Pickett's Charge and the Capitol Siege: Unaddressed Legacy of the American Civil War
Wisdom and Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg
Several hours into my drive back to New York from the Heartland this past a couple days into 2021, I could not help but notice the sign for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Since learning about my father's side service to the Union by my Grandfather when I was a child, I have always found interest in this key period in American history. After seeing the "Sack on Capitol Hill", I could not help but think of the Gettysburg's infamous, "Pickett's Charge", and what it means for the hope of our Union restoring its civil society and trust in its democratic-republic values rooted in our Constitution.
The town has a great college and an even greater history; it quickly rose to prominence in 1863 as it became the terrain of the pivotal battle between the Union vs. Confederate troops. General Lee recognized he was running short on supplies, time, a stable currency, and resources-- Pres. Lincoln had recently signed a strategic Emancipation Proclamation that effectively enabled Union ranks to swell with newly freed African Americans.
General Lee's Attempt to Sack DC and Force the Union to Accept the CSA
General Grant was making headway in the Southern campaign with the siege of Vicksburg, contributing to a separation of the Southeast vs cotton heavy Southwest. Thus General Lee thought a blitz of the Union North through Pennsylvania and Maryland would eventually lead to a sack of its capitol, Washington D.C. He thought be strategic surprise that the Confederates needed to wear down the will of the Northern industrial engine and moral crusade. President Lincoln prioritized protecting the heart of the Republic from berserking confederate battle flags-- whether from the Potomac River in the South, or from the Pennsylvania/West Virginia border to the North and West. He thus directed a massive portion of the Union Army to Pennsylvania to try to stop the Confederate onslaught: hence the two sides fateful meeting at the junction of Gettysburg.
The Confederate Army was led by General Lee who had racked up a couple years of surprising successes: scrappy southerners often punched above their weight as they viewed the Union's incursion in their "backyards" as a call of arms, honor, and a distortion of the civil order rooted in Anglo-Saxon-Scot primacy within society. General Lee also benefited from a series of incompetent Union Generals such as General McClellan, who President Lincoln wondered if the latter was genuinely in support of restoring the Union and ending the expansion of slavery: General McClellan often lacked the initiative to go on the offense when he had the high ground and a battleground strategic advantage-- he later ran against President Lincoln in the election of 1864. However, President Lincoln found a new West Point general to marshal the Union Army for the Great Battle to finally defeat Lee's Army: General Meade.
General Lee mistakenly sensed over-caution from the new General, due to his historical knowledge of him and (likely) cognitive bias based on his experience with Gen. McClellan. He thus ordered a very aggressive forward campaign on the tip of the iceberg of the Union Army on July 1, 1863-- with the ultimate hope that they'd be washed away in a storm of Confederate Grey, allowing him to sack DC, and present President Lincoln with terms of armistice between the Union and the Confederate States of America.
The battle turned out much differently thanks to enterprising Union senior officers. For example, anyone who's seen the movie, "Gettysburg", cannot help but admire the gall, bravery, duty to his country, and love of his soldiers that Cavalry leader, General Buford , undertook to defend the Union's high ground on the first Day of battle:
Past is Prologue: Understanding American Politics via the Prism of the Civil War
I have long felt that in order to understand modern American society and politics, one has to study our history of the Civil War, its fruits of the 13-15th Amendment, flip flop on Reconstruction, and rise again of "Confederates alumni" once Federal Troops left the South. Much of America's domestic and Foreign Policy issues of the 20st Century were inextricably linked to the founding of our nation's Faustian Bargain that enabled the enslavement of human beings for the sake of economic production and social engineering. America was certainly not the only country that enabled enslavement based labor-- much of Europe was mired in the aftermath of a feudal system in the late 18th century. In hindsight, it is sadly ironic though the same esteemed Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence ("All men are created equal"), later wrote Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 into our Constitution that effectively permitted human based commerce: the Clause prevented the Federal government to restrict "importation" of Africans for enslaved labor until 1808.
Why does this matter? Fast forward to Four Score later, and our nation was split apart based on the query of whether the Federal government could protect Constitutional rights of minorities through legal and physical force. That question became the one of the key basis for the Civil War and a rallying cry for both sides at the seminal battle of Gettysburg, most notably remembered as the "high water mark for the Confederacy." The symbol of the high tidewater became associated with General Pickett's failed attempt to march uphill to overtake General Meade's entrenched Union Solders. Facing a volley of canon attacks, Cavalry charges, sharp shooters, and general fire for nearly a mile, the charge failed. Much of General Pickett's division was lost and the Confederates quickly retreated afterwards:
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
- Pres. Lincoln, excerpt from his Gettysburg Address, 11/19/1863
A country "of the people, by the people, and for the people" is what's been a sake ever since the Battle of Gettysburg. Shortly after the victory, President Lincoln went to work to spur Congress to enact Constitutional protections for African Americans with the passing of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The Constitutional amendments were the most sweeping expansion of civil liberties and rights since the Preamble to the Constitution, and, before that, the Magna Carta: the amendments extended the notion of liberty rooted in John Locke's Treatise on Liberty, and finally implemented the words of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence with Federal action.
The amendments banned enslavement (except when one is convicted of a crime), enshrined due process rights for all, opened voting rights for African Americans (men), penalties for States that attempt to disenfranchise such voting rights, enabled the Congress to enact legislation that would enforce the 14th Amendment, and enforced a ban on Confederate rebels from serving in higher Federal office. Hence for the first time, "the people", also included those of African origin that historically were legally regarded as chattel. The Republican Party was like a start-up that saved America from dissolving into a Neo-feudal society. Following Lincoln's untimely assassination, his edict of seeking to restore our nation, with the expansion of liberty for African Americans with "malice towards none, and justice for all" was taken to heart by the leaders of our Union all the way through President Grant. Unfortunately, however, the honeymoon period where America built itself back up, while also expanding and protecting minority rights, was soon ceded to the ancient passions of tribalism.
