The Meaning of Oaths and a Forgotten Man {calling civil war geeks}

[xchrom]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/what-an-oath-means?fb_action_ids=655702337775746&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=soc_fcbk&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22655702337775746%22%3A501711323240381%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22655702337775746%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%22655702337775746%22%3A%22soc_fcbk%22%7D





***SNIP

See, I really do think Robert E. Lee was a traitor who should have been executed. Polite people, nice folks in Fredericksburg and other southern places where I have been on a rip, are not used to hearing such a virulent assault upon “Marse Robert.” But when I feel like being left alone I am neither polite, nor Southern, and so when I am annoyed, I have in the past let loose upon the traitor.
And he was that.

He had a choice. Lee chose to betray the United States. Some of his peers, Virginians through-and-through, with more reason than him to want to keep “slaves in their place,” decided not to betray our nation. These were men who decided to keep true to their oaths. These were men who believed in the nation. One, in particular, matters to this campaign we are talking about in Tennessee. His name was George Thomas.

Now we have a little time, in our narrative of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. It will be a few weeks before the ever-cautious Rosecrans gets off his duff and figures out how to flummox Braxton Bragg again. (SPOILER: He succeeds, and take Chattanooga.) So for now, let us look at the real central character. Of course, history demands context, so let us begin at the beginning.

George Thomas was fifteen years old in August 1831. His family was not mega-rich, but they were pretty well off. Remember at the time that there was damned little, north or south, that could be called a “middle class.” That whole construct really doesn’t come until after WWII. But if you were going to place his family, you would put them in “lower upper class.”

His family had a plantation in what is now known as the “Tidewater” region of Virginia, not too far from Yorktown. They owned slaves. Estimates range from 12-15, depending upon the year. His father had died three years earlier, in 1828, so George was stepped up. Young George had played with the slaves as a child, and as a teen, had illicitly and secretly been teaching some of them to read. Do not assume that he was an abolitionist from this. Only acknowledge his developing appreciation of humanity. But that year something would happen that would shake his entire world, and which should have made him into the most racist-slave-owning radical extant. In that year, a slave named Nat Turner initiated a revolt, very close to the Thomas plantation. And by very close, I am talking thousands of yards.


Read more: Esquire Civil War Reenactment: Robert E. Lee and What an Oath Means - Esquire
Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook
Visit us at Esquire.com

[hfojvt]

1. knr

even though I was hoping this thread was about "the great unknown".

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

2. To argue an execution of Gen Lee after the end of the Civil War

would also necessitate the same argument for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Vice President Stephens and their Cabinet as well. You could also argue that any Confederate officer be executed as well.

For the sake of argument if just Lee had bee executed for his part in the America Civil War you might have see a guerrilla war continue for some time instead of peace. Had lee been executed it might have been a different story as to how long hostilities would go on for: even at a smaller scale.

BTW: My GGG-grandfather marched with Phil Sheridan.

[The Magistrate]

3. Good Man, General Thomas, Sir

[Hubert Flottz]

4. "The Rock of Chickamauga"

George Thomas upheld his oath and proved himself many times in battle. I think that General Lee never was the same after the loss of that arm at Chancellorsville. The whole war was a sad thing and I pity a lot of people back then for the decisions they had to make. The world was an entirely different place back then. People don't look at things today the way they looked at things back then. I think General Lee was one of the saddest people involved in the Civil War, because he chose to abandon his oath to the USA. The war started over "States Rights," but slavery was the true underlying catalyst for war from day 1, IMHO. I'm glad the war ended the way it did, but sometimes I think that same war still rages on, in too many minds and in too many places in today's USA.