One hundred and fifty years later, the South (or the coalition called Dixie) continues to be a thorn in the side of progress because they’re sore losers: the Civil Rights movements, Marriage Equality, Climate Change, Evolution and their traitorous racist flag. They are the winners when it comes to Poverty and Ignorance since the “Confederate” flag is actually the banner of Lee’s army, the army of northern Virginia. Much like their constitution, it wasn’t terribly original. Plus it was confusing on the battlefield.
Anyway, after chasing Lee’s forces around for a dozen days, Grant finally trapped the traitor. Brave troops? Hardly. Desertions near the end were endemic. The surrender wasn’t the complete ending of hostilities. The US Army had to fight holdouts and probably other units which didn’t receive the news for the next few months.
In the short run, things mostly panned out for Grant. He went on to be the 18th president and oddly the first who wanted to run for a third term, obviously it didn’t happen. Thanks to Dixie propaganda Grant has been unfairly demonized. I know, weird to hear me defend a Republican other than Lincoln. The truth is, the man’s presidency wasn’t the utter disaster we often are told. It’s mostly fueled by Dixie’s anger at this president sending troops to protect Black Southerners from the Klan and other bullies suppressing voters who didn’t “vote correctly.” Now they use Super PACs, Fox News instead and Supreme-Court-induced gerrymandering.
Meanwhile, Lee continues to have numerous statues and other landmarks throughout. I find it ironic he’s on the UT Austin campus given Dixie is anti-education, or at least for anyone who isn’t a wealthy WASP. Currently some dumbass Confederate wannabes want the flag of traitors and hate on an official Texas license plate. This battle is going before the Supreme Court, probably a freedom of speech claim. I think we should let them have their symbol as long as the rest of us are allowed to have Pro-Choice, La Raza, Black Power and We Yankees Kicked Your Ass plates.
I know old grudges don’t die after the ink has dried on a surrender writ but Dixie (I’ll explain in an overdue book review) has had a century and a half to gets its collective shit together. As a Yankee, I plan to continue reminding them along with how much welfare their states have been collecting since the FDR administration.
Looping back to Grant, I have formulated a plan to start reading a good bio about each president starting with Washington. I’ll get back to you on its progress.