I wouldn’t gripe if they interred all the Nazis now.
You wouldn’t wait until they’re dead?
The Internment is a good subject for discussion, as well as Confederate Battle streamers. But they are different subjects.
What US Army Units fought on CSA side? Did they not rename them?
According to the article, the example unit did NOT fight for the CSA, just some of the men-
Few units in the U.S. Army are as fabled as the Dundalk-based 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment (5th Maryland), better known simply as the 175th Infantry Regiment, of the Maryland Army National Guard…What’s little known today, however, is that many members of the unit split from the Union during the Civil War and took up arms for the South. Historians say most of its foot soldiers – largely working-class Baltimoreans who were, at best, suspicious of the intentions of President Abraham Lincoln – left for Virginia, where they reformed as the 1st Maryland Infantry Regiment (Confederate).
Enough of the outfit did so that the 175th gives their exploits a place of honor in unit history.
So the Unit did not fight at those battles, so why the battle streamers?
They’re trying to honor the soldiers who deserted the unit and fought for the enemy.
Again, they did this right after the military was desegregated. They did it to mainstream white supremacy and keep blacks in their place.
And, of course, a hearty “fuck you” to the president. I’m still wondering why the president at the time didn’t take action against it. The answer, no doubt, is nobody had the courage to tell him they were pulling that stupid stung; they just did it.
Truman had only so much freedom of action. The conservative (racist) southern Democrats had an awful lot of power in Congress, and could have given Truman a few hearty "fuck you"s of their own.
If you consider allowing battle streamers to be a largely symbolic sop to appease that bloc, it’s a pretty good trade for the very substantive step of integrating the military.
The idea that everyone agreed with stuff like that is historical blindness. In fact, things we think of as controversial today were usually controversial then, if not AS universally condemned.
I remember being very surprised, years ago, to find out Allied bombing of civilians in WWII was not just universally accepted as “yeah, kill those Nazis and Japanese.” A not-at-all-insignificant number of people had quite a substantial problem with it. It wasn’t the majority, but the controversy was there.
Exactly. I bet Japanese Americans wer not thrilled with the policy. What old white people mean when they say “everyone agreed” is that other white people agreed and no one gave a shit what anyone else thought.
And I’m sure that not even all of the white people agreed.
For one, no one really gave a shit what the women thought and the Jews were right out and those Catholics were a little too ethnic. Basically, everyone meant every WASP man.
I’ve seen letters send to Truman, from white people, saying the bombing of Hiroshima was immoral and wrong. It was a matter of debate at all levels, from the government on down, as it is to this day.
Now, to get back on track, I don’t know that there was a lot of opposition to Confederate battle streamers, but that is more the sort of thing - unlike incinerating people - that most people wouldn’t have even thought of as, well being a thing. Most people of any color would not have been particularly aware of what battle streamers are or would really notice them.
Update published on 16 March 2023:
These Southern National Guard Units to Toss Confederate Battle Streamers
Contemporary National Guard units that were a part of the Confederacy and waged war against the United States during the Civil War will have to relinquish their battle streamers from guidons this year, according to an internal Army memo reviewed by Military.com.
(Editied the internal links out.)
As does slavery.
Right. And that actually brings another nifty bit of information to the fore. IMHO, the Renaming Commission should also have recommended that any units with ties to that “confederate” celebratory nonsense be disbanded and reconstituted absent such nonsense.
There shouldn’t be a problem with such history being relegated to the appropriate museum.
Yes, absolutely this is the best approach. Don’t put the streamers in storage, put the entire unit in storage. The Army does this all the time for whatever reason it feels like, and nobody says “boo” about it.
They should have taken this approach from the start, rather than selectively going after the participation trophies.
It was Americans killing American traitors. The traitors being killed is only tragic in the same way as young Russian soldiers being killed in Ukraine is. Sucks for them and their families, otherwise… (crickets)
It was friends killing each other over decisions their governments made.