, read DiLorenzo’s books, The Real Lincoln, and Lincoln Unmasked.
The so-called Civil War was not a civil war. In a civil war, both sides are fighting for control of the government. The South was not fighting for control of the federal government. The South seceded and the North refused to let the South go.
The reason I am writing about this is to illustrate how history is falsified in behalf of agendas. I am all for civil rights and participated in the movement while a college student. What makes me uncomfortable is the transformation of Lincoln, a tyrant who was an agent for the One Percent and was willing to destroy any and every thing in behalf of empire, into a civil rights hero. Who will be next? Hitler? Stalin? Mao? George W. Bush? Obama? John Yoo? If Lincoln can be a civil rights hero, so can be torturers. Those who murder in Washington’s wars women and children can be turned into defenders of women’s rights and child advocates. And probably they will be.
This is the twisted perverted world in which we live. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, is confronted with Washington’s overthrow of the elected government in Ukraine, a Russian ally and for centuries a part of Russia itself, while Putin is falsely accused of invading Ukraine. China is accused by Washington as a violator of human rights while Washington murders more civilians in the 21st century than every other country combined.
Everywhere in the West monstrous lies stand unchallenged. The lies are institutionalized in history books, course curriculums, policy statements, movements and causes, and in historical memory.
America will be hard pressed to survive the lies that it lives.
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts
Re: Civil War Victory! 150 Year Anniversary.
Dearest Bruce, sweetie,
The Civil War was about slavery.
The South lost.
Deal with it, honey.
Edward
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Posted in reply to the post by handy:
And of course, there is always "the other side" to every story...
Re: Civil War Victory! 150 Year Anniversary.
Lincoln changed and grew during his time as President. He no longer wanted to send blacks back to Africa. He became good friends with Frederick Douglass.
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Posted in reply to the post by handy:
