Attack, Attack, Attack -- That's All...

...They Know How To Do

Corey has a new target in his ... ahem ... verbal crosshairs (smirk) --  Lani Burnette Rinkel. He's pissed because she lamented the destruction of Southern cities by the yankee army during the war. Sez Corey:

Post some pictures of destruction in southern cities and blame the Yankees.  Never mind that some of the destruction was caused by the Confederates…IE: when they evacuated Richmond over the night of April 2-3, 1865.

Of course, I had to point out the obvious -- knowing full well my comment(s) likely will not make it through moderation. Here's my first comment:

If the Yankees had not been down here to begin with, the destruction would not have happened. Besides, there were plenty enough other cities, towns, communities, farms, etc, destroyed by the yankee army — many of them by fire — and recorded in the OR.

Partial list:
Osceola, Missouri, burned to the ground, September 24, 1861
Dayton, Missouri, burned, January 1 to 3, 1862
Columbus, Missouri, burned, reported on January 13, 1862
Bentonville, Arkansas, partly burned, February 23, 1862
Winton, North Carolina, burned, reported on February 21, 1862
Bluffton, South Carolina, burned, reported June 6, 1863
Bledsoe’s Landing, Arkansas, burned, October 21, 1862
Hamblin’s, Arkansas, burned, October 21, 1862
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, partly burned, August 10, 1862

And then there was the sack and pillage of Athens, Alabama, on June 30, 1862, by Colonel Turchin’s men, who committed rapes and other atrocities on the inhabitants. Turchin (the Mad Cassock) was subsequently court-martialed and put out of the military. What happened next? Turchin was returned to the military and promoted to Brigadier General .

Athens, Alabama, partly burned, August 30, 1862
Randolph, Tennessee, burned, September 26, 1862
Elm Grove and Hopefield, Arkansas, burned, October 18, 1862
Napoleon, Arkansas, partly burned, January 17, 1863
Mound City, Arkansas, partly burned, January 13, 1863
Hopefield, Arkansas, burned, February 21, 1863
Eunice, Arkansas, burned, June 14, 1863
Gaines Landing, Arkansas, burned, June 15, 1863
Sibley, Missouri, burned June 28, 1863
Hernando, Mississippi, partly burned, April 21, 1863
Austin, Mississippi, burned, May 23, 1863
Columbus, Tennessee, burned, reported February 10, 1864
Meridian, Mississippi, destroyed, February 3 to March 6, 1864

“For 5 days 10,000 men worked hard and with a will…with axes, crowbars, sledges, clawbars, and with fire, and I have no hesitation in pronouncing the work as well done. Meridian, with its depots, store-houses, arsenal, hospitals, offices, hotels, and cantonments no longer exists.” — w.t.sherman (Hospitals? I wonder what happened to the patients….)

Washington, North Carolina, sacked and burned, April 20, 1864
Hallowell’s Landing, Alabama, burned, reported May 14, 1864
Newtown, Virginia, ordered to be burned, ordered May 30, 1864
Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, burned, June 12, 1864
Rome, Georgia, partly burned, November 11, 1864
Atlanta, Georgia, burned, November 15, 1864
Camden Point, Missouri, burned, July 14, 1864
Kendal’s Grist-Mill, Arkansas, burned, September 3, 1864
Shenandoah Valley, devastated, reported October 1, 1864 by sheridan
Griswoldville, Georgia, burned, November 21, 1864
Somerville, Alabama, burned, January 17, 1865
McPhersonville, South Carolina, burned, January 30, 1865
Barnwell, South Carolina, burned, reported February 9, 1865
Columbia, South Carolina, burned, reported February 17, 1865
Winnsborough, South Carolina, pillaged and partly burned, February 21, 1865
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, burned, April 4, 1865

And, of course, this list does not include the private homes, business, barns, crops in the field… which were listed as being plundered and burned by the yankees.

M.D./Margaret Blough had one of her usual wordy quagmires  I could not force myself to slog though (my gosh, she's worse than I am because she takes herself and her subject waaaay to seriously) and could barely skim -- but it had something to do with tariffs and stuff. Then there was one of Jimmy Dick's junior-high level polemics... he's all-emotion, no-cognition, quite the opposite from Ms. Blough.

My second comment will also not make it through moderation over there, but I had to post it anyway, because they STILL don't understand we're not all clones and we don't all have identical views, motives, etc....

Mr. Dick, the same could be said of you and your anti-Confederate buddies -- you just want to make Confederates look evil and yankees saintly. The truth is not desired by your community.

My position is, and always has been, that the federals, whatever their motive -- "preserving the union" or "freeing slaves" (we know THAT was not why they invaded) -- had no moral authority for coming south, killing people, burning cities and homes, stealing what food they could and destroying the rest... No. Moral. Authority. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

You think because they abolished slavery in their states that gave them some kind of moral edge? Think again. They "emancipated" some slaves and sold the rest. And even without slaves living in their back yards, they were still chin-deep in slavery, growing fabulously rich off of it, without incurring any of the expense.

What was the real, practical purpose of "preserving the union"? To keep the flippin' cotton flowing north, unimpeded, to the cargo holds of New England ships and to the looms of textile factories....

Slavery ... tariffs ... secession... Those have little bearing on why I honor my Confederate ancestors. I honor them for standing up to a brutal, bullying invader who attacked because Southerners had the temerity to want out of a terrible alliance with people who hated them (and still do) and wanted their own nation in which to govern themselves.

And you know what? I really don't shiv a git what you think of that.