Recognizing the Battle Flag

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"> <H1><CENTER><FONT COLOR="#0000FF">Recognizing the Battle Flag</FONT></CENTER></H1> <BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><H2> <HR> <FONT SIZE="-1" COLOR="#FF0000"><I>Recognizing the Battle Flag was written for frame capable browsers. If you can read this, yours isn't. While you will be able to scroll through the sections in order, a frames enabled browser would be more user friendly for these pages.</I></FONT><FONT SIZE="-2" COLOR="#FF0000"><B><I> <HR> </I></B></FONT></H2></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> <H2><CENTER><FONT COLOR="#0000FF">Introduction</FONT></CENTER></H2> <P>The Society for Creative Anachronism is a recreational history group. The object is to relive the middle ages, not as they were, but as they should have been. If there are more lords, ladies and knights than surfs and plague victims in the Society, this is fine. The idea is to focus on the good parts.</P> <P>The society has small groups all over the world, having fun, and keeping history alive. One small SCA group was, in real life, the crew of a US Battle Tank in the Desert Shield / Desert Storm effort. Thus it came to pass that the flag of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem came to be flown in battle once again.</P> <P>Then a US officer visited the tank. "Our hosts have recognized your flag. Take it down."</P> <P>The bane of recreational history is those who take history seriously, those who have long memories, those who have just grudges, those who remember flags unseen in centuries, those who feel in their hearts the words "never again".</P> <P>Having recreated for fun ancient battles of sword and shield, it is easy to be sympathetic with those fighting once again the North American Civil War. It is understandable that players of such historic games want only to recreate and celebrate the good parts. However, this does not mean the distinction between play history and real history should be forgotten. This does not mean the real issues of the war, and the real hurts which occurred, should be buried behind a fantasy dream which idealizes what was truly a bitter and ugly time. For many, the wounds have not yet healed.</P> <P>There is a goodly collection 19<SUP>th</SUP> Century documents posted on the web, which state clearly enough in their own words the opinions of many of those involved in the pre Civil War succession crisis. This page quotes a few of the stronger paragraphs from the stronger statements, and provides pointers to the full documents. <A HREF="http://www.furman.edu/~benson/docs/">Furman University</A>, the <A HREF="http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html">University of Tennessee</A>, and the <A HREF="http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html">Causes of the Civil War</A> site are strongly recommended to those who wish to avoid my prejudices, who have the time to browse the original material and form their own opinions.</P> <P>This page is balanced in part to rebut the "states rights" position. The emphasis of many in the neo-confederate south is on the legal and government philosophy issues in the war, rather than the slavery and racial issues. The neo-confederates have enough resources dedicated to their perspective that I do not fear for an overall unbalance.</P> <P>My greater concern is that Abraham Lincoln was too elegant a spokesman for the north. He presents the northern position so well that there are few posting the more emotional and less rational northern abolitionists. I find myself with more sympathy towards the spokesmen for the south after reviewing northern speakers such as Charles Sumner and John Brown. The history some southerners would rather forget then becomes more understandable when you read the northern extremists the north would rather forget. The old accusations of fanatic extremism among insane northern abolitionists are not entirely off the mark.</P> <P>This is intended only as a sampler. The key paragraphs I have copied into my pages are not sufficient. They are intended as teasers. Follow the links. The Civil War was not about one perspective only, but a knot of many perspectives. The truth is not here. The truth requires real history, and some deeper digging into the words spoken by people of the time.</P> <P> </P> <CENTER><A HREF="economics.htm"><FONT SIZE="+3">Next </FONT></A></CENTER> <P><FONT SIZE="+1" COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Contents</B></FONT></P> <UL> <LI><A HREF="index2.htm">Introduction</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="economics.htm">Economics</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="rights.htm">State's Rights</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="declaration.htm">Declaration of Independence</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="abolition.htm">Abolition</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="insurrection.htm">Insurrection</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="slavery.htm">Importance of Slavery</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="warspeeches.htm">War Speeches</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="closing.htm">Closing</A></LI> </UL> <P><FONT SIZE="+1" COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Recommended Surfing</B></FONT></P> <UL> <LI><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html">Causes of the Civil War </A></LI> <LI><A HREF="http://www.furman.edu/~benson/docs/">University Furman</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html">University of Tennessee</A></LI> </UL> <P><FONT SIZE="+1" COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Internal Texts Quoted</B></FONT></P> <UL> <LI><A HREF="brown.htm">Brown</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="jdsenate.htm">Davis</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="garrison.htm">Garrison</A></LI> </UL> <P><FONT SIZE="+1" COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Other of my Pages</B></FONT></P> <UL> <LI><A HREF="../home/index.html">Home Page</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../home/Joy/index.html">Android's Tale</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../Flight/index.htm">Flight by Committee</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../Gallery/index.html">Image Gallery</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../polyticks/index.htm">Polyticks</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../bbma/index.htm">USS Massachusetts</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../home/Visions/index.htm">Visions</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="index.htm">Recognizing the Battle Flag</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../home/Talora/Dragon/index.htm">Dragon Friend</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="../home/Coda/index.html">DS al Coda</A></LI> </UL> </BODY>