150 Years Ago...Or So They Say...

(The Friendship or autograph quilt in LeMoyne star pattern, 1849)

On the 12th of April 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C. thus started the Civil War...

History books have offered many arguments for one side or the other. Only yesterday I browsed through much information regarding Missouri as I happened to be a Soldier's Angel for one of its sons. I have never been there and I simply wanted to give myself an idea of its cultural and mostly historical background. I was surprised to hear of Missouri's role in the origin of the Civil war.

'The political conflict betwixt the North and South took shape in 1819 when Missouri applied for admission into the Union to become a state because the territorial laws of Missouri recognized and embraced slavery.
Two years later they finally became a State.'

'A boundary between the Free States and the Slave States was extended betwixt an existing line originally laid out to settle a 1750 border dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland. It was referred to as the Mason-Dixon Line, named for the two British surveyors who establish it (1763-1767).'

So it appears my history book was incomplete and I learned something yet again...


From Bob Dylan I also learned the lyrics to a song called 'Cross the Green Mountain:

...In the deep green grasses/And the blood stained woods/They never dreamed of surrendering/They fell where they stood/.../A letter to Mother/Came today/Gunshot wound to the breast/Is what it did say/But he'll be better soon/He's in a hospital bed/But he'll never be better/He's already dead...

Whatever the actual reason, the Civil War was a time when people rallied for whichever cause they believed in and for which many lost their lives. So many dreams shattered...

Yet we should always remember no matter the differences which separated both sides, people fought to make this beautiful country such an incredible Nation.

The image that comes to mind is a quilt, made of small parts and bonded together as one! The Missouri History Museum titled their Quilts collection: From a Common Cloth...
How appropriate!