Divemedic has a must-read post about the coming Civil War, Innocent People Always Die:
The civil war that both sides seem intent on having will be ugly. War isn’t a game where two sides engage in some football game where the players, rules, and boundaries are clearly defined. Americans think that war is some sort of game, a crucible where masculinity is defined. It isn’t. It’s messy. It won’t just be players getting targeted. The combatants will be targets. So will the people who deliver food. So will their families. Women. Children. The side who refuses to participate in that will lose.
He has a telling Civil War 1.0 example of how civilians were explicit targets, and I've written for a long time about how Billy Sherman was America's first war criminal:
Moving [south] from Yankeeland has made me realize the extent that the history of [The American War of Southern Independence*] as taught today consists of little more than red, white, and blue cardboard.
The events are disconnected in a quite striking manner. Events just sort of happened, you see? But since the desired outcome was reached, there's no sense in dwelling on things, and those that do are sore losers.
For example, the charming town where I reside includes a monument:
The concentration camps didn't start in Nazi Germany, or even the Boer War (as is often presented). They began right here on these shores, started by one William T. Sherman's personal order. But this is just an isolated event in the colorful cardboard history.
Only 2 of the deported woman returned after the war. It's unclear whether the rest died or settled down elsewhere. It seems that record keeping was poor or non-existent, and modern day historians are curiously comfortable with their red, white, and blue cardboard history of that era.
But art can pierce this veil, and allow us to view (if darkly) through the glass to see what civil war does to non-combatants. I suspect that this song will need no introduction to most readers. I also suspect it will attract the usual comment trolls saying that the folks living in southwest Virginia "had it coming". A lot of people are happily ignorant of the true causes of that war and have no intention of doing anything about that ignorance. That same ignorance is seen in Divemedic's post describing what is propelling us at Flank Speed towards Civil War 2.0.
May God save this Honorable Republic. At this point it looks like only He can. I sure hope that Bismark was right that the Lord looks after fools, drunks, and The United States of America.
* It wasn't a "Civil War" because the south didn't want to conquer the north. "The War Between The States" is unspecific as to motive. Thus, "The American War of Southern Independence" which tells you everything you need to know about the causes of the conflict.
I've often thought that, although the Declaration of Independence says that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," we all know what happens when the governed withdraw their consent.
ReplyDeleteThough I believe that CW2 is quite probable, I don't relish the thought of it. This won't be some neat, tidy skirmish with a Mason Dixon line. It will be neighbor against neighbor, town against town, state against state. Indeed, figuring out who your enemy is will be the hardest part, and will have gruesome results. Still, aside from the intervention of God Himself, I don't see any other path forward...
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. I knew nothing of the Roswell women and children. Sherman had said he intended to destroy the South as an economic and cultural establishment. He certainly applied his talents in that direction.
ReplyDeleteNobody sane wants open warfare.
ReplyDeleteBut at this point, nothing less will suffice.
It has become a horribly regrettable necessity.
And yet Sherman got a tank named after him!
ReplyDeleteWhen only one side fights in a war, it's called genocide.
ReplyDeleteWe now have only these two options: do nothing and die, or resist and, just perhaps, survive and win. Choose wisely.
One of my ancestors barely survived the POW camp at Camp Douglas IL. He returned to Mississippi with his health wrecked and he was lucky. A lot of the POWs died up there. It was almost as bad as Andersonville.
ReplyDeleteFrom my saved research. Unfortunately, the links are stale.
ReplyDelete====================================
Volume XXXIX – in Three Parts. 1892. (Vol. 39, Chap. 51),
Chapter LI – Operations in Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Georgia (the Atlanta Campaign excepted). May 1-November 13, 1864.
Part III
Hdqrs, Military Div. of the Mississippi,
In the Field, Rome Ga. October 2, 1864.
Brigadier General Watkins, Calhoun, Ga.:
Cannnot you send over about Fairmount and Adairsville, burn ten or twelve houses of known secessionists, kill a few at random, and let them know that it will be repeated every time a train is fired upon from Resaca to Kingston!
W. T. Sherman
Major-General, Commanding.
Volume XXXVIII – in Five Parts. 1891. (Vol. 38, Chap. 50)
Chapter L – The Atlanta, Ga., Campaign. May 1-September 8, 1864.
Part IV
Hdqrs. Military Division of the Mississippi,
In the Field, Big Shanty, June 23, 1864.
Maj. Gen. J. B. Steedman,
Commanding District of the Etowah, Chattanooga:
General: As the question may arise, and you have a right to the support of my authority, I now decide that the use of the torpedo is justifiable in war in advance of an army, so as to make his advance up the river of over the road more dangerous and difficult. But after the adversary has gained the country by fair warlike means, then the case entirely changes. The use of torpedoes in blowing up our cars and the road after they are in our possession, is simply malicious. It cannot alter the great problem, but simply makes trouble. Now, if torpedoes are found i the possession of an enemy to our rear, you may cause them to be put on the ground and tested by wagon-loads of prisoners, or, if need be, citizens implicated in their use. In like manner, if a torpedo is suspected on any part of the road, order the point to be tested by a car-load of prisoners, or citizens implicated, drawn by a long rope. Of course an enemy cannot complain of his own traps.
I am, &c.,
W. T. Sherman
Major-General, Commanding.
In Andersonville, the guards were not much better off with regards to resources such as food. In the Northern POW camps, it was worse because such things as blankets were deliberately not given supplied to the prioners, for example, when they were available.
ReplyDeleteLook up Hellmira.
"The War of Northern Aggression"!
ReplyDeleteA torpedo was the term also used for land mines.
ReplyDeleteWar For Southern Independence.