Lost causes

I have read some military history this year (prominently about the war for the liberation of Bangladesh, World War I and now World War II). I also read a biography of Abraham Lincoln which obviously spends a lot of time on the US Civil War. I hope to read more about the Civil War as well as the Cuban missile crisis and the US War of Independence in the future.

The Civil War is truly a tragic tale. I cannot but help feel some sympathy for the Southerners. Their cause, the defense of the right of states to perpetuate slavery and their right to secede from the Union, was wrong, but the sacrifices made by the Confederacy were immense - 5-6% of the white population (Sources here and here) and an astounding 18% of Confederate white males aged 13-43 died in the Civil War (Source here). Their devotion to the cause was sincere. I recall the scene from Gone with the Wind when Scarlett comes back to her devastated farm and crazed father in the aftermath of the war. She is worried about her financial future. Her father asks her to not worry since they have many bonds. "Which bonds?", she asks. "Why, Confederate, of course!", her deranged father replies, in a line which moves me everytime I think about it.

Then there's the story of Robert E Lee, the famed southern general. He was serving with the Union army when war was about to break out. President Lincoln offered him the command of the whole army. Lee was opposed to the idea that states could secede from the union. He was not much in favour of slavery either. He probably understood that the chances of the South winning were slim, since its population was only a fourth that of the North, and its industrial capacity not even a tenth. Yet he choose to join the Confederate Army, after Virginia, his state, had joined the Confederacy. A tale of honour and loyalty, I think.