Was slavery about business?

History is only offense to those who do not learn from it

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 19, 2019

While I do hate politics in general, I find it more distressful to witness facts being assaulted because someone does not like what history actually was.

“It shouldn’t be surprising since owning slaves wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics. It’s a business decision.” — Republican state Rep. Werner Horn

I am an Independent because I no longer believe either party represents what I think. This is in no way a defense of a politician I know nothing about. It is however predicated upon the response that forced him to delete what he rightfully pointed out.

This is from the National Museum of American History.

The Business of Slavery Slavery created enormous profits not only for Southern planters and slave traders, but also for Northern cotton-mill owners and investors. Nearly one million enslaved Africans, defined as property, were wrenched from their upper South families. Some bought their freedom; more fought back by running away or even taking their own lives.

While our nation did try try to rectify this with the Civil War, it seems that has also been forgotten. Many African Americans who were freed joined the fight for their independence. After all, it is something they had done since the Revolutionary War. 

They have served in the military ever since the beginning.

If you know history, then you would know that as reprehensible as it was, slavery was always about business and making money using the cheapest labor instead of valuing those who provided the wealth the owners enjoyed.

Slavery existed around the world as one nation conquered another.

History of Slavery from History World
Slaves in Babylon: 18th century BC

Information about slaves in early societies relates mainly to their legal status, which is essentially that of an object - part of the owner's valuable property. The Code of Hammurabi, from Babylon in the 18th century BC, gives chilling details of the different Rewards and penalties for surgeons operating on free men or slaves. But it also reveals that the system is not one of unmitigated brutality. Surprisingly, Babylonian slaves are themselves allowed to own property.

But the first civilization in which we know a great deal about the role of slaves is that of ancient Greece.

A free man beating an enslaved man.

Slaves in Greece: from the 7th century BC

Both the leading states of Greece - Sparta and Athens - depend entirely upon forced labour, though the system in Sparta is more properly described as serfdom rather than slavery. The distinction is that the helots of Sparta are a conquered people, living on their own hereditary land but forced to work it for their Spartan masters. Their existence is a traditional rural one to which certain rights remain attached.

The slaves of Athens, by contrast, have no conventional rights. But their condition varies greatly according to the work they do.

The most unfortunate Athenian slaves are the miners, who are driven often to the point of death by their owners (the mines are state-owned but are leased to private managers). By contrast other categories of slaves - particularly those owned directly by the state, such as the 300 Scythian archers who provide the police force of Athens - can acquire a certain prestige.

The majority of Athenian slaves are domestic servants. Their fortune depends entirely on the relationship they develop with their owners. Often it is close, with female slaves looking after the children or acting as concubines, or a male slave running the household as a steward.

No free Athenian works in a domestic capacity, for it is considered shameful to be another man's servant. This inhibition applies equally to a subsidiary position in any form of business.

As a result male slaves in Athens do all work of a secretarial or managerial nature, for in these contexts they are unmistakably somebody else's personal assistant. Such jobs include positions of influence in fields such as banking and commerce.

Slaves in Rome: from the second century BC

The same loophole, offered by the self-esteem of free citizens, provides even greater opportunities to slaves in imperial Rome. The most privileged slaves are the secretarial staff of the emperor.

But these are the exception. In the two centuries before the beginning of the empire (the last two centuries BC) slaves are employed by Romans more widely than ever before and probably with greater brutality. In the mines they are whipped into continuing effort by overseers; in the fields they work in chain gangs; in the public arenas they are forced to engage in terrifying combat as gladiators. There are several slave uprisings in these two centuries, the most famous of them led by Spartacus.

Slaves in the Middle Ages: 6th - 15th century

In the period after the collapse of the Roman empire in the west, slavery continues in the countries around the Mediterranean. But the slaves are employed almost exclusively in households, offices and armies. The gang slavery characteristic of large Roman estates does not reappear until the tobacco and cotton plantations of colonial America (one notable exception is the salt mines of the Sahara).

Nevertheless the slave trade thrives, and the Mediterranean is a natural focal point.

Go to the links above to learn more before more history is deleted. It would be great if the people who are so offended would actually know the basics behind what they complain about today.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. To covet truth is a very distinguished passion."-George Santayana

Medal of Honor medal of Civil War Soldier found

Nonprofit claims to have found Medal of Honor recipient's family

Civil War soldier's relatives thankful for return of medal
Click Orlando
By Troy Campbell - Reporter
February 27, 2019

ORLANDO, Fla. - A military nonprofit organization said Wednesday that it found the living relatives of a Civil War soldier News 6 first told you about Monday.

