I recently posted this to the SHAPE message board, I thought ya'll might like to read what the men who fought the war would have to say about teaching history in the schools.

GP

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Source: The Compiled Confederate Veterans magazine, Volume V pp.450-452.
PATRIOTIC SCHOOL HISTORIES. The report of the History Committee of United Confederate Veterans at Nashville contains the following:
Your committee recognizes that no sectional history is wanted in the schools of this country, and they desire to have no history taught in the schools of the South but what ought to be taught in the schools of the nation everywhere. They would be more than willing to have the facts taught without comment if such a course were possible. But they protest against the presumption of those historians who teach their own views as God's truth on all doubtful questions, and especially where such teaching is of a nature calculated to alienate the affections of the Southern people from the nation of which they are loyal citizens. The historian must, indeed, endeavor to write the truth as he sees it. Nothing is to be gained by a colorless compromise of opinions about matters as to which the facts may be ascertained. The teacher must also teach what he believes to be true. For that very reason it is not expected that Southern teachers will instruct the children that their fathers were traitors and rebels, and it would be a curse to the nation if they did. The Southern people desire to retain from the wreck in which their constitutional views. their domestic institutions, the mass of their property, and the lives of their best and bravest were lost the knowledge that their conduct was honorable throughout and that their submission at last to overwhelming numbers and resources in no way blackened their motives or established the wrong of the cause for which they fought.
It is not to be expected that those who fought on the Southern side will admit that they were wrong simply because they were beaten, or that the highest and noblest purposes of their lives are worthy of the execration of mankind. The nation can not afford to have the people of the South lose their self-respect or the future citizens of that large and most promising section of the country brought up without that pride in their ancestors which leads to noble and patriotic action. Those who endeavor to undermine the faith of the Southern youth in their ancestors and to perpetuate teaching in this country which indicts a noble people, an integral part of the nation, for treason and rebellion are the real enemies of the republic, the plotters against its glory and the perpetuation of its liberties. How short-sighted are those who think it contributes to the glory of the Union soldier to make odious the brave men they overcame! Remembering the victories of both, each army is made more glorious by every deed of valor, every act of pure and consecrated heroism exhibited by the other. The soldiers of the Union, having the prestige of success, can afford to he generous in this matter. They have, of all others, most to lose by invoking upon the Southern soldier the condemnation of history.
Your committee is of the opinion that it is desirable that in future no more school histories or historical works of any sort receive their official commendation. They have suggested a list of books for library purposes, useful as material for writing history, with a correct understanding of the motives and feelings of the Southern people before, during, and immediately after the civil war and of the events themselves as they
were understood to be by that people. To this list it may be well to add others from time to time.
In this connection your committee reasserts with pleasure its commendation of the CONFEDERATE VETERAN, published at Nashville by Comrade S. A. Cunningham, which is cordially accepted by all fair-minded men as a faithful exponent of facts pertaining to the Great War.
A great misconception has become current of the aim and purpose of the committee in supposing that it desires only historical works written from the Southern standpoint. Such works are useful only as materials for the future historian, and useful because they exhibit the animus with which they were written. Works in vindication of the course of the South before and during the civil war will be invaluable in showing the causes which led to the war and the motives of those who engaged in it, but controversial literature is not history, and is out of place in political instruction.
The desire of your committee is to secure such histories as can be read or taught in every part of the Union, with justice toward all, histories that will put an end to prejudice and sectional feeling; and histories designed as Southern histories solely will cease so soon as a broad, catholic, and true historic spirit prevails in current histories for schools and libraries. Until that time Southern teachers will not instruct Southern youth in a way to destroy Southern self-respect and manhood.
The would-be historian who sets out to make a history which will conform to the views or win the commendation of a committee, however patriotic or eminent, is morally unfit to write history or anything else which undertakes to be true. The proper field for such a writer is romance, and he will do well if his so-called history escapes an excess of the imaginative quality. The only views with which a historian is concerned are those which are the conscientious result of his investigations, free from the color of preconceived opinions.
Your committee therefore concludes that a history gotten up by a committee of educators representing the North and South respectively would be a bleached compromise. They think it best to rely on that true historic talent which is now developing itself both at the North and South to rise gradually above the prejudices of section and to take on that spirit of fairness and truth which will form the essence of true Americanism, a spirit which will tend to consider the good of coming generations of youth in perpetuating American self-respect and manhood, and that Anglo- Saxon spirit which would make them retain a true love of liberty, regardless of consequences.
The fact that people at the North and South are not entirely satisfied with the histories now used in the public schools is evidence that the truth of history is asserting itself in hewing closer to the facts than prejudice would permit. It is expecting too much of the generation which took part in the greatest struggle of modern times to be removed entirely from the passions of the period, but we are gradually approaching that result in the tone of histories written by Northern and Southern men. The time is near when the painstaking, broad-minded, catholic historian can write a history free from prejudice and permeated with the true spirit of liberty-loving Americanism.
Your committee think the plan now being pursued in inviting many writers into the field of history is better than that of selecting one or more writers, who might err, and yet receive the endorsement of our association, and tend to perpetuate partisanship, prejudice, and narrow bounds in a matter requiring the highest order of integrity and broad-mindedness. We believe a last verdict will be rendered which at the impartial tribunal of history, in the words of our Commanding General, will declare "no more exalted motive, no more consecrated purpose, or holier conviction ever inspired a people than actuated both sections on both sides of that contest; that American self-respect has been vindicated, American manhood made strong, the American Union made permanent, and American freedom made safer" by that conflict.
The VETERAN is grateful for this noble report. It was adopted with unanimity and enthusiasm.

