I don’t always answer the Daily Post prompts, many times because their just isn’t enough hours in the day. But when I saw this one I could not turn away. The one word prompt is South, and I have something I want to write about.
I was in elementary school when I purchased two books at the school book fair, one was a book about the Revolutionary War and the other about the War Between the States, America’s Civil War. I know, boys and their obsession with war, but I was young and this kind of thing fascinated me. I also had an interest in World War II for a time, but the conflict of the early 1860s was something that held my attention for quite some time and even today still draws my interest on occasion.
To be sure, this period of bloodshed and struggle was something that the United States will never forget. My home state of Virginia saw more than its share of major battles during the four years of war. The state is well below the Mason Dixon Line, which is commonly considered the break point between North and South, at least in the 1860s, so we consider ourselves Southerners.
I will not engage in any talk of how the North was wrong for this or that, there was enough blame to go around. Civilized people resolve their issues without blood running across the ground, but there was so much disagreement about everything including slavery, states rights and more that an inevitable show of barbarism was going to happen.
Today the vestiges of the Civil War remain in some Southern locales, although the political correctness movement is trying so hard to snuff them out. What will we do slowly try to erase every wrong? Does that make it untrue? We are what we are because of the good and the bad history. The South lost the war due to their inability to match up with the North in almost every area of importance, such as industrial capacity, troop numbers and military organization. But the united States of America came out stronger and more respected and in some cases feared.
The South will always be different than other regions of the country as it should be. If you have never made a trip to the bottom half of my country you are missing a real treat. So far I have enjoyed visiting many southern states and find all to be charming in their own way. The ones I have not visited so far are: Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and more than just a truck stop in Alabama on my way to a mission trip in Florida.
Joe's Musings 