A couple of house flippers in Orlando reached out to News 6 after finding a Medal of Honor inside a home they purchased and planned to renovate.

Within minutes of the story airing, people from across the county began to call and email information about soldier Mark Wood.

Col. Zachariah Fike with Purple Hearts Reunited said that he located Wood's third-generation nephew and fourth-generation niece.

Kathy Tafel said that she received a call from Fike, telling her that her distant relative's medal had been found.

"This (is a) Medal of Honor that has been found in some house that apparently I'm connected to, and he's looking for my dad," Tafel said.

Fike said that it's believed Wood's Medal of Honor was one of the first two-dozen ever awarded by then-President Abraham Lincoln. He said the award was given for his role in what's now known as the Great Locomotive Chase, where Union soldiers attempted to cause damage along a Southern railway, to halt Confederate soldiers.
read more here

US Women:Trailblazers long before their time

Today there is not going to be a lot of posts going up for a very good reason. A friend asked me to do a video on women trailblazers. I thought, OK, should be easy, since I tracked all this stuff for a long time. Plus, hey, I'm originally from New England, and growing up, we were actually taught history.

Needless to say, it turns out I am shocked by how much I forgot, and even more so by what I never knew.

This is a forgot...

Sybil Ludington became famous for her ride to warn the Patriot militia of the British coming, similar to that of Paul Revere, but Sybil was only 16 years old.

On the night of April 26, 1777, Colonel Henry Ludington, father of 12, veteran of the French-Indian War, and commander of the militia in Duchess County, New York, (just across the state line from Danbury, Connecticut) received a messenger to his house. The British had entered Danbury and found some American military stores, stolen some, destroyed others and drank the whiskey. Drunk, they began ransacking the town, burning and looting.

Col. Ludington's militia, some 400 men, was on furlough. Whether the colonel asked his oldest daughter or the 16-year-old bravely volunteered is unknown, but around 9 p.m., she set off in the rain to warn the men. discover more here

This is a never knew,

Cathay Williams (1844 – 1892), a.k.a. William Cathay, was the first known African American woman to enlist in the United States Army, and the only black woman documented to serve in the US army in the 19th century.

Born a slave in Independence, Missouri in 1844, Cathay worked as a house servant on a nearby plantation on the outskirts of Jefferson City. discover more here

The thing that keeps getting to me is that women have been fighting for this country all along. So why are they still treated as if they do not belong in the military?

Why is it that members of the military still act as if it was only the males responsible for our freedom?

Anyway, back to work on the video. Just wanted to share some of those thoughts. The more I work on this video, the more proud I am of being a woman in this country. Maybe if more young women would spend time learning about how we arrived at this place, in this time, they'd be even more encouraged to do whatever it is they want to do, no matter what people say.

Civil War Veteran No Longer Missing in America

Civil War veteran finally laid to rest more than 100 years after his death
Kitsap Sun
Julianne Stanford 
Sept. 28, 2017

"When I picked that guy up, I had tears in my eyes. I was able to hold the cremains of a veteran of the Civil War, but I felt a great sense of sadness for all of the other unclaimed remains of people whose families hadn't come to get them." Jim Diamond

RETSIL -- More than 100 years after his death, a Civil War soldier was finally laid to rest with full military honors at the Washington Veterans Home at Retsil on Thursday.

Zachariah M. Stucker served as a musician and later as a private in the Union's 48th Illinois Infantry Regiment from 1861 to 1865. He was a resident at the veterans home from 1910 until his death in 1914 at the age of 69.

Stucker's remains were sent to Seattle for cremation after his death, but for unknown reasons they were never returned to Retsil. His remains sat in storage for decades until his name was discovered on a list of unclaimed remains at the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle by a volunteer with the Missing in America Project, which seeks to locate the unclaimed remains of veterans and provide burial services for them.

“What is really sad is that he has been missing for 103 years,” said Lourdes "Alfie” Alvarado-Ramos, director of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs, during the ceremony. “That is 103 Memorial Days where nobody put a flag by his headstone. That is countless holidays, Christmases, where he didn’t get a wreath on his grave. But now, that’s over.”

Civil War historian Jim Dimond went to the Seattle cemetery last weekend to recover Stucker's remains and bring them back to Retsil.

