An interesting passage from Foster’s Ghosts of the Confederacy

“‘It would have pleased you to know and have heard the wild rebel yell echoing from the ancient walls of Manila, the son of a Virginia Confederate informed former Confederate general E.P. Alexander after the war [Spanish-American War]. ‘We of the younger generation owe you of ’61 a debt of gratitude and admiration for the noble examples & high ideals set for us to follow, he continued. ‘I know that the spirit of the fathers is in the sons too, through my own limited experience in military service.’ In its battles, the First Tennessee Regiment ‘maintained the name given it in bloody baptism in the Army of Northern Virginia.’ The irony of putting down rebels with a rebel yell seemed lost on these soldiers. For them, the Confederate soldier exemplified only martial courage and discipline.'”

How could it have been anything more in the way of remembrance of a Confederate past, especially while under the flag of their fathers’ former enemy… and while wearing a blue uniform?

Tagged: motivations from the past, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Southerners at war, Spanish-American War

Posted in: American Civil War, Civil War Memory - General, historical memory, Memory of the post CW years