
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 31, 1994                   TAG: 9408040001
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By WAYNE DAVID CARLSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CONQUEROR'S VIEW GLOSSES OVER JUSTICE OF SOUTHERN CAUSE

The article by Robert Freis, "Civil War time traveling" on July 5, demonstrates the widespread New England view of what was neither a Civil War, which implies the existence of a single state, nor a necessary moral crusade against slavery. It further demonstrates the typical Southerner's acceptance of false history and their shallow understanding of their own heritage.

The writer suggests we have an obligation to understand this conflict if we are to understand ourselves. He is correct. The superficial exposure we and our children received in school must be confronted through the mass media, which has long perpetuated this myth. It will take a concentrated effort to get to the truth when we face opposition from educational leaders, political leaders and the current establishment.

If the Confederate cause was considered "sacred" to men of the likes of Robert E. Lee, who sought an end to slavery, then what were these principles for which they fought and were subjugated? The South fought to repel invasion and for self-government, which Jefferson acknowledged as an inalienable right, just as the fathers of the American Revolution did with England.

Until we have politicians, reporters and social leaders who can do more than feign intelligence and understanding or have the courage to speak the truth, we Southerners will continue to be told that our history is degrading and ignoble.

As a Southern transplant with over 30 years of study in American history and a master's degree, I believe the South was right in 1861, that slavery would have been abolished without the loss of 600,000 soldiers' lives, and that, as Ulysses S. Grant said in his "Memoirs," the South, if successful, would have established "a real and respected nation."

Mr. Freis should be commended for pushing for establishment of a battlefield park at Cloyds Mountain in Pulaski County.

His desire to hear someone read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony, however, smacks of the Southern apologist who has accepted the conqueror's view of events. Indeed, he must believe the dishonest assumption implied in Lincoln's address that had the South been successful, "government of the people, by the people, and for the people would have perished from the earth." This is absurd. Keep in mind the original union was one of consent. The new government Lincoln established was one of force and coercion. I don't believe that Lincoln's reference to a "new birth of freedom" would mean the same thing to those New River Valley residents in gray who gave the last full measure of devotion in trying to repel the invaders seeking to deny them and their countrymen their own new birth of freedom.

Wayne David Carlson is an educator in the Montgomery County Public Schools.

by CNB