Hayes Lowe
Ah, but you *were* right!
Mon Jul 23 14:37:21 2001


Scotty,

That statement does imply just what I thought was not implied in the thread. It probably was not meant the way that it comes across, but I can indeed see why you headed in the direction that you did!

As far as the Union's focus on the "scalping", I think that was entirely propaganda...aimed at the other nations of the world, used as one more reason that the Confederacy should not be recognized. That is to say that it was a message that the Confederacy was full of barbarians and was not a legitimate "civilized" nation.

Of course, it was also a method of putting pressure on the Confederacy not to utilize the manpower resources of the Native Americans.

It also served to feed into the Northern view that the Confederates were uncivilized in general, and would use any method, lawful or unlawful in the code of war, to maintain its "illegal" status as independent.

It worked, to some extent, for all these purposes.