Another question posed by writer, Joe Stein...

"Of all of the amazing, breath-taking truths and myths about the Civil War, why is this one almost always omitted from mention:


that men of one race fought and died in the hundreds of thousands to free from bondage men and women of another race. From all corners of the Northern States, men came and laid down their lives for the Union, yes, but also to free the African slaves, the ancestors of today’s African-Americans. When else in history has anything like this ever happened, that one racial group should die in droves for another’s liberty? This surely is one of the brightest shining dawns in human civilization. When reparations are discussed for African Americans, I am mindful that a certain reparation has been paid, that every drop of blood drawn by the lash has been paid for by a hundred drawn by the sword, to coin a Lincoln phrase."