“IGNORANCE IS BLISS”
by Michael Gaddy, ©2016, blogging at The Rebel Madman
(Jun. 3, 2016) — Recently, completely ignoring the warning found in Proverbs 23:9, I attempted to engage a young white man (under 50) in the South who advocates for the removal of all things Southern from public display in a written conversation/exchange. As expected, I found the introduction of facts to be an effort in futility. This man stated he believed that anything that might be offensive to anyone should be removed from public display. A complete embracing of cultural Marxism.
Often used in his replies to facts were the words “tolerance” and “diversity” yet he was oblivious his goal of removing symbols of the Confederacy were not “tolerant’ of the views of those who do not agree with him, nor did his views represent in any manner a “diversity” of opinion. It was obvious very quickly this man had partaken with gusto the politically correct Kool-Aid of the government sponsored and controlled Public Fool System and remains intoxicated with the results.
This man and a minister in the area who holds the same views care not for factual history but are overwhelmed with the emotions of others—as long as those “others” hold their Marxist viewpoint. The minister mentioned above quickly disengaged from the conversation when confronted with actual history as opposed to the revisionist form. He refused to answer this question when presented to him. “If the blacks in your congregation have views or feelings that are based on the lies, propaganda or revisionist history provided by cultural Marxists, are those views more valid than those based on historical facts held by those with whom you disagree?”
I had forgotten not only the admonishment of Proverbs 23:9 but had also forgotten that engaging such people in intelligent discussion is analogous to teaching a blind man to target shoot with an empty gun.
How could any intelligent person want the symbols of the Confederacy removed and the symbols of an oppressive government exalted when such facts as those listed below are presented? Mind you, these incidents are taken from The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 Volumes with an atlas, Washington Government Printing Office, 1880-1901). These are official government records; they are not records compiled by anyone from the Confederacy. Therefore, if the government is your god, these records should be your scriptures.
We are erroneously told by representatives of the government, academia, media shills, court historians and public school graduates that the War to Prevent Southern Independence was fought to free the black man from slavery. But seldom if ever is it mentioned that approximately 25% of the blacks in the South died because of this war, many at the hands of the Union Army we are told was fighting to liberate them.
If the war was fought to free the oppressed blacks, why was that not declared at the beginning of the war and why were blacks referred to as “contraband” during much of the war instead of being freed at the beginning? Contraband is defined as “goods that have been imported or exported illegally.” If blacks had been imported into this country illegally, then the criminals were the shipping barons in the North. (Source: Complicity, How the North, Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jenifer Frank. All three are Yankee journalists—not a neo-confederate racist among them.)
Listed in the Official Records are accountings of multitudes of war crimes committed by the Union Army from 1861 to 1865 against the people of the North, South and Border States, but for the purposes of this Rant, I will only list the crimes committed by the Union Army against blacks (certainly not a complete listing of such crimes.) I will cite for reference where each accounting can be found in the Official Records.
From John T.K. Hayward, a solid Unionist and the general agent of the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad, in a letter to J.W. Brooks of Boston and forwarded to Secretary of War Simon Cameron on August 27, 1861.
“In Northern Missouri, the irregularities of the soldiery—such as taking poultry, pigs, milk, butter, preserves, potatoes, horses and in fact everything they want; entering and searching houses… committing rapes on the Negroes and such like things—the effect has been to make a great many Union men inveterate enemies… and no punishment, or none of any account, has been meted out to them… drunkenness is the great curse of officers and men. Volume XLIX, p 1139.
On May 18, 1862, in Northeast Virginia, Colonel Hermann Haupt sent the following dispatch to General McDowell.
“Guerillas are forming in various parts of the country, provoked by rapes and other crimes committed by Union men… any violence offered a female, white or colored, with the attempt to commit a rape… will be… punished accordingly.
Orders from Major General David Hunter, Department of the South, Hilton Head, South Carolina, May 8, 1862.
“I am authorized by the War Department to organize the negroes into ‘squads, companies, or otherwise’ as I may deem most beneficial to the public service. I have concluded to enlist two regiments.”
Almost immediately these orders were implemented. Edward L. Pierce, special agent for the Treasury Department sent the following dispatch to Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase reference the carrying out of these orders.
“This has been a sad day on these islands… the scenes of today have been distressing…some 500 men were hurried from Ladies and St. Helena to Beaufort. The negroes were sad… Sometimes whole plantations, learning what was going on, ran off to the woods for refuge. Others, with no means of escape, submitted passively to the inevitable decree… This mode of enlistment by violent seizure and transportation… spreading dismay and fright is repugnant.” Official Records vol II p. 52-53.
