Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I agree Daniel. I think your "distance" from the American culture makes my comment hard to understand. There are some that cannot hold two truths together: that men are imperfect and can be, at the same time, admirable. I admire men but am not uncritical of them. There are some scholars that visited Command and Staff College when I attended that made the keen observation that it takes a few centuries before we can really begin to learn lessons from our own history (in some cases longer). The Civil War is still too very close to Americans and we're unable to look at certain things without "taking sides". Some things you might think "What's the big deal?" are very person for many.
I suppose there are still some people living whose grandfathers (or at least great-grandfathers) fought in the civil war?
Moreover, I recall reading in the first volume of Shelby Foote's history of the ACW (this was a long time ago) that the nickname "Stonewall" was not originally a compliment. Can anyone confirm this?