Find the facts in Civil War history

A recent letter writer is correct in that, for a number of the leaders of the South, the Civil War was definitely about being a slave nation. As to his note that Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson ignored their oath to the Constitution of the United States, does he also feel that George Washington and others should be condemned because they broke their oaths to the King of England?

He should read “The Autobiography of Jefferson Davis” (1890) and “General Lee, A Biography of Robert E. Lee” by Fitzgerald Lee. While slavery was the issue, they fought because the North had violated the Constitution regarding the rights the states had given to the federal government. In fact, before 1865, the Constitution stated that the issue was committed to the individual states. The vast majority of those who fought for the South did not own slaves — but they, including Davis and Lee, fought for “states’ rights” in the war of Northern aggression.

In the same vein, it is stated that Lincoln “freed the slaves.” His Emancipation Proclamation did not. It treated the slaves of the South as war plunder. The Proclamation applied in the 10 states that were still in rebellion in 1863, and did not cover the slaves in the slave-holding border states nor in the Northern states that still allowed slavery.

Thankfully, the North won, and rejoined the union that passed the 13th Amendment.

We should not rewrite history, but we should make sure it is factual.

This story was originally published September 23, 2017 at 9:33 AM with the headline "Find the facts in Civil War history."