The Smithsonian Channel’s “documentary” on the War of 1861-1865 entitled “Civil War 360” is just another distorted and inaccurate treatment of the conflict. The central theme was that the only cause of the war was slavery, repeated at regular intervals, lest the viewer should forget!
Tariffs (mostly paid by the South) were used to protect Northern industries and pay for internal improvements (such as railroads and canals) in the North. High tariffs, fears of political and economic domination by the North, and adherence to Constitutional principles make for a more complex situation.
After the first seven states seceded, the four slave-holding states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina remained firmly in the Union until Lincoln illegally called for 75,000 troops to put down the “rebellion.”
Lincoln’s “declaration of war” on the seceded states was an act of treason in accordance with Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was strictly a war measure designed to discourage European powers from recognizing the Confederate States and aiding them openly. It freed no slaves in Union territory and could not free any slaves in a Southern-controlled territory.
The War for Southern Independence was not a civil war. Jefferson Davis had no desire to take over Washington D.C., any more than George Washington wanted to take over London. The assertion that Lincoln’s assassination was part of an effort by John Wilkes Booth and his associates to overthrow the federal government sounds even more absurd!
The horrors of Sherman’s destruction of Atlanta and march to the sea (and the depredations of other Union forces) was not covered. The atrocities committed against the people (white and black) of the South by Union forces were matched only by those committed against the plains Indians.
The brutalization of the South did not stop with the end of the war. Under the radical Republicans, the Southern states were considered conquered lands to be “reconstructed.” Military occupation, a reign of terror under federal soldiers and the Union League, and corrupt carpetbaggers were endured by the Southern population.
Once the Southern states were “reconstructed,” they were “readmitted” to a completely changed Union. It was now a single nation-state held together by force of arms by an overbearing centralized government no longer beholden to its citizens. The limited, decentralized republic established by the founding fathers had been effectively destroyed by the Lincoln regime.
Slaveholding was not solely a white Southern phenomenon. The estimated 645,000 black Africans that were transported to America (of the perhaps 10-12 million transported to the New World before the slave trade was banned) initially wound up in all parts of the country.
The African slave trade was already in place several hundred years before the first European arrived to negotiate the purchase of slaves for transport across the Atlantic. The slave trade was a lucrative enterprise for the North that included construction of the U.S.-flagged slave ships, provision of crews, etc. In fact, the last known slaves transported to the U.S. came aboard a Northern slaver in 1864.
The contributions of black Americans who served in the Confederate armed forces were completely ignored. Although not officially sanctioned by the Confederate or state governments, African-Americans served in a variety of roles, including armed, uniformed soldiers.
Without their superlative work as teamsters, few Confederate armies could have been long sustained in the field. Despite their service being labeled a “myth” by court historians, it is attested to in the federal government’s own history of the conflict, the Official Records, as well as photographs from the war.
At best, “Civil War 360” was a slipshod attempt to present a simplistic version of the War. At worst, it was a deliberate, despicable piece of politically-correct propaganda.
Walter L. Adams Jr. is from