Would someone explain this to me, please...

Because the southern states are the True American states? I see it all over the news these days that only people who truly love the USA want to secede!

This is a reach but....
Perhaps the deceased was into civil war re-enactments and his buddies in the "unit" thought it would honor him.

I can think of two reasons. First did you see actual Confederate uniforms, or were they perhaps school academy or state guard uniforms? As I recall, cadets at West Point wear grey uniforms very similar to confederate grey. Also I think some Southern state and national guard units have dress uniforms that are grey and patterned close to their state's confederate uniforms.
Second, they could be members of an organization such as the Confederate Air Force. The Confederate Air Force is a civilian group, with a large component of ex air force personel, who work as a hobby group to rebuild and conserve old military aircraft. It could be the funeral of a retired air force pilot escorted by all his retired buddies in the 'Confederate air force'.
Then again, it could just be some righwing militia cranks acting like horses hindquarters. I guess that's 3 reasons.

It's not the same as wearing KKK garb or Nazi uniforms to a funeral. To many of these people, it's a part of their history and culture. Wearing that uniform isn't necessarily endorsing slavery or bigotry. It's paying respect to their ancestors, and taking pride in their homeland.

Remember that many of the Confederates were not explicitly fighting to preserve slavery. Some were fighting for their ideals of how government should be run. Some were fighting simply because their state was at war, and they felt it their duty to defend their homes. Many of them were very respectable people - the little I know about Robert E. Lee is quite impressive, for instance. It's easy to judge these people harshly now, after the long cultural war to change public perceptions on slavery and racism. I'm not sure it's entirely fair, though, and I don't think it's automatically reprehensible to pay respect to the people who fought on the losing side of that war.

Jesse what a total crock of shit. Typical, by still a crock. People who cling to their alleged history and culture defense know exactly what they are saying to everyone else. They are unrepentant racists. Period. Oh and traitors. But at least they dnt realize this last point themselves.

Jesse has triggered my obligatory rant(and I'll try hard not to sound to much like Comrade Phisioprof): The Civil War was about the right to keep slaves. Anything anyone else says is pure propaganda. People who say otherwise are either ignorant, lying or brainwashed.

Look for example at South Carolina's statement about secession: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp

One of the central complaints in that document isn't about states' rights at all. They complain that other states have failed to cooperate enough with the Fugitive Slave Act. That's close to the exact opposite of a state rights claim.
The entire rest of the text is explicitly about slavery.

And this is just one example of many.

And the Sourtherner's didn't give it up after the war ended either. They engaged in fraud, intimidation and murder to keep the blacks disenfranchised. Then they blamed the North and the Blacks while creating the entire myth of the Lost Cause. If you have any doubts about how absolutely descpicable Southern behavior after the war was and how intimately connected everything was with their fundamental racist beliefs you should read Stephen Budiansky' "The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox."

It is one thing to maybe, maybe pay respect to men like Lee (although I'd be inclined to argue that even doing so is less than ideal). There's no good reason to dress up in their uniforms a 150 years after the war. The Civil War was started by the Confederacy for the sole purpose of defending their "right" to oppress others. If anything in my cultural history was as bloody and as obvious wrong I wouldn't be trying. For example, Most US citizens don't take pride in how the US massacred the Native Americans.

It is not appropriate for people to render Confederate military honors in an American Veterans Cemetery. Anyone who thinks otherwise is simply wrong.

You should call Peter Venkman. This sounds like a case for the Ghostbusters.

I'm guessing eric in comment #2, or Jim in comment #3, probably has it.

For the record, I'm originally from the rural deep south, have been to more than my fair share of funerals, and never saw anyone show up in a Confederate uniform to any of them.

In fairness to the people of the South, you have to try to understand how hard it must be to come to grips with the fact that their revered great-grand-daddy fought to preserve a morally reprehensible institution like slavery.

So they rationalize and claim it's not about racism, but about culture, or tradition, or whatever.

I'm not defending confederate uniforms, or slavery, or bigotry. But it's what they were born into, not something they chose.

@Jim:
Definitely Confederate uniforms. The caps, homespun-looking cloth, and lack of uniform dye job were all giveaways. So was the occasional facial hair.

@Eric:
That's basically what I assumed it was, but the appropriateness is still a question, I think.

Jesse,

It's not the same as wearing KKK garb or Nazi uniforms to a funeral. To many of these people, it's a part of their history and culture. Wearing that uniform isn't necessarily endorsing slavery or bigotry. It's paying respect to their ancestors, and taking pride in their homeland.

Remember that many of the Confederates were not explicitly fighting to preserve slavery. Some were fighting for their ideals of how government should be run. Some were fighting simply because their state was at war, and they felt it their duty to defend their homes.

How is this not exactly like Nazis vis a vis Germany?

The fact that you found any sort of culture in the south is amazing in itself.

I read your about me to see where you are coming from and I have to say I am appalled that a man of your education would indulge in presentism and hate vitriol. You don't mind offending my people, I guess we are just the wrong color, your reverse racism is showing.

