The Battle Of The Confederacy - 3672 Words

In some ways the confederacy is more alive and active today than it was in the 1860s. Arguments over its symbols, its flags, its leaders, its memorials, and its legacy have been almost constant over the past several years. These battles are always about one thing, the meaning of the confederacy. This usually devolves into an â€Å"it’s about slavery, it’s about states’ rights† argument with neither side listening to the other, each side convinced that it is right. Nevertheless, the question remains: what did it mean to be a confederate during the Civil War? The men, women, and children who consider themselves confederates during the 1860s created a nation, believed so strongly that they fought and died to defend it, and then saw that nation disappear into nothing. How do you reconcile that lost? How do you justify the pain and suffering that your family endured for it all to be in vain? You do it through myth and legend; you do it with the hope that the idea of the confederacy lives on even though the nation itself does not, and in that regard it succeeded. The ideal and myth of the confederacy not only outlasted the confederacy itself, but transcended into the very essence of American culture as the Lost Cause. The idea of the Lost Cause strives to show the war from the perspective of south, in the best possible light. Developed by white southerners in a postwar climate of economic, racial, and political uncertainty, the Lost Cause seeks to create a romanticized versionShow MoreRelatedThe Battle Flag Of The Confederacy1391 Words   |  6 Pages Grey uniforms, so often pierced with bullets from the other side, were proudly donned by the men of this nation from 1861 until 1865. These men fought tirelessly and honorably for their beliefs, and throughout each battle, carried the battle flag of the Confederacy. Throughout the Civil War, this flag took six different forms, for design flaws led to confusion on the battlefield. Each soldier, standing tall, did not fight for a flag, but under it. As an emblem of courage and honor, and a representationRead MoreThe Battle Of The Confederacy During The Civil War1413 Words   |  6 Pageshow vital the city of Vicksburg was to the survival of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The city, which is located on the Mississippi River on the western border of Mississippi, was under Confederate control for over two years of the war, when it was surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant and his Union forces on July 4, 1863 after a successful siege. Many consider the Union takeover of Vicksburg, combine d with the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, which concluded just one day before, as theRead MoreThe Battle Between The Union And A Separate Entity Called The Confederacy1688 Words   |  7 PagesThe fight between the union and a separate entity called the confederacy was a profound event in American History, but how did this development evolve? Slavery and democracy had existed for many years, making the Civil War avoidable, yet the course of events still led the United States to the outcome stated above. In order for one to understand this change, one must try to piece together the many instances that would tell him/her the reasons for a Civil War as destructive as the one fought in theRead MoreThe Unions Ability to Conduct Total Warfare and Confederate Defeat931 Words   |  4 Pagesthe larger more powerful Union defeated the southern Confederacy. The Union won the Civil War because the Confederacy could not sustain a war of attrition in the Napoleonic style that evol ved into Total War. This paper will briefly explain what Napoleonic warfare is and examine the resources of the North and South. Then, the paper will develop how the Union used its advantages in resources and the use of Total War to defeat the Confederacy. The American War for Independence, on the AmericanRead MoreThe American Civil War : The United States1256 Words   |  6 Pagesleave was South Carolina and the Confederate states of America were created. Soon after South Carolina, six for states left the United States to join the confederate states. After a while there was a total of eleven states within the confederacy. Once the confederacy came together they elected Jefferson Davis as the first president of the Confederate states. The war started when the Union soldiers wouldn’t leave the forts that were in confederate territory. In 1861 the confederate soldiers firedRead MoreThe Novel The Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1385 Words   |  6 PagesNorth, known as the Union and the South, known as the Confederacy. Its most memorable battle was the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest and most costly of our nation s history. The attitudes of the Northern leaders and the Southern leaders during the Civil War were both distinct and comparable. Michael Shaara captures the disparate and related attitudes of the Union and the Confederacy in his book, The Killer Angels. The Union and the Confederacy fought for opposing ideas and had contrasting thoughtsRead MoreThe Confederate Flag, By Winston Churchill1598 Words   |  7 PagesAs Winston Churchill stated, â€Å"The flags of the Confederate States of America were very important and a matter of great pride to those citizens living in the confederacy. They are also a matter of great pride for their descendants as part of their heritage and history,† but in present day, the American people are claiming the meaning of the confederate flag is hate and discrimination. In South Carolina, the confederate flag was taken down and placed in a museum after a heated debate stemming fromRead MoreThe Battle Of The American Civil War1018 Words   |  5 Pages On September 17, 1862, the Union and Confederate armies met near the Maryland village of Sharpsburg in a battle that still remains the single bloodiest day in American history. The battle consisted of many attacks and counterattacks between Union General George B. McClellan and The Army of the Potomac against Confederate Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Confederates managed to fight relentlessly over the course of the struggle. However, afterRead MoreThe Battle Of The Civil War1191 Words   |  5 PagesWhen the Civil War started both sides thought the war would be over by Christmas. But little did they know this small war would turn into the deadliest war in American history. The Civil War was fought between the Confederacy and the Union. The Confederacy was consisted of Southern states that did not agree with the views of the Union states. After years of sectional differences in the United States between the north and south, t ension between the states grew and a war between the north and southRead MoreThe Effect of the Battle at Antietam Essay1467 Words   |  6 PagesThe Effect of the Battle at Antietam The effects of the bloodiest battle in American military history spread all over the world; however, the resulting Emancipation Proclamation, in particular, had an enormous impact on Britain’s decision to not recognize the Confederacy as a nation. During a low point for the Union, the birth of this pivotal piece of anti-slavery legislation from the Battle at Antietam helped deter Britain from intervening. The Battle at Antietam and the resulting Proclamation