There are several noteworthy Civil War films. As I watch Warriors of Honor, I realize that my family was little affected by the Civil War. For my family and my wife’s the Civil War was largely a settled matter by the time our ancestors appeared on the American scene. Of course the War was an unspeakable horror and affects us all to this day. The rules have been established and the story told by the victor. Schoolkids in the South read history books written by Northerners. The version of history I learned was definitely written by Northerners. If the South had won, government would not be as large a factor in people’s lives as it has become. The people of the South were largely independent in attitude in contrast to those of the North that were interdependent. Those attitudes are echoed in the words of Ronald Reagan in his remarks at a White House Luncheon for Black Clergymen Friday, March 26, 1982: “Wouldn’ t it be better for the human spirit and for the soul of this nation to encourage people to accept more responsibility to care for one another, rather than leaving those tasks to paid bureaucrats?”
There are those that claim that a war to free the slaves was unnecessary and that over time slavery would disappear unforced. As reprehensible as was slavery, they claim that there would be certain advantages for our country if the South had won. Are we ruled by a Northern Bureaucracy and by people with faith in government unrooted in reality?