The Confederacy was fighting for homes, not slavery
I read with interest Bud Kennedy’s column about the Confederacy and its fighting to keep slavery in place in the South. (See: "Research trumps revisionist history," Jan. 25)
Obviously Kennedy chooses to believe what one writer believes is fact without giving the same opportunity to Confederate writers who were actually there.
I have many Southern ancestors who fought in The War Between the States, and I am very proud of them.
But, funny, in checking the census records of these soldiers, not once have I found slaveholders. And I rather doubt these young men fought so valiantly for the wealthy landholder on the hill. These ancestors of mine were poor dirt farmers. I have the census records to prove their net worth, and it was pretty sad.
One young soldier, my greatuncle, was captured and died of scurvy and starvation in a Yankee prison. He left a young wife and three children. He did not own slaves.
My greatgrandfather returned home with the horror of the war in his eyes. I have a picture of him in a suit coat he borrowed for the photograph. He didn’t have enough money to buy his own. He didn’t own slaves.
I could go on and on about my ancestors, but if Kennedy wants to offer an opinion, he needs to get the facts right. These young men fought to preserve their homes when hordes of Yankees overran their homelands.
What would Kennedy have done?
— Mary Carol Marino, Fort Worth