Incorrect Memory on Memorial Day
Charles M. Blow has a disappointing column in today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/opinion/charles-blow-restoring-memoriam-to-memorial-day.html
He quotes losses of various wars that America has fought, but his figures of Confederate war dead total only 133,821. This is clearly in error: for a century the most widely accepted estimates were 94,000 battle dead and 164,00 non-combat dead, giving a total of 258,000. More recent research by Professor J. David Hacker strongly suggests that even this number should be increased by a further 20% or more.
I do not write as a Southern sympathizer; I am a Northerner, born in Minnesota, and having attended college in the Boston area (which was Abolition Central before and during the Civil War). But the holiday that we now call Memorial Day evolved from a remembrance of all those who fell in the Civil War. It has now justly been expanded to cover all American soldiers who have lost their lives in service, but it still encompasses those who fought in the Southern side. We do a disservice to the spirit of Memorial Day if we count only half of them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/opinion/charles-blow-restoring-memoriam-to-memorial-day.html
He quotes losses of various wars that America has fought, but his figures of Confederate war dead total only 133,821. This is clearly in error: for a century the most widely accepted estimates were 94,000 battle dead and 164,00 non-combat dead, giving a total of 258,000. More recent research by Professor J. David Hacker strongly suggests that even this number should be increased by a further 20% or more.
I do not write as a Southern sympathizer; I am a Northerner, born in Minnesota, and having attended college in the Boston area (which was Abolition Central before and during the Civil War). But the holiday that we now call Memorial Day evolved from a remembrance of all those who fell in the Civil War. It has now justly been expanded to cover all American soldiers who have lost their lives in service, but it still encompasses those who fought in the Southern side. We do a disservice to the spirit of Memorial Day if we count only half of them.