Dennis, you posted: The Confederate soldier did not go to war to preserve slavery and the Union soldier did not go to war to end slavery. Some of the slaves during the war were fiercely loyal to their owners not because they had no other place to go but because they too felt they were being invaded.
I was at a Confederate Cemetery Memorial service last weekend. The speaker gave a very good speech about this very issue. I cannot remember his exact words but they went something like this. He asked 3 questions and told every one to think about them. the questions were, Who was the Confederate soldier? Why did men from the south enlist and go off to war? and Have we done enough to preserve the heritage of the Confederate soldiers? Question #2: His answer was. Slavery was an issue in the south, states rights was an issue in the south, taxes and tariffs were issues in the south, economics was an issue in the south. But: none of these issues were the reason the men of the south marched off to war. Most of the men lived in rural areas, and 150 years ago there was no TV, no radio, no internet, and for the most part very few newspapers. So therefore they did not know of all these issues, they left their homes and went to war because they knew the south had been invaded by the north. They all felt a strong urge to protect their families, and their property.
As far as being loyal to their owners, there are thousands more examples of that than there is of slave whippings. Freed slaves did not leave the south, example: Horace King, was freed to build bridges in Ala. and Georgia. He stayed here and did that. Another example, there was a doctor that lived somewhere around LaGrange, Ga. He had a large farm several miles away, that was totally ran by slaves. In 1864 he did all the paper work, freed the slaves, gave them the land that they were farming for him, and he disappeared, never to be heard from again. That was 150 years ago, descendants from those slaves still live on the land today.
Although I cannot prove this story, it was told to me by one of the descendants that still live there. The people that live on that property today, have spent countless hours trying to find the good doctors records, but have drawn a blank every time.
Every persons post on this thread is true. I could go on and on about this. The Confederate flag has been used by groups of people that had no connection to it, they are the ones that has destroyed the flag and what it was intended to stand for. I am flying my flag right now, it has been up since the Friday before Confederate Memorial day, I put a picture of it on face book, they immediately took it off and put it on just my page so unless you go there you cannot see it. OK enough said for now. tom