http://bible.com/59/luk11.13.esv If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

http://bible.com/59/isa26.4.esv Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

http://bible.com/59/jas4.8.esv Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

http://bible.com/59/act20.35.esv In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

On Another's Sorrow

by William Blake

Can I see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too.
Can I see anothers grief,
And not seek for kind relief.

Can I see a falling tear
And not feel my sorrows share,
Can a father see his child,
Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd.

Can a mother sit and hear,
An infant groan an infant fear—
No no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small birds grief & care
Hear the woes that infants bear—

And not sit beside the nest
Pouring pity in their breast,
And not sit the cradle near
Weeping tear on infants tear.

And not sit both night & day,
Wiping all our tears away.
O! no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

He doth give his joy to all.
He becomes an infant small.
He becomes a man of woe
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not, thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy maker is not by.
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy,
That our grief he may destroy
Till our grief is fled & gone
He doth sit by us and moan
"On Another's Sorrow" by William Blake, from The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. © Doubleday, 1988. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

http://bible.com/59/isa55.8-9.esv For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

What was the Confederate Soldier fighting for?

As I was researching some family history I found some Confederate soldiers in my lineage. It occured to me what were these average men fighting for? By average I mean subsistence farmers, in other words they had to grow everything they ate or make everything they used. These men whose lives were occupied with keeping food on the table and clothing on their backs, what interest did they have in rich plantation owners?

    The answer I believe is none!

Why should they risk life and limb for a corporate business man that they had no interest in or stand to benefit from in any way shape or form?

Most were too busy to keep up with politics, and they did not have access to the media as we do today.

The overwhelming reason to me seems to be that the Union Army was fighting its way through the South and destroying everything in its path. The only choice these men had to save their families and their farms was to join the Confederate Army.

Whether they believed in slavery or not does not seem to be an issue that comes up in the letters of Confederate soldiers I have read. I believe they were fighting a  government that they beleived had overstepped it's bounds as laid out in the Constitution, and an opposing army that was determined to destroy them.

Now let me be perfectly clear on something. No one in his right mind would say it is right for one man to enslave another!

The atrocities committed during slavery are horrific and some of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity! The white people of this time seem to have had the same mindset as the Nazis did to the Jews or the abortionist to unborn children. They were not acknowledged as human beings.

Therefore they were denied human rights.

But I want to focus on the average Confederate soldier.

It seems to me that the above-mentioned reasons are the only ones they would with risk their lives over. Why else would they do this?

From what I have learned watching Antiques Roadshow, when they are talking about Confederate Army memorabilia, it is always of much poorer quality than what the Union soldiers had. Also in one Confederate soldiers letter I read said they had a sit-down strike because they were not  paid or fed. Which leads me to believe they were fighting for family and the Constitution.

A man may believe strongly in many issues, but very few he is willing to lay his life down for!