11 Comments
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Charles T Quinnelly's avatar

Thanks, Charles. Personally, I despise the Confederate flag; it's a symbol of ignorance.

Charles Bastille's avatar

Thanks Charles. Me too.

Charles T Quinnelly's avatar

I compared and contrasted your essay with the history of Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, MS, using ChatGPT. My parents and grandparents are buried in Columbus. There is some historical Memorial Day reference to Friendship too, but different timing.

Charles Bastille's avatar

I relied mostly on national archives. I don't really tend to lean on chatgpt. I'm still old school that way.

Paula Rossi's avatar

Excellent piece! History we all need to know.

Susan Niemann's avatar

The most compete accounting I've read...and we should all pass this on and never forget it. I learned a lot here, so thanks. The South continues to hang on to its primitive ways (not all southerners, I know) so maybe they should be their own tormented country and figure out how to survive without blue state money.

Charles Bastille's avatar

Thanks 🙂. I live in the South, but it's Atlanta. A very different world. Georgia is becoming truly purple, finally. Racism is getting chipped away, believe it or not, slowly but surely. I think one of the best things to ever happen to Georgia is a Baptist preacher named Raphael Warnock. :-)

The Icarian's avatar

Excellent work. Thanks. Always found it interesting the “holiday” was originally only honoring Union dead. As it should be IMO.

Charles Bastille's avatar

Thanks. I think they quickly began to adopt changes to the ceremony to include Confederate soldiers to promote unity, but I'd have to check on that.

bumpyjonas's avatar

David Blight, the historian, the very best on civil war stuff, confirms this in a lecture that is online.

Charles Bastille's avatar

Thanks. I'd be shocked if William Spivey hasn't written about it (he knows everything, lol), but I didn't try to find out.