"When I picked that guy up, I had tears in my eyes," Dimond said. "I was able to hold the cremains of a veteran of the Civil War, but I felt a great sense of sadness for all of the other unclaimed remains of people whose families hadn't come to get them."
read more here

Vietnam Veteran, Retired Lt. Col. James Walker, Discovers Roots Go Back to Civil War

Vietnam veteran finds ancestor who escaped slavery, joined Union Army
Decatur Daily News
By Evan Belanger Staff Writer
October 16, 2016

Retired Lt. Col. James Walker didn’t know his military heritage when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

But Walker, an Austin High School teacher who has a passion for history and has written six books, knows how to look back in time and find the stories that matter.

"If you don't know where you're going, you don't know where you've been," he said in a recent interview at Austin, where he is the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor.

Walker served 11 months and 28 days in Vietnam and was well into his 24-year career with the Army before he ever heard the name Thomas Lane.

In fact, he was 39 when his elderly aunt casually mentioned an ancestor of his fought in “the war.” Unsure of which war she meant, he quickly ran through the list: the Korean War, World War II, World I, the Spanish-American War.

“Now I’m getting interested,” Walker recalled when his aunt confirmed it was the Civil War.

On Christmas Eve, Lane ran away from the plantation and walked the 25 miles to Pulaski, Tennessee, where he joined the 111th U.S. Colored Infantry for the Union Army.

Walker speculates today that his ancestor’s sale to a man named Green accounts for the name change in military records.

“When he joined the Union, his last name was Green,” he said. “After the war, you could pick your own name, so he went back to Lane, which was probably also a slave name, but it was his first.”
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How Coffee Became Salvation for Soldiers and Veterans

If you read Wounded Times then you know about Point Man International Ministries being started by a Vietnam veteran, Seattle Police Officer meeting other veterans for coffee to help them heal. Just thinking about that simple act of kindness and time saving so many lives makes me proud to be among them.

If War Is Hell, Then Coffee Has Offered U.S. Soldiers Some Salvation
KAZU NPR
By THE KITCHEN SISTERS
July 25, 2016

"The UFO became a place where soldiers could gather and talk openly about their worries and frustrations, without the military brass around," Gardner recalls. And in Columbia, says Gardner, UFO was a rarity ­­-- a place that "not just black and white but students and soldiers" could share.

During the Vietnam War, GI coffeehouses located near military posts became a place for soldiers to gather and organize against the war. Since 2007, veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

In April 1865, at the bloody, bitter end of the Civil War, Ebenezer Nelson Gilpin, a Union cavalryman, wrote in his diary, "Everything is chaos here. The suspense is almost unbearable."

"We are reduced to quarter rations and no coffee," he continued. "And nobody can soldier without coffee."

If war is hell, then for many soldiers throughout American history, it is coffee that has offered some small salvation. Hidden Kitchens looks at three American wars through the lens of coffee: the Civil War, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
read more here

Gettysburg Rocks Cursed?

Steal a rock from Gettysburg and risk the curse
The Washington Post
By Linda Wheeler
Published: July 10, 2016

South Mountain rises in the distance behind the Gettysburg Monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield , which contains broad fields where Union and Confederate troops clashed during one of the most critical turning points in the Civil War.
GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK

National Civil War parks usually don't discuss theft from battlefields for fear it will encourage more of the same. However, the most recent post on the blog of the Gettysburg National Military Park has changed that by publicizing the theft of rocks because those illegal souvenirs may be cursed.

The boxes of rocks have shown up in the mail for many years according to a park official. The blog says the packages are usually addressed just to the park without any department or person noted. There is rarely a return address. Sometimes a note is enclosed.

Two of those notes were included in the blog, both of them claiming lives had been ruined because of a long-ago visit to Gettysburg and what was then considered an innocent picking up of a stone or two.

Two months ago, an unnamed man returned three small stones that he and his wife had picked up 10 or 11 years ago.
read more here

Civil War Law for Veterans Not Good Enough for Trump?

Gee, wonder what Trump thinks when disabled veterans get tax breaks?

Trump’s War on Disabled Veteran Vendors
POLITICO
By M. Scott Mahaskey
05/26/16

In the 1990s, Trump had a real problem with a protected class of New York street vendors. We paid a visit to some of them today.

The fight went back to an 19th-century law that gave every veteran in New York the right to “hawk, peddle and vend any goods, wares or merchandise” throughout the state. Designed to create economic opportunities for Civil War veterans, the law has been amended a number of times at various state and city levels.

