Carole Marsh, of Peachtree City, has published a series of booklets called “The Student’s Civil War.” I read one of the booklets entitled “What Was The Civil Was All About?,” and The Citizen published my unfavorable review of the booklet on Feb. 9.
The Citizen has now published, on Feb. 16, a response written by Mrs. Marsh’s daughter, Michelle, president of the family-run publishing company.
Michelle hopes to put me in my place by reciting a number of awards received by her mother and by listing the big-name customers of their products.
She offers no excuses or refutation of the many misleading or outright erroneous things I pointed out about the booklet. Instead, she proudly claims that Mrs. Marsh’s aim of complete absence of any regional slant is a fait accompli in the booklet.
Hello?! The booklet, in its entirety, is a vehicle for the dissemination of the Northern view, written by the victors. Apparently, Mrs. Marsh has no aversion to peddling someone else’s bias as long as none of her own is added.
As a born-and-raised Atlantan, one would think Mrs. Marsh might at least be interested in correcting or offering a new view of the misinformation that has besmirched the South for 150 years.
Without making that effort, knowledgeable people in the South might even think she is only interested in selling books, more than educating children.
It wouldn’t be that difficult. For instance, pose the question to the 8th graders of why the Union never brought Jefferson Davis to trial after two years of harsh imprisonment.
Hint: A trial would have proven that secession was not illegal and that he should not have been imprisoned. Or maybe that the war should not even have happened, and 630,000 lives would not have been lost.
Glen Allen
Peachtree City, Ga.
