The man who could have won the civil war

I received an email from Patrick Cleburne yesterday. I found this to be somewhat disconcerting as I thought he died in 1864 and those blue-bellied Devils stole his boots.

Apparently he never really died but lives on sending spam emails to Yankees. I didn't click on the link. It most likely wasn't porn.
Cleburne proposed freeing slaves to fight for the Confederacy. I suspect he was right. People will always fight for their homes. In today's world we see slaves as in constant pain and misery singing negro spirituals and the women being assaulted by the evil white man.
I suspect that idea was more of an exception than a rule. Bad things and good things happened. Home is where you live and what is familiar I suppose.

Here is the quote:

"Satisfy the negro that if he faithfully adheres to our standard during the war he shall receive his freedom and that of his race ... and we change the race from a dreaded weakness to a position of strength.

Will the slaves fight? The helots of Sparta stood their masters good stead in battle. In thegreat sea fight of Lepanto where the Christians checked forever the spread of Mohammedanism over Europe, the galley slaves of portions of the fleet were promised freedom, and called on to fight at a critical moment of the battle. They fought well, and civilization owes much to those brave galley slaves ... the experience of this war has been so far that half-trained negroes have fought as bravely as many other half-trained Yankees.

It is said that slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties."

Lots of interesting ideas in that quote.

Look at Europe now...