Do you have any respect for anyone involved in the Confederacy?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Hell no. Show me a graveyard for Confederate veterarns and I'll show you where I'm taking a piss.

Fuck the Confederacy and everyone single person involved. It was nothing but evil.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

No, this isn't trolling at all

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm just sick of the Moderate Hero idea that the Confederacy had anything remotely good about it or that Robert E. Lee was a good guy instead of a disgusting traitor.

[The Mikado]

Hell no. Show me a graveyard for Confederate veterarns and I'll show you where I'm taking a piss.

In lighter news today, a Minneapolis man was arrested in Arlington National Cemetery after disorderly conduct regarding one of the graves.  The man was heard muttering, "This'll show those damn traitors."

[Rowan]

Yes I do.

[War on Want]

Not really, no.

[jokerman]

The South was closest thing the United States ever came to producing a genuine culture, but it was smothered in gestation via the Civil War.  Some remnants remained, of course (good food, etc..), but it was as a mass body very sickly, as described eloquently by Faulkner.  It didn't have to be that way, alas.

[Mechaman]

The slaves on the plantations?

[Frodo]

Yes.

[JSojourner]

Yes, I do.  Particularly for those Confederates who reformed and worked for equal rights after the war.  Henry Watterson comes to mind. 

There are also many examples of Confederate (and Union) soldiers who risked their own lives and the scorn of their fellows to show mercy to their enemies.  The story of Sergeant Kirkland at Frederickburg is particularly moving.  Google "the angel of Marye's Heights" sometime.

And how does one not respect the intellectual genius that was Matthew Fontaine Maury?

All the Confederacy proves is that one can be agonizingly and profoundly wrong on issues of race and loyalty...while still being decent human beings in other areas. 

[Franzl]

All the Confederacy proves is that one can be agonizingly and profoundly wrong on issues of race and loyalty...while still being decent human beings in other areas. 

Indeed. Compare it to some of the things Teddy Roosevelt said about race....but Teddy was still an amazing person and President.

[minionofmidas]

Certainly not on account of their involvement.

But that's not the same as the question.

[JSojourner]

All the Confederacy proves is that one can be agonizingly and profoundly wrong on issues of race and loyalty...while still being decent human beings in other areas. 

Indeed. Compare it to some of the things Teddy Roosevelt said about race....but Teddy was still an amazing person and President.

Good catch. 

[ilikeverin]

Uh, by BRTD's logic, Mark Twain was a contemptible man, because he enlisted in the Confederate Army at one point.  Oh noes!

Anyway, yes, of course I do.  Without Confederate veterans, I wouldn't exist, because as I've looked in my family tree I've discovered that my random branch from the South has some slaveowners and Confederate soldiers in it.  And it would really be a shame if I didn't exist

(though luckily I do have some Union soldiers to balance it out.  even a Union soldier or two from Arkansas! )

[??????????]

Certainly not on account of their involvement.

But that's not the same as the question.

Yes, but all the reasons that they fought weren't ignoble either.

[bullmoose88]

Going to be a fact specific question about any person involved in the confederacy?  Do you respect x who was a confederate and did y, z, a, b, c....

But I'm fairly sure there are going to be a very large number of confederates who meet the respect test...perhaps not as people to emulate...but looking back and saying honest, decent persons.

[Mechaman]

Okay, let's pretend like the Confederates were the only slave owning evil bastards. Let's ignore the fact that slavery was still legal  in the border states of the Union after the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Union didn't fight to free the slaves, they fought to preserve the Union. Get your facts straight and get off your moral high horse.

Don't even get me started on the war crimes of one William Tecumseh Sherman.

I am not a Confederate sympathsizer, but I hate it when people act like they have the morally higher ground just because they were the winners.

And like other people have noted, the Union wasn't without racist leaders:

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[HappyWarrior]

Of course, General AP Hill and various privates in the Confederate military were relatives of mine.

[??????????]

Of course, General AP Hill and various privates in the Confederate military were relatives of mine.

Did you know that AP Hill suffered most of his later life with an STD he got in the Mexican war.

[HappyWarrior]

Of course, General AP Hill and various privates in the Confederate military were relatives of mine.

Did you know that AP Hill suffered most of his later life with an STD he got in the Mexican war.

Yes   Bit of a family embarressment that was

[12th Doctor]

The ultimate irony of the Confederacy, of course, is that most of the people who fought did not particularly believe in slavery.  And most of the people who did were spineless, politicians in Richmond.

I have immense respect for the Confederate solider (leadership included), for the most part.  The Confederate politicians all deserved to be hung, though I don't think they should have been.

[12th Doctor]

Hell no. Show me a graveyard for Confederate veterarns and I'll show you where I'm taking a piss.

Fuck the Confederacy and everyone single person involved. It was nothing but evil.

So, you despise Lee, because he fought for the South, although he never believed in slavery, but you think the Sherman is one of the good guys, because he remained loyal to the Union, but honestly believed there was nothing wrong with slavery?

And you slam others for being blindly patriotic.

[12th Doctor]

Of course, Lincoln never blamed the South for slavery at all.  He believed that the Civil War was punishment for America's sins and that both North and South were equally culpable.

[jokerman]

Of course, Lincoln never blamed the South for slavery at all.  He believed that the Civil War was punishment for America's sins and that both North and South were equally culpable.

That's a very intesting viewpoint; do you have any sources?  I'm not trying to call you out or anything, I'd just be fascinated to see a few quotes because this is a novel concept to me.

[jokerman]

The ultimate irony of the Confederacy, of course, is that most of the people who fought did not particularly believe in slavery.  And most of the people who did were spineless, politicians in Richmond.

I have immense respect for the Confederate solider (leadership included), for the most part.  The Confederate politicians all deserved to be hung, though I don't think they should have been.

Very true, the average Confederate soldier fought for homeland.  The dogmas that blinded the Confederate political leadership were much dimmer among the common soldier and even officer.  I imagine most, for example, would have supported emancipation for slaves willing to fight for the C.S.A., as a few notable commanders have been documented supporting.  The politicians quelched this idea.  Also their strict adherence to the "states-rights" philosophy crippled the South's ability to achieve an effective, unified chain of command which could command the totality of resources necessary to fight a total war.  Deep south governors, for example, throughout the war threatened to withdraw their troops from the main front if the commanders didn't commit a ridiculously high number of troops for the defense of, for example, obscure coastal fortifications.