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Save This PageOur state is about to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War -- by far America's costliest conflict when measured by lives lost. The Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission is planning signature events and activities for the upcoming years 2009 through 2015. Seeking themes to unify the commemoration, the commission has met several times since its formation. Our goal is to have a balanced depiction of the war. This is significant to Virginia and the nation; and we have a chance to do this the right way.
That war divided our nation as has no other. In 1861, states' rights and human rights hung separately in the balance of history, great fissures opened between North and South, and more than 4 million hope-filled men, women, and children waited anxiously to learn of their fate: whether they would be slaves or free persons.
While the fractures that divided our nation have closed for the most part, we all know the underlying stresses that produced them remain. We must therefore openly and constructively acknowledge the vestiges of our history and use them as guides as we preserve and tell the stories of that period.
We do not need to revisit and expand our understanding of the many bloody battles that occurred in that war -- a number of which were waged right here in Virginia. We must step away from the absorbing, intricate details of military strategy to do a proper accounting of how that unique war impacted our nation. We must ask: Why did our nation sacrifice so much blood and treasure in waging a civil war?
Historians will disagree on the war's most important legacies. But, surely these three are among the most significant:
We accomplished the first two when the war ended. The third, however, took just short of 100 years before landmark Supreme Court decisions and new government statutes produced partial fulfillment. So, now, as we prepare to mark the war's sesquicentennial anniversary, we must not forget that the war's final chapters are yet to be written.
In revisiting the Civil War, we Virginians (and hopefully our fellow countrymen) will discover that the critical period known as Reconstruction holds important keys for understanding our nation's present and its future. Looking back, we will see how our nation struggled to ensure that the freedom won in battle for the so-called freedmen might finally be achieved. This was our first real opportunity as a people to give substance to Jefferson's promise enshrined in the Declaration of Independence -- "that all men are created equal."
In that critical period, our nation resisted the Black Codes, passed its first civil rights legislation, implemented the first-ever social support and emergency relief agency (the Freedmen's Bureau), passed the vitally important 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, fought back with military force against white insurgency movements, and tried to achieve a degree of reconciliation between freedmen and the demoralized Southern establishment. While that hopeful moment in history quickly slipped into the haze of Jim Crow, one shining jewel -- the 14th Amendment -- glistened in the darkness of segregation, only to be rediscovered in 1954, when the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education.
The 14th Amendment captured almost fully the fundamental issues that both preceded and followed the Civil War. It embraced due process and equal protection and perhaps more significantly, explicitly applied the powers embedded in the Bill of Rights to the states. Thus, the 14th Amendment cannot be fully understood without understanding its relationship not only to the Civil War, but to our nation's early history, those critical but difficult few years that followed the war, and the historic post-Civil War struggle over states' rights and segregation.
Yes, we remember that roughly 30,000 Virginians died during the Civil War; but we also must not forget that that war freed 500,000 Virginia slaves.
We must remember that the Civil War devastated the economy of Virginia. Richmond, Petersburg, and other cities and rural communities suffered for years in its aftermath. However, we should not forget that the war's end also cast thousands of freedmen into a hostile world of "freedom" with little to call their own. They often lacked full first and last names, legal marriages, education, jobs, access to health care, schools, churches, and all of the other economic and social supports that would ordinarily be available to citizens of the United States.
Thus, while the successes and failures of Civil War military strategy are retold, we must also reassess the lasting social cauldron that continued boiling from the very same fires the Civil War itself had stoked.
Remembering Civil War battles teaches us history and something about military strategy. Remembering the legacies of the war not only teaches us why the nation had to pay such a heavy price for warring with itself, but also why today we need to diligently and resolutely defend our rights and privileges as a nation, from threats both internal and external. Perhaps more important, remembering the war's legacies reminds us of the sacred heritage each generation passes to its own posterity.
Visitors to Virginia want to see well-preserved historical sites, hear great storytelling, and be inspired by the visions of history. They also want to be assured that Virginia has moved well beyond defending the "lost cause" or celebrating the monuments of a 19th-century version of history. They want to join us in celebrating those great legacies of the Civil War that inure to all Americans -- a preserved Union, freed slaves, and an ongoing historic struggle for civil rights.
Commemorating the 150th anniversary must be done the right way!
Viola O. Baskerville, the secretary of administration for Gov. Tim Kaine, is a member of Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission Workgroup. Contact her at (804) 786-1201.
