The Confederate Soldier “Gave The Last Full Measure” For Us

This is Stephen Walker, who earned a BA in history at Longwood University and an MA in history at Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently teaches history at Southside Virginia Community College.

[Uploaded to YouTube on April 6, 2014]

Civil War Memory has moved to Substack! Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe below.

19 comments… add one
  • Douglas Egerton Apr 8, 2014 @ 7:51

    Al, VCU has some wonderful historians, including the now-retired Phil Schwarz and Norrece T. Jones, but I’m guessing that Mr. Walker didn’t take any of their courses. Both are superb and meticulous scholars, whereas Mr. Walker, as you note, quotes from a movie as if it’s a letter or diary.

    • Kevin Levin Apr 8, 2014 @ 8:35

      They also just acquired Katy Meier, who is a dynamite historian.

    • Al Mackey Apr 8, 2014 @ 8:38

      He obviously learned nothing about intellectual integrity from either Longwood or VCU, Douglas. It’s sad those fine institutions have to be saddled with having him as an alumnus.

      • H. Donald Capps Apr 14, 2014 @ 9:33

        Just as a watermelon seed may pass through a goose undigested, so can someone pass through higher education and not digest anything.

        This is the sort of speech one might have expected in 1914 or 1934 0r 1954 or even 1964, but not 2014.

  • Al Mackey Apr 8, 2014 @ 5:36

    Interesting that he chooses to honor confederate soldiers by telling lies. Too bad he doesn’t think telling the truth honors them. And he seems to think the movie, “Gettysburg” was a documentary because he quotes Lee from that movie as if Lee actually said those words. Longwood and VCU ought to revoke those degrees because he’s shaming them.

    • Kevin Levin Apr 8, 2014 @ 5:37

      I missed the Gettysburg movie reference. Good work, Al. 🙂

      • Al Mackey Apr 8, 2014 @ 8:39

        That’s not the only one, Kevin. He also references the movie when he talks about Armistead.

        • Andy Hall Apr 8, 2014 @ 9:51

          The language describing the Confederate soldier (unshaven, unkempt, etc.) around the 7-minute mark is lifted almost verbatim from the web, such as here.

          • Kevin Levin Apr 8, 2014 @ 10:56

            The old cut and paste approach.

  • Buck Buchanan Apr 8, 2014 @ 3:53

    What always comes to mind to me when I read or hear this version of the Confederate memory I always ask my self the following question: if the Confederate soldier was fighting only for hearth and home and not for the preservation of slavery, then what was the motivation to pry Caleb out of the north woods of New Hampshire to go fight?

    At the base level soldiers fight for each other and their unit. But for most of the Federals it was a dedication to the Union. The common Neo-Confederate trope that the bluebelly was a stooge for the abolitionists is just wrong.

  • Ken Noe Apr 7, 2014 @ 11:21

    He’s the mayor of a nearby town.

  • Jerry McKenzie Apr 7, 2014 @ 10:11

    More of a political speech, than history. I wonder what office he has his eye on.

  • Chris Shelley Apr 7, 2014 @ 8:45

    This guy is just three steps away from being an idiot. The only things he says that are reasonable are “They thought they had the right to leave,” and “home.”

    At bottom, to leave the Union was to destroy it. Southern apologists refuse to acknowledge this fact.

  • Rob Baker Apr 6, 2014 @ 14:45

    This video has been removed by the user.

  • chancery Apr 6, 2014 @ 14:30

    The video appears to have been taken down.

  • Nora Carrington Apr 6, 2014 @ 13:15

    That the bog standard Confederate soldier was fighting for his land and home is one thing, and plausibly true, mostly.

    But to say that South Carolina was seeking to establish a new country, “conceived in liberty,” is monstrous. That he would quote Lincoln in support of the Confederacy is blasphemous.

    • Kevin Levin Apr 7, 2014 @ 1:06

      Nora,

      It’s an incredibly simplistic interpretation on a number of levels. Perhaps he should have singled out Virginia Confederates because nothing he said helps us to understand why men from other southern states were fighting in Virginia. His understanding of Lee is also deeply flawed. To say he was simply fighting for Virginia ignores statements made throughout the war that reflect a thoroughgoing Confederate nationalism. I could go on.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *