Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Surrender at Appomattox.

In any case, timber, agriculture, and the discovery of massive oil deposits in Texas and Oklahoma would have seen the South's fortunes rise as they have today...but probably much sooner.

Maybe when the oil was discovered, Texas and Oklahoma would have succeeded from the CSA to keep from sharing.

Maybe so. I'd be fine if they did it right now. We really don't need the rest of you.

Which is why I keep saying that a weak confederacy consisting of strong states with a history of Secession would have been doomed from the start.
Texas may well have been the first to pull out.

Consider Texas for a moment. What the frick is the federal government doing for it right now? I'm sure some Yankee will get on here and make some crack about becoming part of Mexico. Well, what the frick do you think is happening right now? And instead of trying to help us stem the tide, the Feds take Texas, Arizona, and any other border state to court if they try to do DAMN THING to stem the tide and keep from being overrun from the south.

Frick you and your damned Yankee government. There are thousands of people who are damned afraid to even go outside their homes at night for being killed by an illegal or drug mule. There are people who can't check their cows without being armed to the teeth. There are people who see their fences cut, their lands despoiled, and their livestock scattered by what can only be described as hoards of illegals. And your damned Yankee government not only does nothing to stop it, but encourages it and brings its full weight down on those who try to protect themselves.

You seem to think that just because a person was born in a State that wasn't one of the eleven that formed the CSA, he/she supports the Federal Government across the board. There are many Yankees who would like to see the Federal Government enforce Federal Laws currently on the book to the letter of the law. Illegal immigration has destroyed access to the construction trades where I live and don't even get me started on "states rights" legalization/decriminalization of marijuana in AK, CO, OR, and WA. Heck, Vermont is considering following suit, as a means by which to generate revenue and Vermont already has the highest per capita rate of drug abuse/addiction in the entire U.S.!

Pray tell what you think "...preserve the Union" means if it doesn't mean drafting large armies, invading heretofore sovereign states, bringing devastation on their populations, and forcing them to remain as vassals to a centralized national government?

Both sides resorted to conscription, and areas of dissent in the South were brutally suppressed on a scale exceeding anything in the North. But it comes down to this; desertion was not nearly the problem among the Union troops that it became for the South. Most of the Union rank and file supported their own cause.

The Confederacy wasn't around long enough, and certainly not at all in peacetime, for its own issues of Central Government vs. States Rights to be sorted out, but certainly the separatist impulses of the member States seriously impaired the overall Confederate war effort.

Birdwatcher

But at what point do you stop? Had Scotland become independent, you would have then seen the centuries old divisions between Scots start to raise its head..Lowlanders v Highlanders...The Islanders v the mainland, not to mention the whole Clan thing...

Sometimes folks have to get past events from 150 years ago and concentrate on making things better in the present..

Having been raised in New Hampshire, the 9th colony to become a state in the United States of America, I don't ever recall anyone except my Grandmother either talking about or caring about the American Civil War, except on Memorial Day, when the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) made an effort to put bronze flag holders with small American flags on the graves of Civil War veterans, both Union and Confederate. My Grandmother's interest was due to family ties, as she was the unofficial genealogist of her side of the family. Several of her ancestors fought in the Civil War and one, Salmon P. Chase, was a member of President Lincoln's Cabinet. I point this out because although the population of the United State during 1861 thru 1865 was roughly split 70% in the USA and 30% in the CSA, there seems to be very little interest among the descendants of the 70% when compared to the ill feelings still held by descendants of the 30%.

If a reasonably educated group of people can hold a grudge after 150 years, you can see why there will never be peace in most of the less educated world.

… The Depression went unnoticed in the South …

Oh?

We who lived there at the time found it to be most vividly noticeable —
in several very significant and unforgettable respects.

Well, then you were obviously rich to begin with …

… The Depression went unnoticed in the South …

Got to be the stupidest thing I have read here in a long time.