Fellow Southerners

The webmaster of 78ohio.org is very pleased to be able to publish, with permission of the publication, an article that appeared in the January 2012 issue of North & South magazine (Vol. 13, No. 5), pp. 12-17.  This article was written by Gordon Rhea, a southerner and is addressed to his fellow southerners.  The basic thrust of the article is that — and these are my words not his — southerners need to “man up” about the role of slavery in the late Rebellion.  If one reads the regimental history it’s clear that the sentiments expressed in this article are ones that would garner support among the men of the old 78th.  This is probably doubly true of the accompanying editorial (pp. 2,10) which is also published here with permission of the editor, Keith Poulter.  As Thomas M. Stevenson, regimental chaplain and author of the regimental history put it, “Never in the history of the world, did an enemy fight with more obstinate determination than the rebel army.  The whole power of church and State combined stretched every nerve and sinew of war to their utmost tension, to accomplish their vile and ambitious purposes — the establishment of a Confederacy whose corner-stone should be slavery.”

Fellow Southerners! — by Gordon Rhea

Three Million Words and Counting — by Keith Poulter