PRESS COMMENTS UPON THE REPORT.
The Chicago Times-Herald states: The Southern papers and Confederate Veteran Associations are evincing a most commendable disposition to cooperate with veterans of the North in the compilation of a school history that shall give to each his meed of praise for his part in what each side regarded as a struggle for popular rights and for native land. The agitation for this sort of a history is invested with fresh and timely interest by the report of the History Committee, of which Gen. Stephen D. Lee, of Columbus, Miss., is chairman. This report was made at the recent reunion of the United Confederate Veterans at Nashville, Tenn. Gen. Lee believes that the time has come at last when the history of our great war can be taught throughout the country without holding either army up to shame, but, with justice and charity to all, imputing to both sides worthy motives, and dwelling with equal praise upon noble, self-sacrificing conduct, inspired by love of country, whether exhibited for the nation or for the state. Gen. Lee declares that the South wants no history in her schools that can not be taught to the children in every state in the Union. Gen. Lee also indignantly repudiates the notion that the war was fought for the abolition of slavery. Such a theory he characterizes as a "slander upon the soldiers of both armies, as well as upon the great men who shaped the course of events at Washington and Richmond." The great issue of the conflict was whether this was a nation or a league of sovereign states. The report is most admirable in tone, intensely patriotic in sentiment, and is a happy augury of the good time coming when men may write and speak of the great civil conflict without bitterness as fellow citizens of a great and united republic.
This same paper says of the Grand Army history:
Chicago is having a mild sensation over the introduction of a history into its public schools prepared under the supervision of the Grand Army of the Republic. The special purpose of the G. A. R. is to enlarge upon and magnify the achievements of the Union soldiers in the late war. It is thirty-two years since the surrender at Appomattox. The youth of our country are annually witnessing the impressive spectacle of a reunion of the blue and the gray. They hear .such ex-Confederate orators as Gen. Gordon and Gen. Longstreet proclaim undying allegiance to the Union.
It seems to be an inopportune time for the introduction of school histories prepared under the immediate supervision of survivors of either side of the great conflict. Histories prepared under such auspices, no matter how fair and impartial, are certain to encounter opposition. What is wanted is a history that can be taught in the schools of Atlanta as well as in the schools of Chicago.
The New Orleans Times-Democrat says:
The suggestions and recommendations of the History Committee of the U. C. V. and of the Confederate Veterans themselves are broad and patriotic, as we felt sure they would be, free from the slightest taint of sectionalism or partisanship. They propose to unite the entire people of this country, North and South, demanding for the Confederate Veterans only common justice, that their motives and deeds shall not, be misrepresented, but that their courage and devotion shall receive the same recognition in American history as those who wore a different uniform. There has been a great improvement within the last few years in the sentiment existing throughout the country in regard to the civil war, and the committee notes that the number of objectionable histories containing slurs on the South or falsehoods concerning it are becoming rarer every year.