April 12, 1861 - April 9, 1865

The Civil War lasted 1,457 days. Roughly as many Americans died in the Civil War as died in all of the other wars that the U.S. participated in. Some 365,000 Union soldiers, and 260,000 Confederate soldiers died, with some 412,000 wounded on both sides. Ten percent of all males aged 20-45 in the Union were killed, as were 30% of all Southern males aged 18-40. At the end, the first U.S. President to be assassinated was killed on April 15, 1865, shot in the back of the head by an angry coward.

With the Emancipation Proclamation in October 1862, President Lincoln changed the face of the U.S. forever. Although it would take almost another 100 years for African Americans to realize their freedom, there was no turning back on the promise of freedom. Secession was defeated, and the Union was preserved and America grew stronger. As Lincoln said in his 1862 address to Congress:

"The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

We can't afford to let reactionaries rewrite history to their own liking, whether out of political advantage or of bigotry, or both. Too many died on those many battlefields to toy with the basis for their ultimate sacrifice.

(photo: A fence divides the field at Gettysburg battlefield)

Flash Forward: The Rethuglicans' "Southern Strategy"

The push for civil rights for African Americans began after World War II, accelerated through the 1950s with school integration, and reached a culmination in the 1960s with boycotts, civil disobedience and the passage of landmark civil rights legislation. During this period, the Democratic Party underwent a transformation from a party anchored in the South, and in control of major urban areas nationwide, to a party of the suburbs and East and West coast cities. The Rethuglicans, meanwhile, morphed into a party with its base in the South and Midwest rural communities. Along with their regional metamorphosis came the political and cultural baggage from the Jim Crow years. As Rethuglican strategist Lee Atwater put it:

"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.'"

That was the essence of the Rethuglicans' "Southern Strategy," which has locked up Dixie for them for several election cycles. It was cemented in 1980 during the presidential campaign between Jimmy Carter and St. Ronnie of Hollywood, when St. Ronnie opened his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the murder of 3 civil rights workers in the '60s, and spoke glowingly of "states' rights." Rethuglican politicians go to great lengths to distance themselves from overtly racist appeals, but the fact remains that, as Atwater outlined it, they've refined their message to a "dog whistle" that can be clearly heard by reactionaries and racists who want to return to the good old days.

UPDATE: The dog whistle seems to be effective: Think Progress notes that 28 percent of Rethuglicans sympathize with the Confederacy, as do 4 in 10 white Southerners. By a majority, Rethugs don't believe slavery was the cause for war. Party of Lincoln indeed.

A Southern "Hero"

When the first shots were fired at Ft. Sumter on the morning of April 12, 1861, one of the most rabid racist secessionists was present: Edmund Ruffin. Ruffin traveled from Virginia to Charleston, SC to, as he put it, "commit a little treason." He later bragged, erroneously, that he had fired the first shot at the Fort. Unable to accept Union victory, on June 17, 1865 Ruffin draped a Confederate flag over his shoulders, and committed suicide with a gunshot.

(photo: In his final act, Ruffin shot a traitor)

The Ignoble Cause

In the century and a half since the Civil War, myths have grown up about the South's motive for secession from the United States. States' rights, tariffs and taxes, etc. are some of the motives cited for the treason. Perhaps the best testimony as to the major motive was given by the Confederacy's own vice president, Alexander Stephens in March, 1861(emphasis added):

"The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions—African slavery as it exists among us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away... Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it—when the 'storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition."

Writing in today's special commemorative supplement to the Kaplan Daily, Philip Kennicott documents the historical whitewashing that took place after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, and that contributed to 90 years of Jim Crow laws denying civil rights to African Americans. One peculiar product of the false narrative of Southern honor was the erecting of statues throughout the South:

"Southern states, primarily led by women’s Confederate groups, were in the middle of a frenzied campaign to clutter the landscape with memorial statuary in celebration of the humble foot soldier. Between 1900 and 1913, by one accounting, the South was unveiling Civil War statues at twice the rate of the North. And these statues had become more, rather than less, bellicose in posture, with a once popular image of a soldier at 'parade rest' yielding to more aggressive and animated statues, depicting troops with guns at the ready."

Recent Confederacy-supporting statements from Virginia Gov. Bob "Old" McDonnell, Texas Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry and Mississippi Gov. Haley "Boss Hogg" Barbour reinforce the idea that the struggle continues to represent the Civil War in a truthful manner, not as the New Confederate/Rethuglican Party would have it. In this weekend's Parade magazine, Jon Meacham writes about the Rethug/ New Confederate Party revisionism that's attempting to position the reactionary fight against health care reform and climate change as a continuation of the South's "noble" fight against "Big Government" in 1861-65. Yeah, right. Disgusting.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

What better way to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War than to hear the Union's stirring anthem, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Other than to burn a Confederate flag, that is. More comment and opinion on the anniversary as we move through the day.

Preview for Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of beginning of the Civil War, when slave states committed treason by seceding from the Union in order to perpetuate slavery. Tomorrow, Hackwhackers will look at the legacy of the War and at attempts by the right-wing to rewrite history and honor the Confederacy.

(photo: Lest we forget what the South's "noble cause" was all about)