The Real History of the Civil War

**Matt Walsh** (0:00)
Today's Real History episode is brought to you by Mount Titano Media, publishers of Finding Our Words, Words That Made America, a collection of the greatest speeches in American history, featuring the voices and words that built this country. Go to mounttitanomedia.com to get your copy today.
On the night of January 2nd, 1864, Confederate General Patrick Clayburn was worried. He warned his fellow Southerners that Surrender to the North, quote, means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers, will learn from Northern school books, their version of the war, will be impressed by all the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision. Clayburn was only partly right. For most of the following century, non-Southerners were pretty fair about the war, and openly respected the South's leaders, including Lee.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:01)
For top Americans of the past, they are Franklin, Washington, Lincoln, and Lee.

**Matt Walsh** (1:08)
The South erected statues and monuments to its heroes. Several were erected inside the United States Capitol.
Even abroad, people respected the dignity, bravery, and brilliance of Robert E. Lee. Winston Churchill described Lee as one of the noblest Americans who ever lived, and one of the greatest captains known to the Annals of War.
It was almost exactly one century after the war in the 1960s, when things took a turn. But even then, it wasn't immediate. In 1977, the Southern rock band Leonard Skinner performed in Oakland, California with the Confederate battle flag as their backdrop. In 1988, Hank Williams Jr. released a top 10 hit called, If the South Would Have Won. But during the woke up evils of the last decade, the story really changed. The statues and flags started coming down. Even conservatives in the South had turned on Southern heritage.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:01)
It's time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds. 150 years after the end of the Civil War, the time has come.

**Matt Walsh** (2:11)
The retreat opened the floodgates for anti-American radicals who literally desecrated the grave of Robert E. Lee's horse, melted his statues and slandered his reputation.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:22)
The Confederacy, the American Civil War, it was an act of rebellion, it was an act of treason at the time.

**Matt Walsh** (2:28)
The current understanding of the Civil War as it's taught in Hollywood and schools and everywhere else is a cartoon caricature.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:35)
I can't breathe.

**Matt Walsh** (2:37)
Robert E.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:38)
Lee represents to me.

**Matt Walsh** (2:40)
The last 10 years have been a master class in historical malpractice. So jaw-droppingly stupid that honestly most sane people would just change the channel and call it a day. But here we are. Obligated to tell the truth, so here it goes. The Civil War is not nearly as black and white as the school marms wish it were. It was one of the most complicated events in American history. Its heroes, who existed on both sides, were complex, multi-dimensional people. Over the course of this video, we're going to prove it. This is the Real History of the Civil War.
Imagine serving as an infantryman in a battle where your enemy outnumbers your side two to one. And not only that, your enemy is better trained, they're well rested, and to make matters worse, they've caught your regiment and your entire army in a pitcher. They have a massive number of soldiers behind you and in front of you perfectly positioned. As an infantryman in this scenario, all you can do is follow orders, march where you're told to march, and shoot when you see the enemy. So that's what you do. Then imagine that after a week of the most intense fighting of your life, you realize that your side has somehow emerged victorious. In fact, you've won decisively.
You don't remotely understand how it happened. You thought it was impossible. Well, that was the experience of a Confederate soldier named DeRostis Myers during the Battle of Chancellorsville, which lasted from April 30th to May 6th, 1863 On May 11th, Myers, who served as a sergeant with the 33rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, wrote a letter to his brother and sister, quote, The Lord hath crowned our arms with another glorious victory. I think it was one of the hottest contests of the war. The enemy were strongly entrenched. We fought them on the left at Chancellorsville with 40,000 men against 110,000. I never was under such a fire of grape-shell canister and musketry in my life, though the Lord spared my life. Although the Confederacy lost more than 13,000 soldiers at Chancellorsville, as well as several key officers, including Stonewall Jackson, the battle is widely considered to be the greatest Confederate victory of the Civil War and one of the most impressive military victories of all time. The historic victory was the result of the leadership of Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. It's widely regarded as one of the most brilliant tactical victories in American military history, often called Lee's Perfect Battle. It's referenced in books like the West Point Atlas of American Wars, and it continues to be studied in military academies today for its demonstration of outmaneuvering larger forces through audacity and tactical ingenuity. In other words, Robert E. Lee was a genius.