April 12, 150 years ago, it started.

[Wild Ben Raymond, SASS 23108,]

Just a reminder, that 150 years ago the "War of Northern Aggression" or "The Civil War" (depending on where you live) began.

Fort Sumter Attacked

 

April 12, 1861 - At 4:30 a.m. Confederates under Gen. Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War begins.

 

 

WBR

[Whooper Crane, SASS #52745]

If the South started the war by firing on Ft. Sumpter, why is it called The War of NORTHERN aggression? Hmmmmm

[Long Branch Louie]

Whoever started it, we sure did kill a lot of our own...

[Wild Ben Raymond, SASS 23108,]

If the South started the war by firing on Ft. Sumpter, why is it called The War of NORTHERN aggression? Hmmmmm

Can't answer that one, as "I had no dog in that fight" or no relations that fought on either side. Just going by what folks have called it. "War between the States" is another one. WBR

[Utah Bob #35998]

Some of the names the Civil War has been called:

The War for Constitutional Liberty

The War for Southern Independence

The Second American Revolution

The War for States' Rights

Mr. Lincoln's War

The Southern Rebellion

The War for Southern Rights

The War of the Southern Planters

The War of the Rebellion

The Second War for Independence

The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance

The Brothers' War

The War of Secession

The Great Rebellion

The War for Nationality

The War for Southern Nationality

The War Against Slavery

The Civil War Between the States

The War of the Sixties

The War Against Northern Aggression

The Yankee Invasion

The War for Separation

The War for Abolition

The War for the Union

The Confederate War

The War of the Southrons

The War for Southern Freedom

The War of the North and South

The Lost Cause

 

Whatever you call it, it killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, tore the country apart for 4 years, and left scars which, 150 years later, have not yet healed completely . It was the worst thing that ever happened to America.

[Rye Miles #13621]

From what I understand FEDERAL troops at Fort Sumpter were fired upon by "rebels". Southern aggression???

[ChuteTheMall]

Can we get a do-over?

[Trigger Mike]

From what I understand FEDERAL troops at Fort Sumpter were fired upon by "rebels". Southern aggression???

 

Only because them dad blasted yankees refused to recognize the right of a state to manage its own affairs. They drew a line on the sand and dared the south to cross it, so they did.

 

Utah Bob is right though it was the worst thing to happen and without the civil war slavery would have ended by the time the bollweavel killed the cotton crops a while later.

 

Only an idiot would think forcing someone to work for free is better than hiring someone to work for money.

[Preacher Clint]

Next time all you folks up North start complaining about the "huge" Federal government and the demise of states rights -- or the failure of the Federal Government to adequately enforce border laws, drug laws, etc., just remember these are your "spoils of war". This is one of many lasting legacies won by the Union. Oh, and by the way -- if the criteria you want to use about who was the aggressor is who fired the first shot, then we started WWII by sinking that midget submarine outside Pearl Harbor before the Japanese airstrikes ever appeared. Think about it.

[Val Cano]

I can still vividly remember the 100th anniversary when I was ten years old.

[Preacher Clint]

I remember it as well. I was 5.

[Indian Jack.]

Dont want to stir up anything but everybody keeps thinking the war was about Slavery...that was one of the issues but States Rights was the big one.

most people remember the Emancipation Proclaimation on January 1, 1863 where Mr Lincoln only freed the slaves in the rebelling states (of which he was not the president of at the time) He did not free the slaves in the northern states. There were border states, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Deleware which freed thier slaves by a state law at a different time. The war ended on April 9, 1865....ALL slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment which was passed on January 31, 1865 and ratified by all states on December 6, 1865.

 

that being said....it is HISTORY. We should remember and study history.

 

Slavery is a terrible thing and should never have happened....in the US or anywhere.....The WAR should have never happened...it killed more men, boys and women than any other war and scars are still present....and probably always will be.

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

I can still vividly remember the 100th anniversary when I was ten years old.

 

Howdy

 

I was 11. And I remember it too. I seem to remember there were a few veterans still alive at the time.

 

The other important thing for CAS shooters to remember is that it was the approach of the Centennial a few years earlier that gave Val Forgett II the idea to begin making replicas of Civil War era guns. He figured that the Centennial of the War would generate interest in shooting C&B revolvers. He collaborated with Aldo Uberti and the first gun they produced was a replica of the 1851 Navy. That was the start of Navy Arms, and it was also the start of the entire replica gun industry, without which CAS would probably never have become so popular.

[Subdeacon Joe]

If the South started the war by firing on Ft. Sumpter, why is it called The War of NORTHERN aggression? Hmmmmm

 

The background never gets mentioned. SC didn't just say "Hey! Let's shoot up that fort!" one day. Lincoln had refused several pleas from SC to remove federal troops from their territory, and was within hours of landing supplies and more troops there. Keep in mind that SC had left the Union in Dec, 1860, with six others following by Feb. 1861. They considered themselves a separate nation.

