Cherokee Confederate veterans of the Thomas Legion at the 1901 annual reunion.
The North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com “Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty”
Some
contemporary historical sources in North Carolina continue to use the
Northern term (and viewpoint) for the 1861-1865 conflict, "civil war,'
though a North Carolina-specific commemoration of that period would
properly use the terminology of the period – e.g., that of Alexander
Stephens, Admiral Raphael Semmes and others. This website relates that
historical period through the eyes and minds of North Carolinians then,
and this is the only manner with which we can today understand those who
preceded us in time. Below the reader will find our reasons for using
the proper historical term, the one which North Carolinians would use to
describe that struggle for independence.
The Phrase “Civil War”
“A
civil war is a war between citizens of the same state contending for
control of the same government. The war between the North and South was
the war of the North against a separate government, that as long as it
lasted was a de facto nation, exercising all the powers of an
independent government.
The
term “civil war” concedes all that the North ever claimed, makes [the
South] guilty of treason, and is untrue to the facts in the case. [The]
term “civil war,” while incorrect as a simple definition of the
struggle, does a gross injustice to the South by degrading her struggle
for a national existence into a partisan conflict. I never use it and
mark it out of every book where I find it. Let history tell the
truth.”
(“The Phrase “Civil War,” Rev. S.A. Steel, Jackson, Tenn., Confederate Veteran, July 1912, pg. 347)
I do the same thing. Mark it out everywhere I see it written. We must never forget.
ReplyDeleteGood.
DeleteThe war of Northern aggression was not a civil war. And the proof is easy:
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't the North try any confederate for treason in a court of law after they "won"?
Precisely.
Delete“A civil war is a war between citizens of the same state contending for control of the same government."
The definition above has been removed from all the dictionaries that I find on line now. I remember a few years ago when this came up, but there were still dictionaries that had the original meaning, but no more. The commies hard at work.
Huh. You're right, I just looked. They all say something like "a struggle between factions" or some such, omitting the defining characteristic of a civil war--that it's a war for control of a central government. Spooky. Another good reason for maintaining an extensive non-volatile random-access direct-readable database (formerly known as a "library" of "books.")
DeleteI just remembered that I have an old History of the English Language dictionary on the Robinson Homeschool Self- Taught Curriculum on a disc and will check it out there.
Delete"When between a state and a part of it in rebellion it is a civil war."
DeleteDictionary: The complete 400,000 word 1913 Webster's Dictionary with special onÂscreen software for its use. This dictionary contains five times as many words as the original Webster's dictionary and yet preserves the literary beauty of the original work.