Thanks to Bud for your service to both our country and for your hard work and leadership in preserving our Civil War sites.

Our ancestors on both sides sacrificed their time, energy, and in many cases their lives for what they believed, but their times were vastly different from our own, so in my opinion we should be extremely careful not to project our own wishful thinking onto their motives. We should also be well aware that the motives of those who gave their lives may have been vastly different from the motives of those who created the circumstances which required them to give their lives.

I have heard the argument that the issue of the constitutionality of secession was what was being fought about, and I know that there are many who feel that the issue was never resolved and believe that their states have the right to secede today. However, to me that argument sounds like exhuming millions of dead to prove that doctors, not shooters, are always at fault for not saving patients whose heads have been blown off.

Yes, many could have done things differently – but they did not – and the end result was the abolishment of slavery, the reaffirmation of an enlarged and more centralized Union, and growth toward a national greatness and prosperity which with some steps backward but more forward, began slowly healing the site of the ugly infection of the misuse of human beings and could never have been achieved had the country split into slave states and non-slave states. So I am going to agree with those who say that the central issue of the war was slavery, and that other issues were present but not the central cause.

I’m someone who – I’m sorry to say – flirted with neo-Confederacy for a short time. I read the works of the Kennedy brothers and the like. Then my path took a sharp turn when I did something I think most neo-Confederates don’t, I actually went and read tons of period letters, documents, newspaper articles, articles of secession, speeches and post-war writings of the veterans. And I came to the conclusion that slavery was at the center of this conflict.

Now, I do differ a slight bit from most who feel this way in that I believe the war was caused by secession and secession was caused by slavery. Most people feel this is a difference without distinction, but I feel differently. I believe states have the right to secede from a voluntary union, but also believe that the South was wrong to go to that extreme in 1860-61.

I also have the ability to distinguish between the honorable service of a soldier and the dishonorable cause of his country. And I honor and celebrate the service of soldiers on both sides of the conflict while damning the hot-headed people on both sides who pushed us into that war. (I don’t believe the Soouth should have seceded, but I also don’t believe Lincoln did all he could to deal with the situation before resorting to war.) I believe the vast majority of Southern soldiers were not fighting FOR slavery, but for their homes, their country, and their honor. And I imagine they cared less about fighting to maintain slavery than they did about being damned if someone from the North was going to come in and tell them how to run their society.

Sadly, today we have many people in this nation who are still fiercly political about this conflict. People are still fighting both sides of the debate instead of accepting the past for what it is and moving on. And that fighting just prolongs the divide. Neo-Confederates are fierce in protecting the Lost Cause and the reputation of the South, but it’s in part because anti-Confederates are often so fierce in labeling anything Southern or anything Confederate as pure evil and vile.

While I know some are truly lost causes (pun intended) and will never change, I hope and pray many neo-Confederates will finally see the light and transform their passion for all things Southern into a passion to study and understand our history and learn from it. The past is important, but it’s over. Likewise, I hope and pray many anti-Confederates will do that same and quit egging on this conflict as well.

Besides, I find the people of the past and their real life stories to be much more interesting than their stupid politics.

Thanks for posting this letter. Like Mr. Hall, I am both a born and bred Southerner and a veteran of the Vietnam War. Also like Mr. Hall, I was a member of Vietnam Veteran’s Against the War (I actually took part in the same parade that Senator John Kerry got into trouble for being part of), and I have long questioned the wisdom of the South’s secession.

As a re-enactor I have made the decision to portray a Confederate infantryman and a Confederate artilleryman because the majority of my ancestors fought for the South — although I do have some ancestors who wore the blue. That does not mean, at least to me, that I agree with everything that the Confederacy stood for (for I believe the South was wrong) — only that I am honoring what my ancestors did.

I am sure that down the road — if the world hangs around for a couple more generations — there will be people who re-enact the Vietnam War — maybe my grandchildren. I hope that they will honor my service even though, hopefully, they will understand that the war was wrong.

Lew Taylor
SGT
Co F, 52nd Inf, LRRP
1st Infantry Division, Vietnam

and

CPL
Co F, 12th GA Inf
Army of Northern Virginia