They, too, were patriots

Eighteen of the last Confederate soldiers killed in 1865 are buried in this cemetery in Appomattox, Virginia. They continue to be honored with the presence of the flag for which they gave their lives--the Southern Cross.

Far too many people dismiss the average southern soldier as a racist or ignorant dupe of the landed gentry. But they knew what they were doing. For four long years these men marched and fought, circumventing extreme material disadvantages through sheer will, ingenuity and devotion to their cause. In that, they were little different from their ancestors who starved and froze during the long winter at Valley Forge in 1777.

The presence of British troops enforcing intolerable acts caused American patriots to take up arms in 1775, and to declare their independence the next year. Southerners in 1861 felt no less justified in their decision to seek a separate course for their nation.

The Gettysburg Address contains a great irony. In the words of Lincoln, "we here highly resolve that ...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Trouble is, this fine rhetoric is hard to reconcile with reality. Each of the southern states held solemn votes before declaring for secession. They declared their several grievances to the world, in the tradition of those who wrote the Declaration of Independence. And the men whose graves are pictured here died on southern soil--defending their home land. Despite the discomfort we have with the southern stand on slavery, the fact remains the Union's vast armies actually fought against self-determination...not to preserve it. In the process, the Constitution suffered grievous wounds from which our system of government has never recovered.

Southerners today are often noted for their patriotism and tendency towards military service, which causes many people to wonder how they can reconcile that with honoring their Confederate past. A friend of mine once gave a great answer: "we're the only part of the country that understands what it is to LOSE your country...and we're determined never to let it happen again." Such sentiment is noble, so long as it doesn't result in being reduced to unthinking pawns of empire, as happened with Scotland. While manning the bulwarks to defend the country, ALL Americans must remember that threats to our liberties come in two flavors: foreign, and domestic.