There are no stupid questions? Right?

Manny says: I guess the most common comment that I get from a wide variety of visitors is the old standard "Why did they fight that way?" often followed up with "Were they stupid?".

I like this exchange:

Visitor: "Were these guys stupid?

Me [Manny]: " How do you mean sir?"

Visitor: "What kind of education did the rebs have?"

Me: "Well sir, I'm sure that it varied from man to man".

Visitor: "Well, with the way they fought, seems to me they had had the hearts of lions but were stupid as piss-ants"

Now where on earth do you think they got that attitude from? Who put them in the judgement seat? Clue: they are visiting a battlefield. They are not here by accident.

Lo! They are students of pop history, wherein the author and reader are judges of men and geniuses of surpassing insight. Doubt me? Read on:

The question is framed in such a way as if to imply that the soldiers of the Civil War were somehow a species inferior to us. Not nearly as sophisticated as we are, and certainly less adept at reading the tour map as we are.

That's coming from a park ranger, folks. And he's getting the backwash from Sears, McPherson, et al.

Manny tries to convert the geniuses to compassion. Good luck. "But still, I'm often struck by the lack of empathy that many people today have toward the soldiers of the Civil War."

I would say "people of Ken Burns." People of best selling ACW books.

Surprise, surprise.