Poll: Majority Sees Confederate Flag as Southern Pride Symbol, Not Racist"
Your own sentence that you just posted reiterates that, "On the battle flag issue, I am firmly on the side that considers this flag a
symbol of sedition, oppression, racism, and hatred."
The Confederate Battle Flag is a colored piece of cloth, it can't love or hate, its an inanimate object, do you dispute that?
You see the world in black and white, good versus evil with no shades of gray and yet Lincoln's two most effective Generals during the Civil War either owned a slave briefly as in the case of Grant or in the case of Sherman supported slavery, sympathized with the South before the war and was a racist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman
Although his brother John was well known as an antislavery congressman, Sherman did not oppose slavery and was sympathetic to Southerners' defense of the institution. He opposed, however, any attempt at dissolving the Union.[29] On hearing of South Carolina's secession from the United States, Sherman observed to a close friend, Professor David F. Boyd of Virginia, an enthusiastic secessionist:
You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.[30]
almost perfectly describing the four years of war to come.[31]
(snip)
Sherman was not an abolitionist before the war and, like others of his time and background, he did not believe in "Negro equality."[85][86] Before the war, Sherman at times even expressed some sympathy with the view of Southern whites that the black race was benefiting from slavery, although he opposed breaking up slave families and advocated teaching slaves to read and write.[29] During the Civil War, Sherman declined to employ black troops in his armies.[87]
(snip)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant
At age 32, with no civilian vocation, Grant struggled through seven financially lean years. His father initially offered him a place in the Galena, Illinois, branch of the tannery business, on condition that Julia and the children stay with her parents in Missouri or with the Grants in Kentucky. Ulysses and Julia opposed another separation and declined the offer.[36] In 1855, Grant farmed on his brother-in-law's property near St. Louis, using slaves owned by Julia's father.[36] The farm was not successful and to earn money he sold firewood on St. Louis street corners.[37] The next year, the Grants moved to land on Julia's father's farm, and built a home Grant called "Hardscrabble".[36] Julia hated the rustic house, which she described as an "unattractive cabin".[36]
In 1857, Grant acquired a slave, a thirty-five-year-old man named William Jones, from his father-in-law.[38] The Panic of 1857 devastated farmers, including Grant, who was forced to rent out Hardscrabble the following year.[39]
Having met with no success farming, the Grants left the farm when their fourth and final child was born in 1858. Grant freed his slave in 1859 instead of selling him, at a time when slaves commanded a high price and Grant needed money badly.[38] For the next year, the family took a small house in St. Louis where he worked with Julia's cousin Harry Boggs as a bill collector, again without success.[40] In 1860, Jesse offered him the tannery job in Galena without conditions, and Grant accepted. The leather shop, "Grant & Perkins", sold harnesses, saddles, and other leather goods, and purchased hides from farmers in the prosperous Galena area. Grant and family moved to a rental house that year.[41]
These men had flaws, yet they fought under the
symbol of "Old Glory"
to preserve the union frankly I'm glad they won but if a slave supporter and Southern Sympathizer such as Sherman could fight under the Stars and Stripes despite it being against his own personal beliefs in regards to slavery or race, why is it then such a stretch to believe that many Confederate Soldiers fought under the Confederate Battle Flag to defend their homes, families, friends, towns, cities, states and region from a
perceived federal invasion while personally being against slavery?
= new reply since forum marked as read
