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And...I really don't get the big deal about it. I get that it was a major point in history, but why is the 150th anniversary so important? I don't recall any fuss being made over the centennial anniversary but then again that was 30+ years before I was born, so I could be wrong. July 28th 2014 is going to be the centennial of World War I starting and I'll be very interested in seeing how much attention is paid to that.

Anybody else not get it?

I just think that celebrating momentous accounts in this worlds history is vital to our society and remembering not to do this over again. I know in the military, we do celebrate a lot of historical events. Main one of course is 9/11 but also a big one is Pearl Harbor. The beginning of WW2.

Confederate canons fired on Fort Sumpter in Charleston Harbor. The United States Civil War started. In the next 4 years it would be the most devastating and deadly war in US History to date.

I was raised in St. Louis, which reluctantly sided with the North but by accident of birth, my family is from the South. One of my Great-Great Gandfathers was a sawbones in the CSA and survived into the late 1930s. My grandmother tells me he was a die-hard rebel who would hit you with his cane if you didn't stand while Dixie was playing. We lost Grampa Doc's grey uniform, saber and pistol in a fire (woulda been a family civil war over who got them so just as well).

I find it kinda funny the distance we have made from those times, tho many in the South are a century and a half out of sync. My wife was the first black person to take our family name. If ppl could roll in their graves, there woulda been an earthquake at the Union Baptist Church cemetary. (BTW - an ironic name for a Mississippi church full of southern racists).

So, for the next four years we shall likely visit each of those dreadful battles with unbelievable loss of life. It may not be so dynamic as it was when I was a teen in 1961, the centennial years.

Didn't the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 lead up to secession and eventually the Civil War?

Tony Marino wrote:: Didn't the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 lead up to secession and eventually the Civil War?

A lot of things preceded this event, even the 11 states that officially seceded early in 1861 but the Union didn't do anything until the federal fort was attacked.

Tony Marino wrote:: Didn't the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 lead up to secession and eventually the Civil War?

Not quite. Abolitionist John Brown's attempted insurrection certainly didn’t help ease the tension between the North and South but the final straw was the election of Lincoln. John Brown was actually captured by troops led by Robert E. Lee who was still serving in the Federal army. Last week, PBS reaired the documentary by Ken Burns, The Civil War. I wouldn't take it as the absolute gospel for historical accuracy but it's still one of my all time favorites. So well done.

Nope. I get it.

sailorlover wrote:: I just think that celebrating momentous accounts in this worlds history is vital to our society and remembering not to do this over again. I know in the military, we do celebrate a lot of historical events. Main one of course is 9/11 but also a big one is Pearl Harbor. The beginning of WW2.

I wasn't aware of that. What date? Sept. 1 or Dec. 7?

And the South is still mad that they lost. What a way to hold a grudge.

Nystyle709 wrote:: And the South is still mad that they lost. What a way to hold a grudge.

Funny how the North has moved on from winning, while the South continually rubs it in that they lost with reenactments depicting their defeat. How does *that* work?

^^I don't know if I can answer that though I don't believe Civil War reenactments are confined to the Confederate side. The reenactors dress in blue as well as grey. I think for most it's just a hobby, no more extreme than many others. I just saw a bumper sticker this past weekend, "Got Hardtack?" Then I saw a smaller decal for some reenactment group that confirmed my suspicion that they were into that. Reenactment isn't confined to the Civil War.

» In your opinion, how much progress have we made in the civil rights movement since Dr. Martin Luther King’s death in 1968?
» Beauty marks
» How old were you when you started school?
» Civil war reenactments in the South
» acts of violence vs. civil disobedience

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Today marks the 150th anniversary of the day the Civil War started