Former Marine Dan Rossi, a disabled veteran and long-time city street vendor, waits for customers outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 17. Rossi once held about 500 permits to vend throughout the city and ran a successful food cart manufacturing business. But in the early 90s, a new law restricted individuals from holding no more than one permit, and Rossi eventually lost his business. Today, Rossi operates just one cart and blames the Fifth Avenue Association for destroying his quality of life. M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

They are as much a part of the New York City landscape as the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and Times Square. But the presence of street vendors along New York City’s posh Fifth Avenue corridor gave Donald Trump heartburn in the early 1990s. Back then, he, along with other local business leaders, urged city and state officials to restrict vendor access to Fifth Avenue, including the space in front of Trump Tower. One target of his lobbying efforts included a special class of business operators: disabled veteran street vendors.

“While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses?” Trump wrote in a 1991 letter obtained by the New York Daily News. “Do we allow Fifth Ave., one of the world’s finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?”
read more here

Benefits like this just from New York.

E-ZPass for Disabled Veterans The New York State Thruway Authority offers free, unlimited travel anywhere on the Thruway to certain, qualifying disabled Veterans.

Property tax exemptions Municipalities have the option to grant an alternative exemption. This provides a property tax exemption of 15 percent of assessed value for veterans who served during wartime, and an additional 10 percent exemption for those who served in a combat zone.

You can find even more on that link to what veterans do receive, which according to Trump, would also qualify "to the detriment of the city" since it is all lost revenue New York honors veterans with.

Strange Story of Joseph Benjamin Noil Canadian with US Medal of Honor

UPDATE
Headstone fixes error for MOH recipient more than 140 years after rescue

District of Columbia Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs Tammi Lambert, left, and Director of the Department of Behavioral Health Tanya A. Royster, right, unveil the headstone of Medal of Honor recipient Joseph B. Noil during a ceremony Friday, April 29, 2016, at St. Elizabeths Hospital Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Noil received the Medal of Honor while serving on USS Powhatan, but his headstone did not recognize his award because of a misprint on his death certificate.
ERIC LOCKWOOD/U.S. NAVY

Nearly forgotten, a sailor’s heroics are now forever etched in stone
Washington Post
By John Kelly Columnist
April 26, 2016

When Joseph Benjamin Noil started to lose his mind, it was agreed that the best place for him was the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. That’s where the Navy sailor went on June 3, 1881.

“Paralysis” was the vague diagnosis. Today we might call it post-traumatic stress disorder. Noil did little more than stare into the distance.

Living in New York City and working to support their two daughters, Noil’s wife, Sarah Jane, was too poor to visit him, but she wrote the hospital regularly to check on his condition.

Joseph Noil was a hero. He joined the Navy in 1864, possibly earlier. On the day after Christmas in 1872, he was aboard the USS Powhatan, a side-wheel steam frigate, off Norfolk. A boatswain named Walton fell from the forecastle into the ice-cold water and was swept under the bow.

Upon hearing the cry, “Man overboard!” Noil bolted from below deck, took the end of a rope and leapt into the sea. He caught Walton and held him until a boat came to their rescue.

For this gallant conduct, Noil was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Noil was unusual for many reasons. He was Canadian. And he was black.
read more here

Civil War Soldier's Dying Letter Written by Walt Whitman

Rare Walt Whitman letter, written for a dying soldier, found in National Archives
Washington Post 
By Michael E. Ruane
March 9, 2016

The rare Whitman “soldier letter,” one of only three known to exist, was discovered last month by a National Archives volunteer who is part of a team preparing Civil War widows’ pension files to be digitized and placed online.

Pvt. Robert N. Jabo, of the 8th New Hampshire infantry, was dying of tuberculosis in Washington’s Harewood Hospital and needed to write to his family.

The Civil War had been over for months. Most soldiers had gone home. And Jabo’s wife and six children were no doubt wondering where he was.

But he was sick and illiterate. So a cheerful, bearded man who regularly visited hospitalized soldiers offered to write a letter for him.

“My dear wife,” it began, “you must excuse me for not having written. . . . have not been very well.” The letter explained that it was penned by “a friend who is now sitting by my side.”

And in a postscript, the friend identified himself: “Walt Whitman.”
read more here

Harpers Ferry's Civil War Christmas

Civil War
Joy in Sadness, Harpers Ferry's Civil War Christmas
West Virginia Public Radio
By LIZ MCCORMICK
DEC 23, 2015

Reenactors preparing goods to sell. LIZ MCCORMICK / WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC BROADCASTING

Every year, dozens of people in Harpers Ferry go back in time. In the shops and at the national park, it's 1864 all over again. It's fun for locals and visitors to see how people in Victorian-era West Virginia celebrated Christmas. But it's also a reminder of how bittersweet it can be for people to try to find a bit of good cheer in the midst of a long and terrible war.