 

Also, it wasn't as if GA and SC were sending troops to NYC or Boston, was it? And why did VA, NC, TN, and AR pull out of the Union? Because they saw Lincoln's call for troops to invade the Confederacy as an illegal and unconstitutional act.

[Tarheel Rifleman, SASS # 23477]

I can still vividly remember the 100th anniversary when I was ten years old.

Me too, my Dad packed us all in a car and we drove to watch the reinactment at Manassas, VA.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Howdy

 

I was 11. And I remember it too. I seem to remember there were a few veterans still alive at the time.

 

The last verified died in 1957. Last widow died in 2004.

 

Many think of the ACW to have happened a long time ago. I was born in 1957 and knew a SpanAm war vet. He knew Civil War vets. Just two handshakes from me to the Civil War. The Civil War vets he knew may have known Rev. War vets, if not, their fathers did. So maybe 4 handshakes between me and the Rev. War. Pretty darned short history when looked at that way.

[Branchwater Jack SASS #88854]

And I find it hard to call it the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression when you consider that each southern state, excluding South Carolina, produced at least one regiment for the Federal Army.

 

And think about areas like Winston County, Alabama. They drew up a resolution in 1862 saying that, essentially, if a state can secede from the Union, then a county had a right to secede from the state. For their dissension, they were overrun with guerrillas and CS troops as well with troops burning homes, force conscripting males into CS service, and killing those who would not comply.

[Cypress Sam, SASS #10915]

I was 24 when the Centennial occurred so I remember it as well. I met some Civil War vets and knew some black people who had been slaves too. When I was a boy, the Civil War was still a real sore spot here in the South. It wasn't so much the war that people had bad memories of, but Reconstruction. The northern army came through and burned and destroyed eveything they could. Then after the assassination of Lincoln (who favored a moderate approach to the South) on April 14, 1865, radical reconstructionists tried to "punish" the Southern states any way they could, making for a tough several years.

 

As an aside, Turner Classic Movies played "Birth of a Nation" last night. It is a 3 1/2 hour silent movie about the Civil War from the viewpoint of the South. It was made in 1915. It is well worth watching.

[Utah Bob #35998]

My ancestors on my dad's side were from New York State. On my mother's side, from Alabama, including Cherokee.

Therefore, I have two dogs in the perennial fight about the causes of the war.

I can't lose.

 

And I can never win.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Only because them dad blasted yankees refused to recognize the right of a state to manage its own affairs. They drew a line on the sand and dared the south to cross it, so they did.

 

Utah Bob is right though it was the worst thing to happen and without the civil war slavery would have ended by the time the bollweavel killed the cotton crops a while later.

 

Only an idiot would think forcing someone to work for free is better than hiring someone to work for money.

 

As for slavery, why not rely on the opinion of an expert? Here is the mendacious contribution of none other than CSA President Jefferson Davis himself, in The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881, fifteen years after the War ended):

 

 

“ [The] servile instincts [of slaves] rendered them contented with their lot, and their patient toil blessed the land of their abode with unmeasured riches. Their strong local and personal attachment secured faithful service ... never was there happier dependence of labor and capital on each other. The tempter came, like the serpent of Eden, and decoyed them with the majic word of 'freedom' ... He put arms in their hands, and trained their humble but emotional natures to deeds of violence and bloodshed, and sent them out to devastate their benefactors. ”

[boom pop]

over 2% of the american population perished in the war between the states,fyi

 

Some of the names the Civil War has been called:

The War for Constitutional Liberty

The War for Southern Independence

The Second American Revolution

The War for States' Rights

Mr. Lincoln's War

The Southern Rebellion

The War for Southern Rights

The War of the Southern Planters

The War of the Rebellion

The Second War for Independence

The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance

The Brothers' War

The War of Secession

The Great Rebellion

The War for Nationality

The War for Southern Nationality

The War Against Slavery

The Civil War Between the States

The War of the Sixties

The War Against Northern Aggression

The Yankee Invasion

The War for Separation

The War for Abolition

The War for the Union

The Confederate War

The War of the Southrons

The War for Southern Freedom

The War of the North and South

The Lost Cause

 

Whatever you call it, it killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, tore the country apart for 4 years, and left scars which, 150 years later, have not yet healed completely . It was the worst thing that ever happened to America.

[Chickamauga Charlie, SASS #47963]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz_GLcumolw

 

nuff said

chickamauga

[Cypress Sun]

Today is also the day that the Army Of Northern Virginia formally surrendered to Grant in 1865. The final surrender took about another month.

 

 

Proud to be Southern.

Proud to be American.

 

C.S.

[Tom Payne 13115]

The John Wayne movie The Undefeted had the best line of all. When Duke gets word the war is over he rides into the reb camp under a flag of truce and tells them the war is over, but the reb officer knew it for three days and was willing to continue to fight. Duke procedes to tell him we are all americans, and the reb officer replys "that has always been the sadist part".

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Duke procedes to tell him we are all americans, and the reb officer replys "that has always been the sadist part".

 

I've never been a big fan of the Rebs, but I've never thought of them as sadists. That's going too far!