Question of the Week: 1/29-2/4/24
What if…you lived in a United States Territory during the Civil War years – what would be your response or actions to the Civil War?
What if…you lived in a United States Territory during the Civil War years – what would be your response or actions to the Civil War?
To be honest, unless my section of the territory was in danger of invasion, I’d probably keep out of it, and keep farming.
Not wave a Confederate flag!
It would be irrelevant and I’d probably stay out of the fray. That is, unless, something caused me to have an “iron in the fire,” so to speak. There are many reasons why people go to war. But being able to not be involved (unless there was a direct reason to be) isn’t one of them.
If it were early in the war, and I was a young wippersnapper, I would probably volunteer so as not to miss out on the big adventure. If I was older but wiser, or later in the war when the horrors of combat were revealed, I would probably thank God that I was not drafted
Everyone’s different. I moved to the territory to get away from all that national politics and war. I may have some cousins that are fighting, maybe on each side. I may not read/write so much good. Aside from the wild rumors that John Hunt Morgan was headed thisaway, I’d hear about far away war stuff weeks after it happened. By the time I heard about it, probably first hearing of it by second hand, my reactions wouldn’t matter much. As far as which side I want my territory to join, the side that protects me and my family from the Indians best is where I’m at. And people are different but people haven’t changed all that much in 200 years. Maybe a lot less god fearin’ today. Let’s say today, 2024, a house a block way burns down, the husband splits, the children get kidnapped, and their dog dies. I write a country western song about it and call it a day.
I would have joined the 9th Virginia Cavalry just like my ancestors did, probably specifically Company K (Richmond County) or Company C (Westmoreland County, “Lee’s Light Horse”) early in 1861, and served for as long as I survived. Before that though I would practice extensively with the 1851 Colt Navy (.36 caliber) or 1858 Remington (.44 caliber). The Colt Walker, though a mighty beast, would have been too much for little me on horseback to handle accurately and quickly.
The bigger questions is why is half truths about the war told? Why does no one tall about how Lincoln truly felt about slaves? Or how thr North was horrible to slaves? All these facts are in the archives, yet few historians tell the full truth.
Considering the war was not about slavery and it was about economic reasons I would support the South. The North was horrible to slaves. Lincoln, Sherman, Simpson, Seward, and Wade’s (few amoung many) writings tell exactly how much Republicans at the time did not want slaves, that Lincoln only freed slaves from places that had left the Union and he had no intention in freeing all of them, Union soldiers beat, raped, and murder many slaves from the south, the North including Lincoln wanted to send all free blacks to an island and in fact sent some and many died just on the trip. These are a few facts that is proven in archives. In order for anyone to answer this question honestly and with an educated answer, they truly need all the facts and not just what has been force fed to them. As historians, one cannot allow their own biased based facts and not other evidence. It is part of what is wrong in America today. Lincoln was no hero or great emancipater. The North was not great and the Republican party takes credit for something they should repeal due to the murders, rapes, and beatings, as well as the way Republicans at the time truly felt about the free black people of America at the time. As a conservative and soon to be Chrsitian historian (Sr at Regent University) I have find it sickening how so much history as many know it is based on lies and half truths. Which is the biggest reasons I decided to be come a historian.
With this being said, if I as a Sr can find archives that are from news papers to Lincoln’s own orders, letters etc, how can established historians not see it? It’s not that they cannot, it’s only a few do not fear telling the truth.
So, to answer your question, I would stand with the South but I would also stand against slavery.
I reckon I would mosey on over to what is now the state of Washington or thereabouts. Seems things there were pretty much quiet at that time.
Try and survive, and pray the Comanche or Sioux don’t get me.