Today in history: Civil War Adm. David Farragut captures New Orleans (1862)

[bluestateguy]

Let's hear it for the glorious UNION troops capturing this hotbed of Southern treason and secession!

Let us mourn all of the UNION troops lost to bring down New Orleans.

[JeffR]

1. Sorry

but I mourn everyone who died in that war. I'm a Southerner who finds secession and its lingering after-effects abhorrent, and I'm very glad the union was saved. But the Confederate troops who died during that struggle are no less worthy of respect than the Yankees who beat them. They were all Americans, and it was a goddamn tragedy no matter how you view it.

[enlightenment]

2. I agree.

To simplify it in terms of "Union good" "Confederate bad" is ridiculous. Life is not that simple and the single most divisive and painful episode in our national history is worthy of better than that grossly inadequate view.

[JeffR]

3. Thanks. I didn't disagree with the OP's celebration of the saving

of the nation. I just like to see a recognition that generally poor, generally young Americans made up most of the casualties of the war, on both sides. That's still the way we prefer to fight our wars.

There's much to rejoice in in the outcome of the Civil War, but I can't mourn the casualties of one side over the other. We're all still paying a price for it, though not the price the millions of dead and wounded paid.

[JDPriestly]

4. My ancestors fought on the Union side. It was a terrible war.

Both sides and many families suffered a terrible loss of life. I have to say, I'm grateful that the Union won, because we truly became one nation at the end of that war.