Christian Generals of the Civil War #hsreviews

As Civil War reenactors and enthusiasts, I knew exactly which dvd title our family wanted to review as part of the TOS Crew.  The company being offered up was New Liberty Videos and the dvd we chose was Warriors of Honor.  

Warriors of Honor can be purchased for $19.95.  It’s a DVD.  As for an age range, the series is really a general audience.  Anyone can watch them.  Of course, younger children are not going to get as much out of them as the older ones will.  

There are 20 chapters or scenes as we normally refer to them on this dvd.  I was pleased when perusing these that they do indeed use the Confederate names of the battles.  Most people don’t know that the Yankees and Confederates called the battles by different names.  The names commonly used are the names that the Yankees names of the battles as they were the winners.

There are also 3 bonus segments on this video.  I was very pleased by one of these segments.  It is about slavery and the real role that slavery had in the Civil War.  It often makes me so sad(and partly a bit mad) that so many people believe the main cause of the war was slavery.  The Confederate States of America in their Constitution had outlawed bringing in or transporting slaves into the Southern States.  In the South, only 2 or 3% of the plantations had slaves.  After the North abolished slavery they were passing laws to keep negroes(black slaves) from coming in and settling in the states(Illinois during 1863).  I also have to say I cheered when they talked of the Emancipation Proclamation.  I loved this!  It didn’t free the slaves in any states except the slaves in states that were still in active rebellion.  It did not free the slaves in the Northern States.  Ulysses S Grant’s slaves were not freed until the 13th Amendment was passed.

I highly recommend this video to anyone who wants to learn more about the Civil War.  There is a great deal of truth in this video that does not get talked about.  General’s Jackson and Lee were two of the best Confederate Generals and they were also two with the most outspoken Christian faith.   A faith that was not moved by the war but rather grew stronger.  

Christian Generals of the Civil War were not just on the Southern side, but that is what we are focusing on.  When you fight a war, the victor writes the text books.  And so, when you study history in a standard book you will be studying what the Yankees believe as they were the winners of the war.  So many men died during the Civil War.  When you think of the great number who fought and died in this war, it’s staggering!  Shouldn’t we preserve what ALL the men fought for?  I think so.  This is why we reenact the Civil War.  My family does reenact on the Confederate side.  My ancestors were Confederates.  We lived in the South.  We had farms.  But we did not have slaves.

The two main Confederate Generals that this dvd focuses on and that most people will know about from history books are General Jackson and General Lee.  I have done extra studies on Jackson myself because he is a character from the war that my husband has portrayed.  His life was a sad one in spots, but he held on and persevered always with his faith intact.  His first wife died while birthing his stillborn child.  He remarried and and in childbirth his second wife lived but they lost that first child.  They would have more children, but it was the faith of Jackson that grieved his child but rejoiced that his wife was spared.

General Lee is probably the more widely known General of the Confederacy.  He was married and had 7 children.  His wife became an invalid who was confined to a wheelchair.  

I do have to say my children did watch this movie.  They enjoyed it.  They have grown up reenacting the Civil War.  This is general knowledge to them.  I began reenacting at the age of 7.  When I hit my junior high and high school years I began debating with my history teachers.  The knowledge I had and what they were teaching did not match up.  I got straight A’s in history.  My 6 year old boy asked me if this was the real war or the pretend war.  They know that reenacting is just that, a recreation.  No one really dies, but we are honoring those who have died.  

There is so much more that I could tell you about this movie and how pleased I am with their accounts and how it brings to light a lesser known side of the war.  I thank them for making this video and hope that it will be watched and spread throughout the nation.  I highly recommend this to everyone.  Please watch with open minds and hearts.

I took a lot of time to write this review.  I  wasn’t sure how to say all that I wanted to say without offending or alienating readers.  I finally decided just to write and see what came out.  There is a LOT more I could say.  A lot of extra opinions of my own that I could add in and more from the movie I could talk about, but I want you to go watch the movie.  Go pick up a copy and watch it, learn from it, and challenge yourself to find out the truth with an open mind.

Want to learn more about New Liberty Videos and the offerings that the Crew were given to review?  Please go to the main TOS Crew Blog Post and see what other reviewers had to say.  I’m sure you’ll find a movie that you are interested in.