King’s colleague, Melinda Day, is out of her ranger uniform for this occasion. She's wearing a light green plaid dress, and her hair is pulled back in a low bun sort of like former First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln.

“Because this is a historical park and because we do have a rich Civil War history, we focus on the idea that Christmas and war coexist," Day said, "almost any visitor that walks into this park understands that someplace in this world, American service people are putting their lives on the line even though it may be Christmas, and when a visitor steps into this park for a Civil War Christmas, that’s the same story and relevance that resonates with them in modern times.”

Day says Harper’s Ferry was a strategic site in the war - it switched hands 14 times! And in late 1864, things were changing.

“The war’s coming to an end, and everybody feels that, and you can feel joy while you’re feeling pain. I think anybody that’s been through something like that could nod their head and say, yes I understand that, you can actually experience joy when you also experience pain,” she noted.
read more here

Siege of Vicksburg Confederate Soldier Laid to Rest After 152 Years

Confederate soldier gets proper funeral 152 years after he died 
By The Associated Press
 October 01, 2015

More than 150 years after his death, Pvt. Preston C. Wall has finally gotten a proper funeral.

John C. Pemberton Camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans members Wayne McMaster and Bryan Skipworth unveil the tombstone of Pvt. Preston C. Wall, during a funeral ceremony, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015 in Vicksburg, Miss. The Confederate soldier from Company C of the Missouri Infantry, died June 29, 1863, during the Siege of Vicksburg.
(Josh Edwards/The Vicksburg Evening Post via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT (Josh Edwards)

The Vicksburg Post reports Wall, a Confederate soldier from Company C of the Missouri Infantry, died June 29, 1863, during the Siege of Vicksburg.

He was 23, but was already a seasoned combat veteran. Wall was never married and left behind no descendants.

John C. Pemberton Camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans recently put up a stone in Cedar Hill Cemetery in his honor and formally unveiled the white granite stone Tuesday during a private ceremony with the family.

"It's just nice to have a family member that finally has a marker and some way of memorializing him. We're celebrating the life Preston had," said John Wall of Washington, a descendant of one of Preston Wall's brothers.

More than 5,000 Confederate soldiers are buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, though most were buried in mass graves. There were nearly 20,000 Confederate and Union soldiers listed as missing dead or wounded during the Siege of Vicksburg.
read more here

Grand Junction VA Removes Civil War Mural

Why don't they just remove what Lincoln said about those who fought in the Civil War as well?

With the words, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,” President Lincoln affirmed the government’s obligation to care for those injured during the war and to provide for the families of those who perished on the battlefield.

It has been the motto of the VA.

Rebel flag banished from history mural at VA 
The Daily Standard Grand Junction
By Gary Harmon
Thursday, August 13, 2015

Paul Sweeney, spokesman for the Grand Junction Veterans Administration Medical Center, places a banner promoting the VA’s medical foster home program in front of a depiction of the Civil War on Thursday. The display is part of a mural showing American military history, from the Revolution to the war in Iraq, that was painted by muralist Lee Bowerman along the north wall of the hospital’s canteen. The banner will hide the Confederate flag until Bowerman is able to remove it from the mural.

The Stars and Bars have been banned from a mural in the cafeteria in the Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center in what critics say is an overzealous reaction to the flag.

Artist Lee Bowerman of Grand Junction said he reluctantly agreed to a request that he remove the Stars and Bars — known to many as the Confederate flag, but more accurately referred to as the battle flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia — from his depiction of a Union soldier and a Confederate rebel going to nose to nose.

“I’m going to paint what they want painted because we’re living in a political environment,” said Bowerman, 72.

The soldiers are depicted in a two-year-old mural of American military history stretching from the American Revolution to the present day.

The mural is nothing if not inclusive, Bowerman said.

“I got black, brown, white, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, POWs and MIAs,” Bowerman said. “I got a mule in there with a gas mask on.”

The Stars and Bars, though, have to go, according to the upper reaches of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said medical center spokesman Paul Sweeney.
read more here

President Lincoln Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Why not stop Memorial Day? After all, we began to honor those who sacrificed their lives because of the Civil War when war widows of the South decided to also honor the fallen from the North.

One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Many believe the Confederate flag should not be flown on any federal building but disagree with removing it from the nation. It is part of our history as a whole. Do we bind this nation's wounds by forgetting what tore at the fabric of unity?

Do we do any good by screaming about equal rights then claiming the lives of one group matter more than others or do we change what is wrong by actually fighting for equality under the law?

Do we change anything claiming lives matter then do nothing to actually prove they do? Do we see marches throughout city streets where young men and women feel trapped by a cycle of violence and drugs or demand peaceful lives for families to live instead of being terrified by gunshots?

