What was God's motive in the US Civil War?

[reFORMer]

Does anyone have any light on the reason for that horrendous judgment on America, the Civil War?  I'm not trying to understand so much the surface issues like states rights and slavery, as important as they are, unless they could be the deserving wickedness; but, what was so wrong with us spiritually that, according to what I've read, more American men were killed than in all the other wars we've participated in taken together.  We just stood in rows facing each other while we shot each other dead.  What brought that on us?  Couldn't we have repented?  We also were closer to being a dictatorship under Lincoln than at any time in our history.  Maybe if we would've had enough bold preachers to influence us sufficiently then it wouldn't have happened.  Possibly there were such preachers and because they weren't believed devastation came.  But what was it they preached, or should have preached?

This leads to the more important question:  could some other internal destruction overtake us?  What and why?

I need to add that the subsequent couple of decades saw the "westward expansion" during which very possibly much of the same people were responsible for the extinction of 3/4 of the Native American peoples. This is perhaps the largest genocide in human history.  The US Soldiers killed 2 1/2 million Indian men, women and children.  During this time only 283 civilian settlers were killed by Indians.  What was in that generation's mindset?  Anything setting up a generation today?

[Molly]

I am by no means an expert on the civil war, but it's a great question.

There are some first principles that should govern all historical investigation, and they are the same principles that any beat detective would use on a criminal investigation.  Who profits?  Who are the suspects?  What is their relationship to each other?  Who had motive, means, and opportunity?

History is fun once you realize that we are consistently lied to by those writing it. 

War is hugely profitable for certain international interests, particularly banking interests, and throwing a country into debt over war is a great way for them to gain control of said country.  This is always the case in modern history.  Certain groups make a lot of money on war, and it's a great way to transfer wealth, as well, from one group to another.  So, if you want to understand the civil war, start there.  Look for the king makers and international interests that had their eye on the new republic.  And, look for ways in which they might have instigated war.  Because it never fails, the hidden hand is always present.  This world is run by satan.

Where's peacetroll when we need him?

[Kratos]

I am not sure if this helps, but abolitionism came out of the second Great Awakening under men like Charles Finney. Many came to the Lord at this time and went about to correct social ills as they saw them in an effort to bring in the Kingdom. This revival was predominantly in the Northern States and the South was not so moved to change their ways at the command of the Northern States.

It is a great question though.

John

[Molly]

This is really strange.  This says that the city of Atlanta surrendered to the north.  Sherman's northern troops occupied it for two months,  then decided to burn it to the ground.    What was the point of that?  Who ordered Sherman to do such an awful thing and why?  And, who allowed or directed Sherman's 'scorched earth policy' of the south?   I guess we have to take a close look at Lincoln and Sherman.  Sherman's capture of Atlanta assured Lincoln's re-election.





In 1864, the city, as feared by Gilmer, did indeed become the target of a major Union invasion (the subject of the 1939 film Gone with the Wind). The area now covered by metropolitan Atlanta was the scene of several fiercely contested battles, including the Battle of Peachtree Creek, the Battle of Atlanta, and the Battle of Ezra Church. On September 1, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuated Atlanta, after a four-month siege mounted by Union General William Sherman and ordered all public buildings and possible Union assets destroyed.

On September 2, a committee of Mayor James Calhoun and Union-leaning citizens William Markham, Jonathan Norcross, and Edward Rawson met a captain on the staff of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum and surrendered the city.[1] Sherman sent a telegram to Washington reading, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won" and he established his headquarters there on September 7, where he stayed for two months. That same day, Sherman ordered the civilian population to evacuate.[2] His forces occupied the city for several months, and he then ordered Atlanta burned to the ground on November 11 in preparation for his punitive march south. After a plea by Father Thomas O'Reilly of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Sherman did not burn the city's churches or hospitals. However, the remaining war resources were then destroyed in the aftermath and in Sherman's March to the Sea. As General Sherman departed Atlanta at 7:00 a.m. on November 15 with the bulk of his army, he noted his handiwork:

The fall of Atlanta was especially noteworthy for its political ramifications. Former Union General George B. McClellan was running against President Lincoln on a peace platform in the 1864 election. Part of the Democratic platform called for a truce with the Confederates. Had this truce been achieved, it is highly unlikely that the war could ever have been restarted. However, the capture of Atlanta and Hood's burning of many military facilities as he evacuated were extensively covered by Northern newspapers, and significantly boosted Northern morale. Lincoln was re-elected by a comfortable margin.

