With all the Civil War sites I’d visited on this trip—between Manassas and Gettysburg and Chickamauga and Chattanooga and Petersburg and Appomattox Courthouse—the idea that “both sides showed valor” was reiterated ad nauseum. After seeing the flag of the Confederate States of America celebrated in the Texas Capitol Building, I couldn’t stand it any more.
Valor cannot be separated from values. There is no valor in abstraction. That’s sports. If you want that, watch the Olympics. Cheer for the achievement of people from different nations. Celebrate their tenacity and will and cleverness and skill.
But if you’ve decided to pick up a weapon and kill people, you better be on the right fucking side of history.
I can, academically, appreciate the tactics and even sacrifice of the Confederacy. But I will not celebrate their valor. They fought their damnedest to commit treason in order to preserve America’s original sin of slavery. Fuck the Confederacy.