First of all, it's Fort Sumter...and second of all, why surrender a FEDERAL piece of property? It didn't belong to the seceding states. Or are you advocating the federal government just roll over and give up?
Well we told them to surrender Ft. Sumpter and they refused. Maybe next time they'll listen.
Except for the powers that started the war and suckered the masses into supporting it.True the Southern economy was more dependent on trade with Europe, than was colonial America. This is another reason why they should have avoided direct contact with the Union armies, much like Washington avoided it with the British army.but were the Americans less dependent on maritime activity than the Confederates ?Yes. The Americans won independence under a naval blockade, by the world's most powerful navy.I'm not a civil war expert--but many ''weak--less powerful'' nations/groups have won by those meansLee was a great general. Too bad he wasn't successful. The Empire we suffer under might not exist today had he been.no
i already knew that the greedheads in the south started a war over it.
you should get out more; it's been known for about 157 years.
Had he and the other Southern generals followed a strategy of guerrilla warfare and utilized entirely defensive tactics, they might have won.
what about the blockade? could the South have waited out the blockades?
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Secondly, had the Southern generals not fought open pitched battles that resulted in ridiculous casualties, they would have had a greater chance of success. Had they won at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, it is likely that France, Great Britain or both would have assisted them and broken the Union blockade.
also, the Americans had French Naval help
thanks for the replies
I just completed this book and highly recommend it. Jackson too was a great general, but he often exposed his men to direct fire from Union artillery and rifles. The results were horrific. They should have learned early in the war to do all they could to avoid such bloodshed, but they didn't.
Jackson did not fight for slavery. He fought to protect his country from invasion, which was true for nearly all Southerns.
lee was a mediocre general at best.Lee was a great general. Too bad he wasn't successful. The Empire we suffer under might not exist today had he been.
no
i already knew that the greedheads in the south started a war over it.
you should get out more; it's been known for about 157 years.
Had he and the other Southern generals followed a strategy of guerrilla warfare and utilized entirely defensive tactics, they might have won.
And when you look at the big picture, he only prolonged the inevitable a few years, thus killing 100,000s more.lee was a mediocre general at best.Lee was a great general. Too bad he wasn't successful. The Empire we suffer under might not exist today had he been.
no
i already knew that the greedheads in the south started a war over it.
you should get out more; it's been known for about 157 years.
Had he and the other Southern generals followed a strategy of guerrilla warfare and utilized entirely defensive tactics, they might have won.
an adequate tactician and a terrible strategist
Great post. Thank you.Folks in this thread really don't understand Lee at all. He was more against the institution of Slavery than Grant was.
Hell, Grant's wife still owned them at the time of emancipation, yet Lee had divested so many years earlier.
Lee was so much more honorable than Grant in every way, it is unfathomable how folks could ever believe that Grant was better.
Lee had the honor to fight for his home, not so for Grant, Grant was a paid, opportunistic mercenary, and a bit of a drunk.
One only has to look at how they comparatively were viewed by their contemporaries at West Point and how the world military historians view them.
To the point about how the South was fighting for slavery, yes, of course that is true. However, if we look at how society treated women, children the poor, all of civilization's and society's mores were different.
What was not different was a democratic republic's, a soveriegn people's right to self-determination.
Lysander Spooner, one of the nation's foremost abolitionists, hated slavery, but understood, that using violence, to end violence, made the cause moot. The only thing the Union had any right to do was to cut the Southern states loose to let them do what they independantly choose to do.
And the slaves? In his view, it was their right, as sovereign people to rebel, and the Union's right to shelter run aways or aid rebellions. If the South wanted to declare war on the North for it's clandestine activities, that was it's business, but the non-agression principle should always come first among civilized and free people.
The North did aggress on the South by not withdrawing.
On the other hand. . . .
Let's not forget, it was the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT that created this mess, so it ends it with killing and mass destruction? Nice.
Spooner knew none of the Southerners were traitors, I can't understand why so many seem to think they were. Are these folks dumb are uneducated? Do they not know government and sovereignty? What about freedom?
As has already been stated in this thread, as humanity became wiser in the North, slavery disappeared. So too, did it else where on Earth. Likewise, it still exists in backwards regions of the Earth, and no amount of war is going to do anything about that. Spooner recognized there was a far greater threat to American society than slavery. . it was war. Today, we still bear the scar, politically, and socially of that war. Had things gone differently, I think the psychic and physical violence of that time might not have left such deep scars. The balkanization and cultural cleavages might not exist today. We might have had two nations, each with black Presidents years ago.
"One's heroes?" You are beyond stupid and worse if your "heroes" are traitors who took up arms against the United States. Really, hanging was too good for that bunch of scum bags. They should have been boiled in all then tarred and feathered, and then hung!
Cornerstone Speech - Wikipedia
Thank you! We are celebrating my son's 9th birthday as well as Robert E Lee's birthday. Having an pineapple upside down cake!
