Posted: 2/2/2005 5:47:29 PM EDT
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I'm Dr Rocket's son working on a history assignment: 1. Why did the south secede shortly after the election of 1860 (Abe Lincoln) 2. Why did Robert E. Lee refuse the union command? |
You have the internet and you come here for this kind of information? You will get some facts but maily opinions and then this will got in to about 6 pages of Yankees Vs. ignorant red neck Southern losers before it gets locked. Get some popcorn and enjoy or Google the answers you need. |
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1. Lincoln wanted to free the slaves, which was not OK with the Southern plantation owners as they would have no one to work their crops. 2. Robert E. Lee was a native of Virginia. Basically he was fighting for his own state. Sorry it is so short, but they're probably the right answers... |
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Lincoln had no intent to free the slaves. If the slavery was the cost of keeping the union whole, Lincoln was more than happy to live with it. When Lincoln started leaning towards abolition, he wanted the slaves out of the country. He felt "whites" and "blacks" could not live together in harmony. As time passed and the "Colored Troops" demonstrated their bravery and worth on the battlefield (and there were times when, like any other unit, they showed their soles and backsides to the Corn-feds), he came to accept them more as people. Again, go to that website I recommended. It's got the best info in their discussion forum and the members are all Sybil Wa-oh enthusiasts. |
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Vicksburg was important because it controlled access to the Mississippi. As Lincoln put it, it was the father of the waters. Without Vicksburg, it was harder for the midwestern states of the Union to ship their goods to Europe. Vicksburg was also a major shipping point for goods from Texas, Arkansas & Oklahoma to the rest of the Confederacy. That's horses, cattle (food), wheat & soldiers. Remember, New Orleans was already captured by 1862 so all goods from West of the Mississippi generally went through Vicksburg (railroad went from there to the rest of the Confederacy). |
It split the Confederacy and the North got control of the most important transporter, the Mississippi river, of the South. I am reading a book about Mississippi pre-war steam boats right now. Those would be interesting times to live in. |
| Best book to read about Vicksburg is Edwin Bearrs, "The Vicksburg Campaign" in 3 volumes. It's available from http://www.morningsidebooks.com Lengthy, but it's exhaustive and definitive. If your son wants something easier that's also fun, try Richard Wheeler's "Siege of Vicksburg." Terrence Winschel's "Triumph and Defeat" is excellent and is unusual in that it is a collection of ten essays about the Vicksburg campaign and the aftermath. |
Awww, don't pizz on Sukebe's beloved prejudices! The one thing that Sukebe and Abe Lincoln should be thankful for was that Nathan Bedford Forrest was not a graduate of West Point. Had he been, he would have commanded a Corps in the Confederate Army, and that would have been the end of the War for the North! Unfortunately, he was merely one of the wealthiest men in the nation, who rose from private to general. And the only general on either side to kill enemy soldiers in actual combat! 30 Yankees to be precise! Eric The(ProuderthanAPeacock)Hun 
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I think the entire nation lost that War. If you think otherwise, then you are not much of an historian, at all. But did you notice how all the men of power in that Assembled Congress this evening were from the South? 'Yeah, bottom rail on top, Massa, bottom rail on top!' Eric The(FromKenBurns'CivilWar)Hun
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Actually, I took an A in Dr Polland's Civil War History course at Northern Virginia Community College in 1981. My point was, as you patently missed, that your statement was not founded in truth. Financial failure and and arms procurement issues were much more to blame for the loss of the War than the gross failure of any one Southern military leader. The agrarian South was not as densely populated as the industrializing North, and didnt have the available cannon fodder the North had. There were incompetent "dandy" officers on both sides, whom raised thier own Regiments, and promptly went out and got them killed. Oh, and yes, I was born in the South, Fla., to a career military family, with a relation whom was a prisoner at Andersonville. Our family has served this country since the French and Indian Wars. DaddyDett |
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I live a couple miles from the Fredericksburg battlefield, Burnsides Corps HQ, and a 1/2 hr from Chancellorsville. the land on which my home sits was, I believe, occupied by Northern batterys. George Washingtons boyhood home is within 2.5 miles as well. C'mon down to Fredericksburg and walk some of this country's most hallowed grounds, Sukebe. DaddyDett |
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Did you get your answer? The south feared that Lincoln would abolish slavery so they succeeded the union. They had already at this time began to build a military and organize a government [started from the Brown Rebellion]. Robert E. Lee refused to turn arms against his home state of Virginia. As soon as Virginia succeeded he had no choice [based on these convictions] to leave the union and fight for the south. Patty |
| For me, Fredericksburg happens to be one of the most interesting battles of the war. I hated Gods and Generals and their depiction of the battle didn't do it justice. The charge of the Harvard Regiment was incorrect (front ranks didn't shoot and fall back for the rear rank to shoot) and the street fighting was more intense than the movie. I visited Fredericksburg several times and while there isn't much of the stone wall on Marye's Heights, the view from the Cemetery is excellent. The town is overdeveloped and the housing development between the creek and the stone wall kills it. However, the old town is terrific and there's a great soda-fountain/drug store that is very reasonable. |
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4v50, Unfortunately, your right about "downtown" being a tourist trap now days. The drugstore changed hands recently, and is scraping along. Despite that, there is a wealth of history here, both Civil and Revolutionary War. I have travelled quite a bit, and lived in many places, but I may have finally found a home here. "Frednecksburg" is a pretty nice place to live, all in all. DaddyDett |
| my understanding atleast to why Lee dindt accept command over the union was at the time the philosphy of loyalty went "My State first then My country" witch plays into the reasons why the south wanted to seceed They felt the feds was dictating what they as states could do overstepping the federal limit on power. |