For your edification I suggest you google the 1920s congressional law that made Confederate Veterans American Veterans (after all they were Americans you know). The law entitles the Confederates and their descendants to all USA Veteran benefits including burial and a tombstone if requested. The last son of a Confederate Veteran died recently in North Carolina and had a Confederate Burial Service. You see it wasn't that long ago that we were forced into a union with the likes of you.

Yes, the Confederates were Americans. Except from April, 1861 through April, 1865.

I think it's going a little bit far to consider it part of the "culture" of the South. Now, pro-Confederacy IS part of the culture, and anti-Yankee even more so. Although as a child, I had many friends into the Civil War dress-up stuff (as Confederates, of course, this being Tennessee), it's been 35 years since I've encountered that sort of thing. But it wouldn't surprise me at all to discover that there were still segments of the population into that, particularly in parts of AL or MS.

Racist? Not necessarily, or at least not primarily. More likely just a bonding ritual against a cultural enemy, with the reasons not mattering much. However, I again wouldn't be surprised if the average participant were more racist than average.

Thanks; interesting observations in light of the Governor of Texas and what he was recently ranting about on the cable networks last week.

I like the idea that these are a people with secrets and a shameful past, and stuff like this amounts to a whole lot of posturing and other forms of over-defensiveness . . .

I see the same thing here in Utah, living as I do along the fringes of the LDS Church (Mormons). For the history sorts, besides the obvious polygamy (which embarrasses the bejesus out of mainstream Mormons and their leaders who have distanced themselves from the current practitioners), there are parallels since the territory of Utah was in open rebellion in 1857 (declared an independent country by no less than Brigham Young), a huge deployment of troops was sent to occupy the area, and Mormon settlers in Southern Utah--disguiesed as Indians--cold-bloodedly murdered a wagon train of peaceful emigrants from Arkansas in an event known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Honest folks, we don't hold the sins of your ancestors agin' you; but I think what puzzles Mike is why would someone glorify it? Far better to do what the Aussies do with their grinning acknowledgment of convict ancestors . . .

Dateline from the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City . . .

Re Jesse

I always get a big laugh when Southerners rave about Robert E. Lee and how great a military commander he was. Actually, of course, in many respects, Robert E. Lee was one of the most incapable military commanders in history.

Jim wrote: Also I think some Southern state and national guard units have dress uniforms that are grey and patterned close to their state's confederate uniforms.

I don't think this is correct, to the best of my knowledge, all National Guard and other military reserve units have the same dress uniforms as their parent branch have (Class A's for Army, etc). I would have to guess that the individual was probably a re-enactor. And it's not that strange for geeks to have geek funerals, I've heard of plenty of SCAdians getting buried in period ceremonies, garb and all, and even of a Klingon funeral or two. What you saw was more of a geek thing than a Southern thing. Except these particular geeks are almost exclusively Southern. But you know what I mean... :-)

How old were those people?

There really just appears to be a significant bloc of people for whom patriotism means wanting to secede from America.

It's possible (likely even), that what you saw were USCW re-enactors. I've had contact with many and they're a mixed bag. Some will vehemently argue about the "War of Northern Aggression," complete with the "states rights not slavery" discussion. Others have a more rational outlook on life -- they enjoy the re-enactment and happen to have chosen the South for their characterization. There's a certain amount of romanticism in choosing the losing side.

I like this statement about the civil war I heard somewhere:

In grade school you learn that the war was fought to end slavery. In High School you learn that it was over state's rights. In college you learn that the right the southern state's were fighting for was slavery.

SLC, I disagree. As a military commander, Lee was faced with poor resources, a lack of coherent support from the rebel states. He faced a military that was in general better trained and with a larger industrial base. And despite all that, he came very close to winning. Don't knock Lee's military prowess.

Re Joshua Zelinsky

The quote is from the book, "Lee and Grant, a Study in Generalship and Personality - 1957 edition," by Major General J. F. C. Fuller, page 3, last sentence, second paragraph.

If Mr. Zelinsky objects to the assessments of British officers, I would suggest the following volumes.

"Lee, the Marble Man," Thomas Connelly.

"Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat," Grady McWhinney.

"How Robert E. Lee lost the Civil War," Edward S. Bonekemper.

The major complaints against Lee are as follows.

1. Lee was totally incompetent as a quartermaster general. As General Fuller points out, his men stationed some 30 miles north of Richmond went barefooted while warehouses in Richmond bulged with shoes. His marches into Maryland and Pennsylvania were, in part, due to his inability to properly supply his men in the area between Richmond and Washington, DC.

2. As General Fuller states, Lee was no strategist. He had only a very poor conception of and very little interest in the situation outside of Virginia. In addition, he did nothing when Jefferson Davis relieved General Joseph E. Johnson from command of the army facing Sherman and replaced him with the incompetent Hood, who, given that he had previously lost both an arm and a leg and required large doses of laudanum to sleep at night was in no condition to command anything other then a desk in Richmond. IMHO, this replacement was he worst blunder made by either side during the Civil War.

3. As both McWhinney and Connelly point out, Lees' offensive tactics caused huge battlefield casualties to the Army of Northern Virginia which the South could ill afford. As General Fuller shows in an appendix to his book, Lees casualties, as a percentage of troops engaged, were some 50% greater then Grants and 100% greater then Shermans.

