It’s been 150 years since the start of what the northerners call the Civil War. But since I’ve lived in the South the last nearly 20 years, I have learned a bit or two of what was really going on south of the Mason, Dixon line back in April of 1861.

First misunderstanding being that from the southern perspective the Civil War was called the “War of the Northern Aggression.” By strict definition the Civil War wasn’t really a civil war. A country’s civil war is between at least two political factions trying to take over the same government by violent means. Those eleven states wanted to leave on their own and not take over the government.

Secondly, according to history reports from the north, the “Civil War” supposedly had one cause and that was to abolish slavery. But that is misconstrued. The southern states, namely: South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, actually seceded from the United States from 1860-1861 because of over taxing of the southern states with little representation in Washington D.C. How did I ever miss that in history class? Those states and four more (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina) were added after the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter making the total of eleven.

Speaking of the first attack, technically, Ft Sumter was located on the southern side but owned by the North. There was a treaty signed between both sides that there would be no reinforcements from the North so the South would not attack. Another little ditty that I learned was that Washington D.C. did in fact reinforce Ft Sumter after the treaty was signed, so the South had no choice but attack.

What really takes the cake on historical inaccuracy is the fact that at the time the Southern states seceded, it was not necessary for war. The reasons for secession and the reasons why there was a war are two entirely separate issues. As history states in the years before in 1814, several New England states were planning secession and Thomas Jefferson, president at the time, said in a letter, that New Englanders, “like all other Americans would all be our children” and he would wish them well. Succession does not necessitate war. What necessitated war was the fact that the U.S. government wanted to keep the South to “collect the duties and imposts” (i.e. tariffs on imports which had doubled two days earlier) for maintaining its government.

Something also unknown to many is that Abraham Lincoln had no intention of freeing the slaves living inside the confederate boundary. It was reported from The Politically Incorrect Guide to The South is that Lincoln wrote a letter to Horace Greeley “If I could end the Civil War without freeing the slaves, I would do it.” Both Lincoln and Congress announced publicly that their purpose was not to disturb slavery but to “save the nation” a union according to Thomas DiLorenzo, that “they actually destroyed philosophically by destroying its voluntary nature, as established by the founders. All states, North and South became wards or appendages of the central government in the post 1865 era.

History is written by those who win and unless we as Americans know what really happened, it is doomed to occur again.

Loxley resident Valerie J. Steimle is now the author of four books. Her latest, “Dogs, Blogs and Hobbits: Writings from a Widow’s Perspective” is available on Amazon.com. Contact her at valeriesteimle@yahoo.com, visit her website at www.stregthenyourhome.com or check out her blog at www.valeriesteimle.blogspot.com.