Roland Martin: Confederate soldiers were domestic terrorists

I'd also like to add John Brown as domestic terrorist, before anyone decides to deify him. No matter how bad slavery is, killing people will not make it any better. Two wrongs will never make a right.

To equate the Southern soldiers in the civil war as domestic terrorists is a inaccurate and unfair judgment for a complicated war. It ignores the North's complicity in pursuing an aggressive policy to incite a war with the South, as well as the economics policies that would benefit the North at the South's expense.

Worse, by condemning the Southern solders, it condones the scorched earth policies of Sherman' infamous march that razed the heartland of the South, as well as many of Lincoln's unconstitutional edicts suppressing any Northern dissent against the war.

The majority of Southern troops did not solely fight to preserve slavery anymore than the North main goal was to free the slaves. The North would not accept escape slaves prior to the war, only freed slaves in southern states after the emancipation proclamation, and not any in the Northern border states, and paid black soldiers less than white ones. The North pretty much forgot about social equality for the blacks after the war until the civil rights act in 1965 showing the hypocrisy of the North's so-called high ideals for initiating the war.

Roland Martin is a penultimate piece of @!$%# who can only ever see things according to his skewed view of things...

Completely disregarding the issue of slavery for the sake of argument, the soldiers of the Confederacy were soldiers in organized, recognized state militias in a Civil War that also had a lot to do with the valid argument of the time: states power vs. federal power.

I can't believe what I just read. Who is this adolescent simpleton? Did he flunk American history? Did he even make it through his sophomore year of high school? That's when me and everyone else I know learned all of the complex reasons why the civil war took place.

Just attempting to apply our 21st century, post-civil rights thinking to 1860 or believing Osama Bin Laden when he said his murderous rampage was a reaction to America establishing 2 military bases in Saudi Arabia ("... being on Arab soil". not invading, just being) is juvenile at best. What an embarrassment CNN has become. No wonder they're going out of business.

As with many issues, the answer to the question of whether or not confederate soldiers were terrorists is both no and yes.

I despise nearly everything about the Confederacy. Their way of life was built on a foundation of moral bankruptcy as they fought to keep my ancestors as slaves under the premise that the skin color and hair texture that God gave me made them and me inferior. It is a premise that too many people continue to hold. Their leaders were traitors who would rather secede than give up the economic advantages of keeping human beings in bondage. They fired the first shot at Fort Sumter 149 years ago tomorrow. A Confederate sympathizer assassinated the President of the United States of America.

All that said, I do not consider the Civil War Confederate soldier to be a terrorist. He fought under a hierarchy established by a governing body, rebellious as it was, and fought under whatever rules of war were in place at the time. That all changed, however, after the April 12, 1865 surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox. Many Confederate soldiers did indeed become terrorists through their founding of and membership in the Ku Klux Klan, the Southern Cross, the Knights of the White Camellia and other organizations specifically established to preserve white supremacy through violence and intimidation. Confederate Brigadier General George Gordon was a Grand Dragon and Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forest was the Klan's first Grand Wizard. These men were indeed terrorists, as were all the former Confederate soldiers who participated in the Klan.

Roland Martin is not entirely right, but not entirely wrong either.

what cannot be denied is that the confederacy and the values of the confederacy triggered domestic terrorism of the worst kind in this country. and, I should add, for most "real americans" that terrorism was - at best - a matter of indifference.

Plants, I don't care to belabor the distinctions too much as even seeming like I'm defending those who fought for the Confederacy in any way leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. But in 1861 their goal was secession which made them traitors and their methods were waging war on behalf of their bankrupt government which made the men who did it soldiers.

Dwillie.

I do not defend the South's slave economy. I have little doubt as to their racism either. But secession does not make them traitors--In fact, we did the same to the Brits in 1776, remember? Their secession would have been a peaceful means of breaking away from a unequal relationship with the north. 600,000 US deaths was not worth a war that did little to bring social equity to the blacks other than removing their physical shackles. The sharecropping, Jim Crow laws, and yes, the lack of Northern protection of the blacks in in the South from the scumbags KKK bear this out. 600,000 dead, and this is all?

Notwithstanding how the South fired first on Fort Sumter, the very act of the North occupation of that island was an act of war in of itself. It was no different than say, how Britain and France continued a naval blockade of Germany after the end WWI, resulting in thousands of Germans starving to death. Or the US own blockade of Iraq after the first Persian Gulf war, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dying.

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.

--60 Minutes (5/12/96)

A naval blockade enforced by the North would have hurt the South almost as badly as if the North had physically invaded them--and would not have brought down slavery in the South any more than the US sanctions against Iraq prevented a second unnecessary invasion of Iraq.

Regardless what one may think of the South, it was great mistake by the North to attempt to cowed them into submission by such a blockade. Then again, it may have been the North expected the South would react, to justify the North getting into a war it thought it could win because of it's strong industrial base. Lincoln was not the great champion of the slaves, having among other things, established Liberia in Africa for the purpose of shipping the blacks out.

Do your research and get it right.

Javier Ramirez called slavery evil, but prefaced his remarks by saying that "Confederate soldiers were never seen as terrorists by [President Abraham]Lincoln or U.S. generals on the battlefield. They were accorded POW status, they were never tried for war crimes.

On April 12, 1864, Confederate forced under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest massacred black Union soldiers at Fort Pillow, TN. In response, President Abraham Lincoln demanded that black prisoners of war be treated the same as their white comrades. This was refused by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

As a result, Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant suspended all prisoner exchanges. With the halt of exchanges, POW populations on both sides began to grow rapidly. At Andersonville, the population reached 20,000 by early June, twice the camp's intended capacity. With prison badly overcrowded, its superintendent, Major Henry Wirz, authorized an expansion of the stockade. Using prisoner labor, a 610 ft. addition was built on the prison's north side. Built in two weeks, it was opened to the prisoners on July 1. Despite this 10-acre expansion, Andersonville remained badly overcrowded with the population peaking at 33,000 in August. Throughout the summer, conditions in the camp continued to deteriorate as the men, exposed to the elements, suffered from malnutrition and diseases such as dysentery. With its water source polluted from the overcrowding, epidemics swept through the prison raising its monthly mortality rate to around 3,000. These prisoners were buried in mass graves outside the stockade. Life within Andersonville was made worse by a group of prisoners known as the "Raiders" who stole food and valuables from other prisoners. These were eventually rounded up by a second group known as the "Regulators." Following their capture, the Raiders were put on trial by the prisoners and found guilty. Punishments varied from ball and chain to, in six cases, hanging.

Major General William T. Sherman's troops marched on Atlanta, General John Winder, the head of Confederate POW camps, ordered Wirz to construct earthwork defenses around the camp. These were not needed as following Sherman's capture of the city, the majority of the camp's prisoners were transferred to a new facility at Millen, GA. In late 1864, with Sherman moving toward Savannah, some were transferred back to Andersonville raising the prison's population to around 5,000. It remained at this level until the war's end in April 1865.

Andersonville has become synonymous with the trials and atrocities faced by POWs during the Civil War. Of the approximately 45,000 Union soldiers who passed through Andersonville, 12,913 died within the prison's walls. This represented 28% of Andersonville's population and 40% of all Union POW deaths during the war. In May 1865, Wirz was arrested and taken to Washington. Tried for conspiring to impair the lives of Union prisoners of war, he was found guilty that November. In a controversial decision, Wirz was sentenced to death and hung on November 10, 1865. He was the only individual tried, convicted, and executed for war crimes during the Civil War. The site of Andersonville was purchased by the Federal government in 1910, and is now the home of Andersonville National Historic Site. (clipped by oms)