Forgetting history will only help us forget how long we've had to get it right and insures we will never actually achieve it.
UPDATE
Why They Fought

Men on both sides were inspired to fight by patriotism, state pride, the chance for adventure, steady pay. Union soldiers fought to preserve the Union; the common Confederate fought to defend his home. Later in the war, increasing numbers of Federal soldiers fought to abolish slavery, if for no other reason than to end the war quickly. Confederate soldiers sometimes fought because they feared Union victory would result in a society where black people were placed on an even footing with whites.

MOH For 1869 Battle During the Indian Wars, Finally Buried With Honor

Civil War-era soldier buried at San Diego national cemetery
Associated Press
By JULIE WATSON
Sunday, July 12, 2015

Army Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Gendron carries the remains of Army Sgt. Charles Schroeter, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry in an 1869 battle during the Indian Wars during a service with full military honors at Miramar National Cemetery Thursday, July 9, 2015 in San Diego. Schroeter’s remains were located only recently, when the Congressional Medal of Honor Historical Society traced them to San Diego’s Greenwood Memorial Park, where they had rested since 1921. The remains were interred in an unmarked crypt, along with other unclaimed remains.
(Chris Carlson, AP / AP)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Civil War-era Medal of Honor recipient forgotten in an unmarked grave for nearly a century finally got a funeral Thursday when he was given full military honors and reburied at a national cemetery.

The Army gave Sgt. Charles Schroeter a rifle salute and a bugler played taps on the cloudy morning at Miramar National Cemetery. Scores of veterans from past wars ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan attended the ceremony. Some dressed in uniforms and dresses from the Civil War era. Among the crowd were two Medal of Honor recipients.
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South Carolina: Confederate Flag Coming Down

South Carolina House votes to remove Confederate flag from statehouse grounds
CNN
By Ben Brumfield and Meridith Edwards
July 9, 2015

Columbia, South Carolina (CNN)The Confederate battle flag, a polarizing fixture On South Carolina's statehouse grounds for half a century, will flap in the wind no longer.

Early Thursday, the House of Representatives voted 94-20 to remove it, giving final approval to a bill that passed the Senate earlier in the week.

The vote count was more than the two-thirds needed -- but it came after a handful of lawmakers mounted a tenacious last stand, proposing amendment after amendment that led the debate to drag on more than 12 hours.

The bill now goes to Gov. Nikki Haley, who has said she will sign it into law.
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Battle Mountain Sanitarium May Close

VA Hospital That Once Treated Civil War Veterans Could Close 
Associated Press
By KEVIN BURBACH
Jul 3, 2015

This photo taken April 13, 2015, shows exterior of the grand rotunda entry to the historic Black Hills VA in Hot Springs, S.D. The 108-year-old veteran’s hospital built of thick blocks of pink sandstone and topped with red, tiled roofs in a Spanish mission-style overlooks the tiny town of Hot Springs, a scenic escape that’s become a haven known for healing veterans over the last century.
(AP Photo/Kristina Barker) The Associated Press

HOT SPRINGS, S.D.
Perched atop a bluff in the remote Black Hills, a veterans hospital built of thick blocks of pink sandstone and topped with red-tiled roofs in a Spanish mission style overlooks the tiny town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and has provided recovering soldiers a bucolic haven for more than a century.

Wounded warriors from Civil War battles at Antietam and Gettysburg came to the Battle Mountain Sanitarium for brief, intensive treatments for musculoskeletal and respiratory conditions. Physicians believed the dry air and warm, fabled mineral springs helped mend broken soldiers. Today, veterans from the Vietnam to Iraq wars suffering from ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder and drug and alcohol abuse recuperate at this quiet retreat.

But this long tradition could soon end. Officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs have proposed shuttering the campus and relocating some of its services 60 miles north to Rapid City, the second largest city in the state, leaving only an outpatient clinic in Hot Springs, which the state calls "The Veterans Town."

One of the key issues driving a wedge between the VA and the veterans fighting to keep the hospital open is its remote location. Does the isolation and serenity of Hot Springs help heal patients or hold them back?

"We have not seen any evidence that proves serene environment versus a more city-like environment changes the outcome of the patients," said Jo-Ann Ginsburg, the acting director for the VA in the Black Hills.

