Born Fighting by James Webb

Author:James Webb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780767922951
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2005-10-11T04:00:00+00:00

3

The Winds of War

DURING THE FIFTEEN years that followed Andrew Jackson’s death the nation was on an unstoppable path to war. Historians have spent entire careers characterizing the divisions that led to this national tragedy, for in truth an astounding mix of emotions and rationales has always fed the whole. The eminent Civil War historian Henry Steele Commager’s words of more than fifty years ago still ring true today: “No other war started so many controversies and for no other do they flourish so vigorously. Every step in the conflict, every major political decision, every campaign, almost every battle, has its own proud set of controversies, and of all the military figures only Lee stands above argument and debate.”45

Recent years, however, have seen a new kind of nastiness emerge in these disputes. Even the venerable Robert E. Lee has taken some vicious hits, as dishonest or misinformed advocates among political interest groups and in academia attempt to twist yesterday’s America into a fantasy that might better serve the political issues of today. The greatest disservice on this count has been the attempt by these revisionist politicians and academics to defame the entire Confederate Army in a move that can only be termed the Nazification of the Confederacy. Often cloaked in the argument over the public display of the Confederate battle flag, the syllogism goes something like this: Slavery was evil. The soldiers of the Confederacy fought for a system that wished to preserve it. Therefore they were evil as well, and any attempt to honor their service is a veiled effort to glorify the cause of slavery.

This blatant use of the “race card” in order to inflame their political and academic constituencies is a tired, seemingly endless game that is itself perhaps the greatest legacy of the Civil War’s aftermath. But in this case it dishonors hundreds of thousands of men who can defend themselves only through the voices of their descendants. It goes without saying—but unfortunately it must be said—that morality and decency were traits shared by both sides in this war, to an extent that was uncommon in almost any other war America has fought. It was “a curious war,” as Commager pointed out, “one in which amenities were preserved.” Commager went on to mark the essential truth that, “The men in blue and gray . . . had character. They knew what they were fighting for, as well as men ever know this, and they fought with a courage and tenacity rarely equaled in history. . . . Both peoples subscribed to the same moral values and observed the same standards of conduct. Both were convinced that the cause for which they fought was just—and their descendants still are.”46

At the same time, the path that led to this war was more complicated than any other in the nation’s history. This is one reason that the war and the era that surrounded it is the subject of such constant reinterpretation.

Some see the controversy leading up to the Civil

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.