Guess who's coming to Dinner
However, as those rights became increasingly more costly to enforce by the 1870s, the Republic made a new Faustian bargain: ignore the protection of minority rights for the sake of bringing the "New South" into the industrial age. A half-generation later, President Teddy Roosevelt invited esteemed African American industrialist, Booker T. Washington, to the Roosevelt & Washington Dinner. It was a brazen act that signified his belief that as individuals, men ought to be judged by the merit of their talent. Mr. Washington was one of the most respected people (black or white) across America-- his focus on building black owned businesses, education opportunities, involvement in behind the scenes party politics, and relationships with Industrial Titans earned him serious credibility.
In the post Reconstruction South, where extra-judicial domestic terrorism became part and parcel of the post Civil War Democratic party, policy leaders needed a voice of reason of advice on how to deal with our nation's "race problem." He was be regarded as a go-to advisor for Presidents (Republican and Democrats). Despite these accolades, many influential white Americans across the North and South used the megaphone of newspapers to malign the dinner, calling it a dangerous olive branch to a race that must never view itself equal. According to TR biography, Theodore Rex, President Roosevelt vehemently defended his invitation, protested the dangerous racial rhetoric (on the floor of Capitol Hill, was distraught upon finding out about a plan to assassinate Mr. Washington, objected to a Congressman who cited the usefulness of lynchings to put Blacks back in their place), and was enraged at the innuendo that a Black man having a seat at the table with the President and his wife was tantamount to sedition against the Republic.
Many Union stalwarts found it deeply troublesome that a Mr. Washington's dinner with President Roosevelt was regarded as more treasonous than the Confederates attempt to separate from Union 30 years prior. Nonetheless, the disinformation campaign and resulting mob uproar across the country about the dinner was so vehement that President Roosevelt had to adjust his Civil Rights policy to prevent a surge of Democrats in the upcoming election. Unfortunately, the United States began to backslide on Lincoln and Grant's efforts to ensure voting rights and federal protection for African Americans facing lynching terrorism. The old Antebellum order, with the exception of the injection of industrial jobs, was largely restored in the South-- and accepted in the North as epitomized by the success of Birth of a Nation featured film. Thus, many historians argue that the original view of Pickett's Charge being the high water mark for the Confederacy, actually began to be recognized as a rallying cry for the "Lost Cause" that the South would rise again. A successful rise it was: in addition to the stripping away of voting rights, free speech, due process, and education rights, there would not be another black man invited to dinner until the invention of space flight.
Civil Rights at Home and Projecting Freedom and Democracy Abroad
It would take another 65 years, and another unlikely President to restore Constitutional protection to minorities in America. First, President Eisenhower sent the U.S. Army Airborne to ensure Black students could go to school following Brown v. Board. A decade later, following the tragically short Presidency of JFK, the southerner, President Lyndon Johnson was able to stitch together a coalition of liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans to support the Civil Rights Act of 1963 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was warned by Senator Russell of Georgia that if the Democratic party took on the albatross of supporting the protections for African American rights would end up losing the entire Democratic party in the South. The Democrats controlled the House of Representatives for much of the post FDR era-- why upset the balance of power?
During the efforts to codify the Constitutional protections of minorities in the country, many Americans felt upset about this second attempt to upset the social order-- and brought back out the Confederate Battle Flag to demonstrate the disapproval. However, it was the threat of Soviet expansion, and the Soviet's constant chiding of America for supporting freedom and democracy abroad, while allowing gaps at home, that forged a bipartisan norm by the late 20th century that once again supported Constitutional norms that respected the civil rights and civil liberties for all Americans.
2021 Sack of Capitol Hill: Symptom, not the Source
Therefore when I came across the photos of the vandals who sacked Capitol Hill, particularly of the one with the Confederate Battle Flag, I instantly thought back to our country's history dating back to the Civil War. I do not view the rioters and vandals as the direct ideological heirs of the Confederate racial movement: many of the vandals identified so far seems to be from northern states. Nonetheless, the Battle Flag in the Rotunda could not have been a more apt symbol for the rag-tag, but sizeable coalition of those who have become deeply skeptical and outright antagonistic of internationalism, academic experts, globalist corporate policies, the modern multi-racial complexion of America, general hooliganism, and an overall disdain for centralized power. It is the latter which seems to be the fuel for this modern counter-culture and actions against Constitutional institutions.
As Lincoln said: "A House divided cannot stand." There are more than a few countries that are likely very pleased at the signs that our democratic columns are showing signs of cracks. To help our nation move forward, ensure accountability, restore the respect for the institutional norms of our Constitution, and restore trust in civil society, it will take Lincoln-like leadership by all three branches of government. I have faith that our country will get through this challenge-- our respect throughout the world and soft power in foreign policy depends on it. Thus, since the protection and sanctity of voting seems to often be a source of disruption of our civil society, it seems one of the first orders of Congress should be to enact the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, invest in growing manufacturing jobs in America, deal with the truth of the generational inheritance of a lack of racial reconciliation since the Civil War, and ensure freedom of peaceful speech remain protected in the physical and digital sphere.
Please feel to contact me on feedback at dulacadvisors@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment