What's In A Name

 One of the most heavily debated topics when people discuss the War Between the States is the "correct" name for the conflict.  The most commonly used name (by most, not by me) is "The American Civil War," or just "The Civil War."  What I think is the second most commonly used name is the one I use, "The War Between the States."  Some of the other names I've heard used are "The War for Southern Independence," "The War of the Rebellion," and "The Second American Revolution." I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I've heard.

I refuse to use "American Civil War" or "Civil War" for one reason - the conflict was not a 'civil war.'  For those of you who may not know what the definition of 'civil war' is, here it is right out of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

"Civil war (noun) - a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country." 

Since the Southern states had seceded from the Union and formed their own country, what took place was a war between two separate countries (or nations); therefore, the conflict was NOT a 'civil war,' and I don't give a damn that Lincoln used that term in the Gettysburg Address, either.

And this brings us smack dab into the debate of whether or not secession was legal, a topic I'll save for a later date.  But I do have a question concerning that which I'll ask at the end of this post.

But back to the name - I use the WBTS because I think that's the most accurate description of what took place.  Sure, you could call it the "War for Southern Independence" and you wouldn't be wrong; you could also call it the "Second American Revolution" and you still wouldn't be wrong because after all, the Southerners were Americans, were they not?  Even "War of the Rebellion" wouldn't be wrong, but only if you looked at it from the Yankee's point of view.  

No, what took place was a war between two different nations, and since these nations were both composed of individual states, I use the term "War Between the States."  There are those who will claim that the Confederacy was not a 'sovereign' nation because it was never formally recognized by another nation such as Great Britain, and they wouldn't be wrong.  And that's one of the reasons I use the term that I do - you cannot deny that both the US and the CS were composed of individual states, and those states were at war with each other.

Now, about that question I mentioned earlier...

In his Gettysburg Address Lincoln referred to the conflict as "a great civil war," publicly affirming his opinion and the opinion of the Federal government that secession was illegal and that the Southern states were still a part of the United States.  After all, that was the reason for issuing the call for 75,000 troops in 1861 'to preserve the Union,' right?  

So if that was the case, then why did the Southern states have to be readmitted to the Union when the war was over? 

Good question, huh? 

Think about it.

Deo Vindice

IHC 

 

 

 

 

 

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I am fiercely proud of my Southern heritage.  I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, the Capitol of the Confederacy, and I spent my formulative years (between the ages of 7 and 15) in Highland Springs, a small town that was at that time around 9 miles southeast of Richmond.  This small town - small back then, anyway - was smack dab in the middle of the area of the Seven Day's Battles and was surrounded by battlefields.  Sandston, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Beaver Dam Creek, Drewery's Bluffs, all of these were in the surrounding area, with Cold Harbor and Sandston being close enough to ride to on my bicycle.

 

Even the town itself was rich in Confederate history.  Highland Springs was founded in the 1890s as a streetcar suburb of Richmond on the Seven Pines Railway Company's electric street railway line between Richmond and the Seven Pines National Cemetery.  There were several major battles in that area, with a large number of both Union and Confederate dead being buried there.  The streetcar was the best way to provide transportation to the citizens of Richmond to the cemetery and back, and the town itself sprung up from there.  

 

When I lived in Highland Springs the town was unofficially divided up into the 'old' part of town and the 'new' part of town.  The town itself was laid out with the roads running in straight lines to the north and south of Nine Mile Road, and is as near-perfect a grid as you'll ever see.  All of the streets in the 'old' part of town, the part that was built in the 1890s and early 1900s, are all named after Confederate heroes.  Lee, Jackson, Johnson, AP Hill, Armistead, all of them have streets named after them in the old part of town.  Even the country club and the only apartment complex in town were named with Confederate heritage in mind - the country club was Confederate Hills, and the apartment complex was Confederate Heights.  (Both have had their names changed as of this date.)  

 

And just in case you were wondering, all of the streets in the 'new' part of town were named after bushes and trees.  Ivy, Juniper, Kalmia, Oak, Pine, and so on.  Except for my street, that is.  I lived on New Avenue, and I have no idea where THAT name came from!  And all of the streets, both old and new, were alphabetically arranged, which made them incredibly easy to find and navigate.

 

My fascination with the War Between the States (I refuse to call it the 'civil war' because it was a war between two governments, not between citizens and one government) began in 1964 when I was in the 4th grade.  I was assigned the Battle of Antietam as a history project, and up until then had never heard of the war.  But once I started researching the battle, that was it - I was bitten by the bug, and have spent the rest of my life studying the years between 1861 and 1865 and the events leading up to that tragic era.  I was more than pleased to discover that my town was located in a battlefield, and was elated when one of my friends told me that he actually had an old WBTS trench running through his back yard!

 

When my mother told me that her brother in law John had researched her family's history and discovered that we had not one but THREE ancestors who fought for the Confederacy, I immediately joined the SCV and the MOS&B.  Since I was in the Air Force at the time I had to be careful about what Confederate-related regalia I wore or Confederate-related insignia/flags/pins/patches I wore.  Every base at which I was stationed had a regulation specifically prohibiting the flying of the Confederate flag from any building on base, including base housing.  While I didn't agree with it I can understand it, and abided by the rule.  So for the years that I was in the service I didn't display anything with the Confederate flag on it, even though I was still on active duty when I joined the SCV in 1992.

 

All that changed when I retired.  When I moved up to New Jersey to be with Gina I flew the Stars and Stripes on the front of the house, but from the elevated back deck I flew a variety of Confederate flags, flying a different one as they wore out and needed to be replaced.  I flew the First National "Stars and Bars," the Third National, and Lee's Headquarters flag, but I never flew the Army of Northern Virginia Battle Flag (the one at the top of the page).  On the back of my denim motorcycle jacket I had two big flag patches - the US flag on top and the Battle Flag on the bottom.  I wore that jacket for 7 years through Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, and never heard a peep about it from anyone.

 

When I moved to SC I transferred my SCV membership to a camp down here, and had SCV license tags on my Saturn and my Chevy truck.  The truck was adorned with many Confederate symbols and stickers, and once again I never heard anything from anyone about it that was negative.  But after a while I took all of the stickers off of the truck (but kept the license tag), and didn't replace them.  I had entered a stage of my life where I was a little more cognizant of the feelings of others around me, so I refrained from displaying anything Confederate to avoid causing problems for others.  This period of my life began on November 12, 2013 when I joined the Masonic fraternity.

 

But now all that's in the past.  I've reached a point in my life where I truly don't care what others think about what I say or do.  As I've said before, I won't go out of my way or intentionally do or say anything to insult or hurt anyone else, but at the same time I'm not watching my words or my actions as closely as I did before.  I fly two 6x9 inch flags from the luggage rack on my motorcycle, and one of them is the Battle Flag.   (The other is the American flag.)  If that offends you, then that's a YOU problem.  And I'm seriously considering bringing my old denim jacket with the two flags on it out of retirement now that I'm not in an MC anymore and don't have any colors to wear.

 

And if it ends up that I join the SCV Mechanized Cavalry, then I'll wear their colors with pride everywhere I go whenever I'm on the bike.  Their colors look like this:

 

So yeah, my pride in my Confederate heritage has undergone a resurgence, and I'm okay with that.  So is my wife, Gina.

 

And to me, that's all that matters.

 

Deo Vindice

IHC