^Wow. Sounds like Pickett come back to life! I found myself disagreeing with considerable portions of what you said, but I found it very interesting. I wonder how many folks down south still hold these views today.

 

[QUOTE=ralper,Sep 3 2006, 06:52 PM] So far my compilation CD is going to include the following selections

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
John Brown's Body
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
When This Cruel War is Over
Bonnie Blue Flag
Dixie's Land
Yellow Rose of Texas
Aura Lee
Goober Peas
Beautiful Dreamer
Kathleen Movourneen
Battle Cry of Freedom
My Old Kentucky Home
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

I've also found some backgroung information on most of the songs.

 

Jim,

I don't want to clog up this thread with the music. I started a music of the Civil War thread last night. Lets move this discussion there.

But in answer to your question, yes, I would include spirituals if they were popular at the time of the Civil War.

 

^^ Interesting post, Wildncrazy.

In the film Gettysburg, that follows the Killer Angels quite closely, your background information giving the southern views was sumed up with a phrase like 'we're fightin' for our rats' [=raets]! By contrast to your post, this statement by a barefoot southern grunt soldier comes across as naive and blind. I think you are right, to understand the strength of the motivation of so many (poor and uneducated) soldiers from the south, of whom hardly any to none owned slaves, to fight in this miserable and demanding war, you need to take in to account their own understanding of what was really happening in the different parts of the country.

 

But I really disagree with you in thinking that the two countries would eventually have gotten back together if the South had won. Both sides were actively trying to control the newer states, like Texas, and the western territories all the way to New Mexico, Arizona,and Colorado. I think they would have hardened their positions, consolidated their respective areas of control, and have become permanent competitors in the development of the West. This continent would have looked very different today.

On the singular or plural conceptualization of the United States, some European languages like German, Spanish and French have made the plural view permanent, reflecting the conglomerate notion of the founding fathers at the time. The noun phrase, Die Vereinigten Staaten, requires a plural form of the verb... [I]die Vereinigten Staaten k

 

Wildncrazy,

During the late 1960s and 1970s I had the opportunity to deal with a lot of sewing shops in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. While I don't especially agree with much of what you said, I do know that what you said was believed by many if not most of the people I dealt with. I think things have changed now, but the attitudes and thoughts that you expressed were widely held. I can remember very clearly how every problem concerning race relations, the school system, povery and etc was traced back to what Sherman did when he marched his army to the coast. I remember Jefferson Davis being called a hero and Abe Lincoln being called a fool.

Like Bill, I wonder if this perception still exists.

 

[QUOTE=S1997,Sep 4 2006, 07:40 AM] But I really disagree with you in thinking that the two countries would eventually have gotten back together if the South had won. Both sides were actively trying to control the newer states, like Texas, and the western territories all the way to New Mexico, Arizona,and Colorado. I think they would have hardened their positions, consolidated their respective areas of control, and have become permanent competitors in the development of the West. This continent would have looked very different today.

On the singular or plural conceptualization of the United States, some European languages like German have made the plural view permanent, reflecting the conglomerate notion of the founding fathers at the time. The noun phrase, Die Vereinigten Staaten, requires a plural form of the verb... [I]die Vereinigten Staaten k

 

[QUOTE=S1997,Sep 4 2006, 09:40 AM] But I really disagree with you in thinking that the two countries would eventually have gotten back together if the South had won. Both sides were actively trying to control the newer states, like Texas, and the western territories all the way to New Mexico, Arizona,and Colorado. I think they would have hardened their positions, consolidated their respective areas of control, and have become permanent competitors in the development of the West. This continent would have looked very different today.

On the singular or plural conceptualization of the United States, some European languages like German have made the plural view permanent, reflecting the conglomerate notion of the founding fathers at the time. The noun phrase, Die Vereinigten Staaten, requires a plural form of the verb... [I]die Vereinigten Staaten k

 

Did anyone besides me find the whole music thing while the war was going on surprising?

I don't know why, but that surprised me a bit.

Was it to keep up morale? Was it to entertain and pass the time while marching, sitting around the fire in the evening and in between battles? Was it to show pride? What do you all think?

 

All of those things. Music has always been a part of war, every war.