As a “repentant Yankee” and voluntary citizen of the South, I feel I would be remiss if I did not point out to you that there has never been a “Civil War” since the founding of the U.S. To my knowledge, the Confederate States of America never attempted to overthrow or remove the government of the U.S., only to remove itself from it.
Actually, even the term “rebel” rubs against the grain to some degree, since the Confederacy had every right, by all contemporary understanding of the Constitution, to withdraw at any time. Some folks had other ideas, and unfortunately they won the war and wrote the history books, blurring the previous knowledge over the years into an understanding that “the Union” was sacrosanct.
I realize that my personal favorite, “War of Northern Aggression,” might have been a bit stinging in the March edition, but surely, you could have slipped in “The War Between the States.” Please change your spell checker to effect that discipline.
By the way, a great read is “When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession” by Charles Adams. This is recent scholarship on an old and painful subject. It dispels many myths which I swallowed “whole cloth” in my school days, and which are deeply embedded in current “facts” about the causes, conduct and outcome of the war.
Al Coombe
Foley, Ala.