But many of the region's veterans argue that the tranquil environment in a town of 3,500 people is just as crucial to healing today as at the beginning of the 20th century and cannot be replicated outside Hot Springs.
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Confederate Flag Removed From Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial

Confederate flag hung from Boston memorial for black soldiers 
Boston Globe
By Niko Emack-Bazelais and Jennifer Smith
GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS
JUNE 29, 2015

“It makes me angry to have to do this in my own town,” she said. “I was like, really? Is that for real?”

Melissa Carino pulled down a Confederate flag from the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial across from the State House on Sunday.

A Confederate battle flag was attached Sunday night to a Boston memorial that commemorates one of the first all-black regiments to fight for the union during the Civil War, hanging there for over an hour before a woman removed it.

Melissa Carino, 37, of Lowell said she saw the flag hanging from the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial across the street from the State House at about 8 p.m. Carino said she left and returned to the location later, angered that it had not been removed.

The 54th Regiment was commissioned by Governor John A. Andrew shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation. It was the inspiration for the 1989 movie “Glory.’’

Late Sunday night, the flag appeared ripped and torn from attempts to remove it. But it remained tied to the monument until 10:30 p.m., when Carino finally untied it and took it down, placing it in a trash can.
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Linked from Military.com

"No Longer Be a Doubt That All Men Are Created Free and Equal"

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 27, 2015

Believe it or not, there are still level headed folks in this country. So far it seems most of us agree that the Confederate Flag should not fly over any government building. Either we are the United States of America, under one flag, or we are the divided states.

We agree that as far as private citizens having or buying anything tied to the Confederate side of the Civil War should be their choice to have or not. As for the companies refusing to sell these items, they need to explain why they sell other things that are offensive to many.

When men and women step up to serve in the military, they come from all parts of this nation yet they come together willing to die for each other. If you read the newspapers lately, it seems too many Americans are not even interested in getting along with each other.

We keep hearing the slogan "Black lives matter" and they do however some folks behind that seem to think that they matter more than anyone else.

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTES, History.net

Consider the simple fact that we read about veterans being killed by police after calls for help to save them. We don't see any protests over any of these deaths.  Do we see #veteranslivesmatter being tweeted? Do we see any calls for accountability or do we see them being used by politicians trying to destroy the VA no matter how many generations of them have to suffer? We seem to agree that politicians desire to destroy that VA is why there has been so little done to get it right for their sake.

The groups tied to peaceful protests are being taken over by hotheads blaming all police officers for what a few do and never once acknowledging those few usually treat everyone badly. We seem to agree that bad cops need to go but most cops are good and willing to put their lives on the line for the rest of us.

We seem to agree that the war memorials all over the country being vandalized are criminal acts.

These memorials are part of our history, bought and paid for by other citizens and the lives sacrificed for a cause no matter if these criminals agree with the cause or not. The vandals can't understand they are not above the law so how can they understand the price these monuments were built on?

Memorial Day began because of the Civil War when Southern women decided to honor their own fallen as well as the graves of Union soldiers.

Memorial Day History

One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Official Birthplace Declared In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. There, a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff. Supporters of Waterloo’s claim say earlier observances in other places were either informal, not community-wide or one-time events.

By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities.

It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.

Some States Have Confederate Observances Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.

History of Memorial Day (4 min) TV-PG
Take a look at the holiday marking the official beginning of summer and America's most solemn occasion.

Text of Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTES History.net

We saw two different examples from the same tragedy. The murderer stated he almost didn't do it because the members of the Bible Study were too nice to him.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten identified the nine shooting victims as follows: Cynthia Hurd, 54; Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45; Myra Thompson, 59.

Eight of the victims died at the scene, and the ninth victim died at a hospital.

As we witnessed from the response from parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church love won and was not destroyed by hatred. They forgave the shooter.

Victims' Families Meet Dylann Roof: 'I Forgive You, And Have Mercy On Your Soul'

Others don't seem to be able to find their own power to overcome evil.

Monuments, remembrances of lives gone during worst times than these days are being defaced and destroyed. They are part of our history. A history that began before Twitter and Facebook. A history begun before the internet that attempts to share history at the same time others attempt to rewrite it.

We seem to agree that far too many folks in this country are historically illiterate because they are too busy watching reality TV shows instead of learning about the reality of how this nation was not only formed but how it has been defended for all these years. Too busy playing computer war games to pay attention to the men and women dying and being wounded fighting in real wars. Young men and women willing to die for those they are with no matter what the color of their skin is, no matter how they vote or if they vote at all, no matter where they come from when where they are going is all that matters.

Divisions among races are easy to acknowledge while hatred because of ethnicities seems too hard to pay attention to yet they are part of our history as well. There are many other issues that could have destroyed the fabric of this nation yet we managed to overcome them because good people were willing to say no and inspire others to do the same.