The following was written in May of 1862 reference the forceful conscription (another form of slavery) of blacks into the service of the Union Army in South Carolina under the description of “Outraged Humanity” by Edward L. Pierce to General Hunter.
“Scenes transpiring yesterday in the execution of your order… The colored people became suspicious of the presence of the companies of soldiers detailed for the service, who were marching through the islands during the night… They were taken from the fields without being allowed to go to their houses, even to get a jacket… As those on this plantation were called in from the fields, the soldiers, under orders, and while on the steps of my headquarters, loaded their guns, so that they negroes might see what would take place in case they attempted to get away… On some plantations the wailing and screaming were loud and the women threw themselves in despair on the ground. On some plantations, the people took to the woods and were hunted up by the soldiers…” Ibid, p 57.
From L.D. Phillips to Pierce.
“The whole village, old men, women, and boys, in tears, were following at our heels. The wives and mothers of the conscripts, giving away to their feelings, break into the loudest lamentations and rush upon the men, clinging to them with the agony of separation. Some of them… throw themselves on the ground and abandon themselves to the wildest expressions of grief… The old foreman said it reminded him of what his master said we would do… I have heard several contrast the present state of things with their former condition to our disadvantage. This rude separation of husband and wife, children and parents, must need reminds them of what we have stigmatized as the worst feature of slavery. Never, in my judgment… has humanity been outraged by such an act of unfeeling barbarity. Ibid., 59-60.
Here we see these blacks who were forcibly conscripted into the Union Army were separated from their families. Five months later they would be released as stated here in a letter from General Rufus Saxton to Secretary of War Stanton.
“When the colored regiment was first organized by General Hunter no provision was made for its payment, and the men were discharged after several months service, receiving nothing for it. In the meantime, their families suffered… This failure to pay them for their service has weakened their confidence in our promises for the future and makes them slow to enlist. Ibid., p 695.
The Union Army kidnapped and separated from their families thousands of men, worked them for over five months in the heat and humidity of the deep South and paid them nothing. Tell me again how the war was fought to eliminate slavery!
From General Carlos Buell to Colonel Douglas A. Murray of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry on August 12, 1862.
“Reports are made to me of the most disgraceful outrages on the part of troops along the road within 10 or 12 miles of your station. Not only is property taken…, but property is wantonly destroyed, negro women are debauched and ladies are insulted... Ibid., Volume XVII, p 319.
The above are just a few accountings of the criminal acts of the Union Army perpetrated against blacks and whites. The Official Records are packed with multitudes of what could only be considered war crimes, yet, how many times have you seen any reference made to these acts by the idolators of Lincoln and his government or those who oppose the symbols of the Confederacy?
We have all been told of the March to the Sea by General W.T. Sherman and the atrocities committed along that march. But, how many were aware that Sherman’s war crimes against blacks and whites began years earlier?
Sherman acknowledged just that in his Orders no. 49 issued on July 7, 1862.
“Stealing, robbery, and pillage have become so common in this Army that it is a disgrace to any civilized people. The demoralizing and disgraceful practice of pillage must cease, else the country will rise on us and justly shoot us down like dogs and wild beasts.” Ibid., Volume XVII pt 2 page 81.
Sherman had this to say to his wife by letter about exterminating the people of the South. “Extermination, not of the soldiers alone…but of the people.” Sherman also said this of the American Indian, “The more Indians we can kill this year the fewer we will need to kill the next, because the more I see of the Indians the more convinced I become that they must either all be killed or be maintained as a species of pauper. Their attempts at civilization is ridiculous...”
Have Sherman’s wishes not been accomplished? Are there any peoples more “maintained as a species of pauper” than many blacks and American Indians?
The war crimes listed above and the mentality of people like Generals Sherman, Sheridan and their commander in chief Abraham Lincoln, must be embraced by those whose desire is to eliminate all Confederate symbols from public view. Forced to admit their allegiance to such acts of terrorism committed against the blacks and whites of the South is a reality that must be avoided by these government sycophants, at all costs. Therefore, they glory in their ignorance and childish remarks to those who question their knowledge of history.
Yes, ignorance is bliss—but it is also contagious and death to the culture of our founders and those who fought to oppose the above-documented tyranny.