Poll of the Day > Who would you say are the good and bad guys of the American Civil War?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I got hooked to a history thing (Three Kingdoms China last month) and am now on the American Civil War. Not really the political implications, just stuff like troop movements and victory/losses and such.

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Based on my early research it seems like the CSA Officer GT Beauregard was actually a stand-up guy. Likewise, William Quantrill was an absolute doucher.

America were the good guys, the Confederacy were traitors.

papercup posted...

America were the good guys, the Confederacy were traitors.

that's not really what I meant - they were both belligerents, that's how war works. I mean the individual officiers and such

Lokarin posted...

CSA Officer GT Beauregard was actually a stand-up guy.

That's a bit of a stretch. Especially when arguing specifically about the civil war. He still fought to own slaves and argued that black people were inferior for years after the war.

slacker03150 posted...

That's a bit of a stretch. Especially when arguing specifically about the civil war. He still fought to own slaves and argued that black people were inferior for years after the war.

oof

well, incomplete history i guess - I in no way meant my statement as an endorsement of race politics and/or slavery.

papercup posted...

America were the good guys, the Confederacy were traitors.

By that standard, would the US be the traitors of the Revolutionary War with Britain as the good guys?

Or is it only losers who are traitors, while winners get to be patriots?

theres no such thing as a good guy in a war but the confeds were primarily backed by rich folk who wanted to keep propping up their slave state

When you choose to view the past through a very narrow-minded lens of today's values vs values during the Civil war, there are no good guys.

I don't believe in doing that personally, but there are people who want to tear down statues of Abe Lincoln.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

By that standard, would the US be the traitors of the Revolutionary War with Britain as the good guys?

Or is it only losers who are traitors, while winners get to be patriots?

The US wasn't rebelling against Britain because of slavery.

Hejiru posted...

The US wasn't rebelling against Britain because of slavery.

Ya, the US didn't want to pay a 3% income tax...

...OOPS

If Sherman was a Confederate, he would be absolutely vilified as a war criminal.

Political reasons aside and just focusing on brutality by the military I recall hearing about a guy on the union side who marched through NC burning everything down. Slaughtering livestock and shit like that. Think it was said he's have the back legs of pigs cut off and let them crawl around till they bled out.

Zareth posted...

If Sherman was a Confederate, he would be absolutely vilified as a war criminal.

He is a war criminal. People like to praise him because they like to hate the south, but he was brutal to Native Americans as well during the United State's expansion westward.

Ok, let me rephrase the topic

If there was a "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" version of the American Civil War, who would be the most notable characters other than obvious dudes like Lincoln, Grant, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee

Lokarin posted...

Ok, let me rephrase the topic

If there was a "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" version of the American Civil War, who would be the most notable characters other than obvious dudes like Lincoln, Grant, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee

Stonewall Jackson comes to mind. General Burnsides founded the NRA. A lot of the "Wild West" notables served in the war, such as General Custer, Jesse James, Wild Bill, and Buffalo Bill.

11110111011 posted...

Stonewall Jackson comes to mind. General Burnsides founded the NRA. A lot of the "Wild West" notables served in the war, such as General Custer, Jesse James, Wild Bill, and Buffalo Bill.

J.E.B. Stuart comes to mind too. Iirc he had the nickname gray fox like the mgs character. And one of his more notable accomplishments was capturing a union camp/base without firing a single shot. His men snuck in the middle of the night and marched the officer in charge out his tent in just his underwear at gunpoint.

Also iirc he and his troops where known for operating behind enemy lines