Editor:
The common denominator among many seems to be historical ignorance and its illegitimate stepchild, political correctness. The current and seemingly neverending flap over the Confederate battle flag is a great example.
Everywhere is the cry - racism, the flag represents slavery - when the Confederate Flag is mentioned. A better example of educational ignorance cannot be found.
Fact 1. The chief inspector of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, (Hospital Corps), Dr. Lewis Steiner, reported that he saw about 3,000 well-armed black Confederate soldiers in Stonewall Jackson's army in Frederick, Maryland, and that those soldiers were "manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army." (Union Army Records)
Fact 2. The five "Civilized Tribes" of American Indians fought for the Confederacy with Stand Watie being promoted to general in May of 1864. No person of color ever attained the rank of general in the Union Army. (Source: Cherokee Nation Archives)
Fact 3. Because of the Spanish heritage of many areas of the Deep South, a number of Confederate regiments from the states such as South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi contained men with Spanish surnames. (Source: Ted Alexander, Historian, Antietam National Battle Field)
Fact 4. In 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant initiated one of the most blatant official episodes of anti-Semitism in 19th-century American history. In December of that year, Grant issued his infamous General Order No. 11, which expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. (Source: American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise)
Fact 5. Senior Senator from Louisiana, Benjamin P. Judah, the first Senator of Jewish decent in America, married to a Creole lady, said this to his colleagues in Louisiana just prior to that state's secession from the Union: "An enslaved and servile race you can never make of us-never! Never!" (Source: Jewish Confederates, Robert N. Rosen)
History shows all the above occurred under the Stars and Stripes, yet, not one word from the folks in Dolores seeking to ban that flag.
History is the arch-enemy of the politically correct. Should anyone this ignorant of history be teaching our children?
Michael Gaddy
Mancos
Via CortezJournal.com