4. Unlike Grant and Sherman, Lee did not profit from his mistakes. During the 7 Days campaign, he launched a frontal attack on a strong Union position on Malvern Hill which caused 4 times as many casualties as suffered by the defending Union forces. Having learned nothing from that setback or from the similar failed attack by his Northern rival, General Burnside, on Maryes' Heights above Fredricksburg late in the same year, he launched a similar frontal against Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg costing some 7500 casualties (Picketts' charge). His attack on Cemetery Ridge was a demonstration of total incompetence as not only was the attacking force probably too small (given that a third of them were killed or wounded before any of them even got anywhere near the ridge) to effect a breakthrough but the troops that might exploit such a breakthrough had to be stationed too far away from the point of attack because the Southern artillery was unable to knock out the Union artillery; Meade, having interior lines could bolster a hole in his line much quicker then any reinforcements from Lees' army could arrive. Lee rejected the advice of his subordinate, General Longstreet, to make a flank march and take up a defensive position south of Gettysburg and force Meade to attack him, obviously not realizing that, at that particular time in the history of warfare, the defense was much stronger then the offense, due to the introduction of rifled muskets and artillery, or as General Fuller puts it, Lee failed to realize the power of the bullet.

Regardless of the ethics of the south's Confederacy hang-ups, since when is it acceptable to wear the uniform of an army in which you never served (except when acting/recreating etc)? Is it not a dishonour to those who fought and died in the uniform?

Article in the Austin, TX, about observation of Confederated Decoration Day when flowers are placed in Confederate cemetaries and at statues of Confederates. Some of the participants wore Confederate uniforms. My impression was that people wearing uniforms were honoring relatives killed in the war. I don't think Confederate Decoration Day is an official holiday. Perhaps what you saw was a procession doing a local Decoration Day.

A few thoughts:
- Approximately 6% of Southern families owned slaves.
- At least 80,000 Confederate soldiers served because they were conscripted.
- The much-maligned "Confederate Flag" wasn't really the official flag of the Confederacy.
- Black Americans were oppressed and disenfranchised far longer under "Old Glory" than they ever were under the "Confederate Flag."
- For those who think "Southern Culture" is an oxymoron, you should read a book called "The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture, and Enlightenment to America" by Jeff Biggers, or
"Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America" by James Webb.
- Not all Americans are quick to embrace the pervasive homogenization that seems to discourage things like knowing your family's history and regional history, having an accent, etc.
- Members of some organizations, including Sons of Confederate Veterans, sometimes wear period clothing, including Confederate uniforms to honor their Confederate ancestors, particularly at memorial services. I have attended memorial services in Chicago, IL at the Confederate Monument at Oak Woods Cemetery. I should mention that there were Black as well as White citizens present and there were no problems.
- I might also mention that the Black owner of a local (Chicago, IL) funeral home (one Mr. Ernest A Griffin) displayed both the American Flag and the Confederate Battle Flag in the parking lot of his funeral home. The business occupied the site of the former Camp Douglas, where some 6000 Confederate soldiers died (mostly from disease and exposure). His own grandfather had served in the Union Army. In regards to the Confederate dead, he said while he didn't agree with their cause, he couldn't help but feel something for those men who died so far from their homes and were serving their homeland just as his grandfather served his.
- Mr. Griffin and my father enjoyed a correspondence for a time before Mr. Griffin passed away.
- This gentleman's daughter greeted my 80-year-old father and myself when we visited. It was a warm greeting and a joy to see this lovely African American woman embracing my aged Southern father. She said, "I know that Daddy is smiling down on us from heaven right now." I have no doubt he was.
- My dear Southern father had hoped to live long enough to vote for either Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama for president.
- I guess my point is that there is a lot of provincial thinking and posting out there by those who don't know or understand as much as they think they do. Prejudice takes many forms and almost always exposes the ignorance of the prejudiced individual.

For me to be giving a comment on this just shows how bored I am this evening.

Their are many reasons for the wearing of a uniform to a funeral. The last time I checked we had ten's of thousands of orginizations, clubs, and other groups, some military, some religious, ect. The Sons of Confederate veterans is one such group that honor their ancestors and also honor the decedants of those veterans.

Why are the small minds so bothered about this, why not be concerned about the turbins and rags being worn by the Arabs, that are in this country, who hate America, and thirst for the day we are all dead.

Why are you bothered by true Southern people or those that honor true souther people and the military that they served
honorably, when they were FORCED AGAINST THEIR WILL, WHEN AFTER THE INDIVIDUAL SOUTHERN STATE AFTER STATE SUCCEDED, DECIDED TO QUIT BEING A MEMBER, PEACEFULLY, BUT ABRAHAM LINCOLN SENT THE FEDERAL ARMY IN TO FORCE THE ISSUE, SO yes
to those who honor the honorable men and women who had the guts, and served their their state against the Forceful actions against them. I only wish they had won the war, then I guess southerners would be bitching about modern day yankees wearing a yankee uniform to a funeral.
What a waste of time.
Jerry Dunford
Richmond, Virginia