Good for Obama, for remembering our history and not the political correctness that clouds it! Those 250,000 Southerners who died were still American, whether they thought so or not. To think the Civil War was just about slavery is too simplistic, it was much more complicated than that. It was largely about State's Rights, and those who believed in those principles. Those honored believed in those principles strongly enough to die for them. That by itself of worth honoring. Dedication like that is rarely seen anymore; everyone is mostly all talk nowadays, and not willing to take a hard stand for what they truly believe in. When Southreners refer to the "South Will Rise Again", its not in a military sense, they mean the state governments will control the federal government, as it was before the Civil War, and not the other way around like it is today. That was the heart behind 'State's Rights', the real cause of the Civil War.
Keep in mind that only 12% of the southern population owned slaves at the start of the Civil War, it was a dying institution anyway. Also, recognizing that, the Confederate Congress voted in its first legislative session to end slavery upon its victory at the end of the war; which obviously was never able to happen. Large numbers of African-Americans also willingly volunteered for the CSA military. Yeah, they were mostly slaves, but the South was still their home, and many of them still felt the need to protect their homeland from an outside invader. You'll never learn about that stuff in school though, the victors write the history books.
by Anonymous