Federal soldiers continued to occupy Atlanta for the rest of the war. With the Confederacy's dwindling resources and military strength, the Confederate army was never in a position to retake the city. Periodic cavalry raids continued on Union supply lines in the general vicinity for some time.

Following the war, the Federal troops remained in Atlanta to help enforce the provisions of Reconstruction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_in_the_Civil_War




Now if we also take a closer look at Sherman, we find that his father died when he was young, leaving his mother penniless and he was raised by a whig neighbor.  We also find this very strange and interesting factoid about Sherman's ancestry.



NOTE: Henry Sherman, who lived in England in the 1500s, was the ancestor of most of the individuals in this article. His immigrating grandchildren and great-grandchildren included Edmund Sherman (ancestor of William T. Sherman), Philip Sherman (ancestor of James S. Sherman), John Sherman (ancestor of Roger Sherman), Mrs. Phebe Whiting Barnard, Mrs. Mary Angier Sparhawk, and Edmund Angier. Both of the candidates in the 2004 US presidential election, George W. Bush and John Kerry, are descended from Henry Sherman, along with Bush's father, former president George H. W. Bush. Other US political figures descended from Henry Sherman include William Taft, Herbert Hoover, Aaron Burr, William Wheeler, and Elliot Richardson (the last of these descended twice from Henry Sherman). Foreign figures descended from Henry Sherman include Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, Sir Robert Laird Borden, and Sir Winston Churchill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin%2C_Hoar_%26_Sherman_family

[Molly]

I think I can stop now.  Where's the pulling out the hair icon?

[reFORMer]

You don't really want to know...

[Molly]

I need to add that the subsequent couple of decades saw the "westward expansion" during which very possibly much of the same people were responsible for the extinction of 3/4 of the Native American peoples. This is perhaps the largest genocide in human history.  The US Soldiers killed 2 1/2 million Indian men, women and children.  During this time only 283 civilian settlers were killed by Indians.  What was in that generation's mindset?  Anything setting up a generation today?

This is really interesting.  The same people, you say, the same army that was raised during the civil war was used to exterminate the Indians?  Was there a federal army before that time? 

I'd say now we have to study the history of our military.  But, as to the same people--it wouldn't surprise me, while the rest of us are trying to get through the day, these folks are working on their 50 year and 100 year plans.

[Molly]

The military history of the United States spans a period of over two centuries. During the course of those years, the United States grew from an alliance of thirteen British colonies without a professional military to the world's sole remaining superpower of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.



Following the American Revolution, the United States faced potential military conflict on the high seas as well as on the western frontier. The United States was a minor military power during this time, having only a modest army and navy. A traditional distrust of standing armies, combined with an exaggerated belief in the effectiveness of amateur militia, precluded the development of well-trained units and a professional officer corps. Jeffersonian leaders preferred a small army and navy, fearing that a large military establishment would involve the United States in excessive foreign wars, and potentially allow a domestic tyrant to seize power.

[ho ho ho wherever would Jefferson get a silly idea like that?]





The American Civil War caught both sides unprepared. Both the Union and the Confederacy had to build their armies practically from scratch. Both sides sought a quick victory focused on the respective nearby capitols of Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, but neither side would surrender their national identity cheaply. Even after the First Battle of Bull Run, many were slow to accept that war would last much longer than a single campaign. However, it spilled across the continent, and even to the high seas. Much of the vast resources of America would be consumed before it would be resolved.

The American Civil War is sometimes called the "first modern war" due to the use of mass conscription, military railroads, trench warfare, submarines, ironclads, aerial reconnaissance, modern cartridge firearms, rifles, and machine guns. It introduced the modern world to the horrors of total war.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_States



satan rocks, doesn't he?  Now they've got this big standing army--what's next?  Oh, yeah, the Indians! But, was that just a quirk of history?  or planned?   

[Molly]

What was in that generation's mindset?  Anything setting up a generation today?

well, I don't know.  we have this big happy world now, international trade, international central banks (except for those nasty middle east countries that reject the central bankers), and an enlightened group of people who realize that we are all one big happy family, or should be, and that the belief in humanism dominates all others.

But---those people who believe in Christ, in national sovereignty, in that g-d piece of paper the bill of rights--they could be a problem...