Many American families, some prominent and others that were not, found themselves on very different sides in a war that killed over 600,000 American men, more than have been killed in any other war in our country's history. One side called it the War for Southern Independence or the War of Northern Aggression, whereas the other side referred to it as the War of the Rebellion or the Great Rebellion, but officially it is now the War Between the States, or simply the Civil War.

Dick's family was one of the prominent ones to be divided when war was declared, and I recently began thinking about his family while reading about him in S.C. Gwynne's Rebel Yell, an excellent, new and very readable Stonewall Jackson biography. (Rebel Yell is also the name of my favorite Kentucky bourbon, but last year I was disappointed when political correctness apparently caused the distillery to remove the Confederate cavalry figure from its label.) Dick initially served as a brigade commander under Jackson in the early part of the war, and time after time, he proved himself on the battlefield. He was born in Kentucky (a divided but neutral state during the war), was a Yale University graduate and lived much of his adult life in Louisiana. Dick's father was elected President of the United States of America (USA), and his brother-in-law was elected President of the Confederate States of America (CSA). Dick was a Confederate general who led soldiers against the Union, while his uncle (bearing the same last name) was a Union general who led troops against him. Those rather interesting facts may surprise some of you, but divided loyalties even existed in the immediate family of President Abraham Lincoln, and General Stonewall Jackson's only sister was a Unionist who disowned her Confederate brother. My family is also divided on the subject of the war, for my ancestors fought for the Union, whereas I was later born in the Heart of Dixie and now have three of my children married to the descendants of Confederate soldiers. Because of my varied roots, I will always love Civil War history. 

But who was the man who found himself as a member of two of America's First Families that were divided in the middle of the 19th Century? He was Richard Scott Taylor, the only son of President Zachary Taylor, a popular military hero of the Mexican War. Dick had two sibling sisters who survived childhood. One of them was the first wife of Jefferson Davis, and the other served as the official hostess for their widower President father at the White House in Washington. Dick was a Louisiana plantation owner and politician, with no prior military experience, but even while constantly battling the debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis, he proved to be an effective battle strategist and eventually became a lieutenant general. Once called the "Soldier Prince of Dixie" in a book about his life, Dick miraculously survived the war. He died at the age of 53 in 1879 and is buried in New Orleans. The Civil War not only heatedly divided families and our country for those four bloody years of fighting, but it instilled deep hatred on both sides, and even though the fighting finally stopped, the hatred did not.

Not only were Confederates demoralized by their final military defeat, but most Civil War battles were fought on their soil, and the Union victors showed little mercy for the civilians and property that they found on that soil, literally laying waste to all that they found, particularly toward the end of the war. The war killed soldiers and drastically changed the lives of those left behind on both sides, but the south was more severely affected. 

Not long after the military surrenders of the Confederate armies, the United States Government took a distinctly vengeful tact with the eleven states that had left the Union, initiating and ruthlessly enforcing a 12-year Reconstruction of those states. Though Lincoln had planned otherwise, he was assassinated by Confederate sympathizers and was not around to help direct more agreeable, post-war events. Historically referred to as the Radical Reconstruction Era, it was in fact the "Destruction" Era in the south, for it caused further economic devastation on the people and institutions of the south, leaving even deeper scars on the land and on the hearts of the people who lived there. Though slavery is now most often given as the main cause of the Civil War, we should remember that the vast majority of Confederates never owned any slaves but were still punished for being part of the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, many former Confederates were at least temporarily not allowed to vote or hold public office, whereas "Carpetbaggers" (northern "do-gooders" and financial opportunists) and their local Unionist friends (called "Scallywags") were allowed to take charge of things and were supported by Union troops who used martial law to rule the southern people. Older historical accounts report that official corruption was rampant, and out-of control, spending inspired by the greedy Unionists increased the government debt in every southern state, debt that remained on the books well into the 20th Century. Today's historians seem to paint a prettier picture of Reconstruction.

Though Reconstruction eventually ended, it unfortunately was followed by a racially discriminatory segregation system that was put in place in the south to control the former slaves, and that system deprived the free slaves (and also generations of their descendants) of the constitutional rights and opportunities that should have been guaranteed to them in our democratic republic after the war. Segregation also ended, but not until a century of time had passed since the war, and the former Confederacy finally became a land of opportunity for all people, regardless of their race. All of the "Rebels" and "Yankees" who fought in the war and all of the slaves who were freed are long gone. Most of the folks who suffered and endured Segregation have also passed away. In my opinion, things have changed for the better for all people in the south, but even after 150 years since the war, our country still seems to be deeply divided by it, and even words that might offend someone are being banned. The division is particularly heated as it relates to how Americans should remember the war and how they should publicly commemorate it and its leaders. Whether some of us like it or not, we had two functioning nations during that war, and many Americans greatly sacrificed for their respective beliefs and national governments. I trust that our divided American family can somehow peacefully come together and find a reasonable way to honor the Civil War, a really important part of our country's history. The Civil War should never be erased from our memory, for the lives of too many of our citizens were affected by it for too many years. 

Perhaps we could follow the example of the soldiers who fought each other during those hellish war years but yet seemed to find some commonality during the winter of 1863. At that time, after the Battle of Fredericksburg, an unofficial truce existed between the two armies, as they faced each other from opposite banks along the icy Rappahannock River in Virginia. Historian S.C. Gwynne tells in his book what happened: The sweetest and saddest of this dreamy season came one evening when several Union bands appeared on the northern bank...to play some favorites, songs such as "When This Cruel War is Over," "Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground," "John Brown's Body" and "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Thousands of (Union) soldiers in groups on the hillside sang along while the rebels listened. Finally the Confederates called out across the river, "Now play one of ours!" Without missing a beat, the Yankee bands pitched into "Dixie, "The Bonnie Blue Flag," and "Maryland, My Maryland." They ended the concert by playing "Home Sweet Home," with 150,000 men on both sides choking up as they sang it. Remember that America is home to all of us, brothers and sisters from north and south, regardless of our roots. - Your Bud
 

      Thank you so very much, Billy!