Contrary to what the media has been trying to use as news, the truth is not as simple as they wish it would be. After all the complexities of the experiences cannot be reduced to a headline.

There are more good people in this country than bad.

There are more acts of kindness and love than evil acts fueled by hate.

There are more people doing all they can to have a better life than those blaming others for what they fail to do for themselves.

Love won yesterday as the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act because far too many were suffering simply because they lacked the resources to seek medical care but others said it was wrong to see so many suffer for it. It won again when Gay people were given equal rights to marry those they loved legally while the rest of the protections for religious groups remain intact to acknowledge them or not based on what they believe.

Love won yesterday at the Memorial for those murdered during a Bible Study of love.

"The doors of the church are open," declared the Rev. Norvel Goff during prayers. "No evildoer, no demon in hell or on Earth can close the doors of God's church," he proclaimed.

Pentagon Not Changing Names of Bases

Pentagon: No Plans to Rename Bases Honoring Confederate Generals 
Military.com
by Richard Sisk
Jun 24, 2015

"All new posts which may be hereafter established, will receive their names from the War Department, and be announced in General Orders from the Headquarters of the Army," the order read.

The U.S. Defense Department has no immediate plans to change the names of military bases honoring Confederate generals -- including some Ku Klux Klan supporters -- in response to the South Carolina church massacre, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

"As of now, there's no discussion of adjusting our current naming policy," which now gives the naming responsibility to the service branches, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

"The Department's position is that the services are ultimately responsible for naming their installations," he said. We have confidence in each of the services to appropriately name their facilities," he said. The services have not indicated any intention to change names, he said.

There was no immediate list available of military facilities with place names or other symbols honoring the South's role in the Civil War, but at least 10 Army bases are named for Confederate leaders, including Robert E. Lee, revered in the South as leader of the Army of Northern Virginia. Besides bases, there is the Lee Barracks at the U.S. Military Academy.

The issue of Confederate symbols and the names of Confederate leaders on public grounds came to a head on Monday when the Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia.
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Here is the list from the article of bases

The 10 Army bases named for Southern officers are:
-- Fort Bragg, North Carolina, named for Gen. Braxton Bragg.
-- Fort Hood, Texas, named for Gen. John Bell Hood.
-- Fort Gordon, Georgia, named for Lt. Gen. John B. Gordon, who was reputed to be the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia after the war.
-- Fort Lee, Virginia, home of the Army's Quartermaster School and named for Gen. Robert E. Lee.
-- Fort Polk, Louisiana, named for the slave owner and ardent secessionist Gen. Leonidas Polk.
-- Fort Rucker, Alabama, named for Col. Edmund Rucker, who became a leading industrialist in Birmingham after the war.
-- Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, named for Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill who was killed at the battle of Petersburg a week before the war ended.
-- Fort Picket, Virginia, named for Maj. Gen. George Pickett who was in command for "Pickett's charge" at Gettysburg. Pickett went to Canada for a year after the war, fearing he would be tried as a traitor.
-- Fort Benning, Georgia, named for Brig. Gen. Henry Benning, a slavery supporter and politician.
-- Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, named for Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, whose troops fired the shots at Fort Sumter, S.C., that started the Civil War.

Some folks think that Fort Jackson in South Carolina was named after Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson but it was named after Andrew Jackson,

Fort Jackson is a United States Army installation, which TRADOC operates on for Basic Combat Training (BCT), and is located in Columbia, South Carolina. This installation is named for Andrew Jackson, a United States Army General and seventh President of the United States of America (1829–1837) who was born in the border region of North and South Carolina.

Vandals Attack War Memorials

Confederate war memorials vandalized with 'Black Lives Matter' text
RT.com
Published time: June 25, 2015

A vandalized Confederate Memorial in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri is shown in this photo from St. Louis' Mayor's office released on June 24, 2015.
(Reuters/St. Louis Office of the Mayor)

Amid an intense debate about the place of the Confederate flag on government property, and following the racially-motivated Charleston church shooting, activists around the country have taken to vandalizing statues honoring the Confederate dead.

A statue paying tribute to Confederate fatalities in Baltimore, Maryland, the city that was rocked by protests and riots about police brutality in the death of black man Freddie Gray, was recently defaced with “black lives matter” text.

The statue is inscribed with the words “Gloria Victis,” Latin for “Glory to the Vanquished.” Maryland itself was a member of the Union during the Civil War.
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Free speech is still protected by men and women serving in the military, ready to die for it. To destroy public property is not free speech. It is a crime and they should face charges.