Sep 30, 2012 4 min read

About a 150 years ago, the nation was engaged in a Civil War.

Since I began crossing the border between North and South on a daily basis, I have noticed that Yankees have a different take on the war than Southerners.

To Yankees, this war didn’t come into their homes and leave memories, real or imagined, that are seared into their collective soul as it does for generations of Southerners like me, a native North Carolinian.

That thought was realized when Connellsville recently dedicated a monument to Medal of Honor recipient Samuel Johnson 150 years after the fact. Johnson distinguished himself in the Battle of Antietam by capturing two of the flags of the 1st Texas Infantry Regiment. Johnson’s bravery should be appreciated by Yankees and rebels alike.

If Johnson had been a rebel, there most likely would have been a monument or plaque erected long ago in his hometown. Southern towns always have monuments and other reminders of the Civil War. After such a bloody war, fallen heroes needed and demanded such reverence.

I don’t blame Connellsville. An Eagle Scout named Mark Parlak Jr. and many others made sure Johnson was honored with a granite monument in Veterans Square.

But while I watched Union soldiers among others pay homage to Johnson, I became more aware of the difference between how the North and South view the war.

For the South, this was a total war that involved every element of society. Southern honor and identity were at stake more so than Yankee pride. Even when the war seemed uncertain, there were no serious calls for surrender within the South until the bitter end. There were no draft riots in the South.

For the North, the Civil War was no less real, but it was not a life-or-death struggle. Battles were fought primarily on Southern soil. Except for a couple notable forays into Maryland and Pennsylvania, the North was pretty much untouched. People still talk about Union General William Sherman’s march to the sea and the burning of Atlanta. My hometown, Greensboro, NC, was where Confederate General Joe Johnston surrendered a sizable force to Sherman about a week after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va.

Many places have been celebrating the 150th anniversary of the war. Southern history buffs still clash about how Gettysburg could have turned out differently if Confederate General Robert E. Lee had avoided a pitched battle and marched straight to Washington, D.C.

Days when I drive past fertile farmlands filled with acres of corn in Smithfield or Fairchance, I wonder how the war would have turned out if the South had invaded western Pennsylvania instead of Maryland. If Lee had waged a scorched earth campaign like Sherman, perhaps the war would have ended differently.

Some Southerners may pine for what could have been (minus the slavery) if they had won the war — lower taxes, freedom from an oppressive and overreaching federal government and no “Jersey Shore” broadcast on Southern television stations.

But “what if” scenarios are not parlor talk across the Mason-Dixon Line among Yankees. The big war in this area that people still seem to talk about is the French and Indian War. George Washington’s travels in this area are still on display. My family has visited Fort Necessity. Every time I pass British General Edward Braddock’s grave on Route 40, I think about how the lessons learned during that strategic retreat during the French and Indian War led to American success years later during the Revolutionary War.

No matter what side of the Mason-Dixon Line a person calls home, the lessons learned from the Civil War should resonate with all Americans today. No one would deny that the nation is more polarized than it has been since Vietnam, perhaps even longer.

However, President Abraham Lincoln was right when he said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Of course if there is ever a rematch, the South has the upper hand — but that is a column for another day.

J. Miles Layton is a reporter for HeraldStandard.com