Some Maine Republicans Fret New State Ballad Is Too Hard On The Confederacy

A protester waves a Confederate battle flag in front of the South Carolina statehouse, Thursday, July 9, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. More than 50 years after South Carolina raised a Confederate flag at its Statehouse to ... A protester waves a Confederate battle flag in front of the South Carolina statehouse, Thursday, July 9, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. More than 50 years after South Carolina raised a Confederate flag at its Statehouse to protest the civil rights movement, the rebel banner is scheduled to be removed Friday morning during a ceremony. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) MORE LESS
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Maine legislators recently approved a new state ballad, a task one would expect to be simple and drama-free.

Alas, in the year 2019, it’s not so easy. Some Republican state lawmakers in the northeastern state were concerned that the ballad chosen cast too negative of a light on the Confederacy, according to a new report from the Maine Beacon.

The song, titled “The Ballad of the 20th Maine,” tells the story of a Maine infantry regiment that fought in the Civil War, and unsurprisingly, has a pro-Union message. Two Republicans found this inappropriate.

“I find it a little bit, we are united states, we are not Union, we are united states. And I find it just a little bit – I won’t say offensive but that’s what I mean – to say that we’re any better than the South was,” Republican state Rep. Frances Head said last month while discussing the song, per the Maine Beacon.

Republican state Rep. Roger Reed expressed similar hesitations.

“I am a lover of history and especially a lover of the civil war period and regardless of what side people fought on, they were fighting for something they truly believed in,” Reed said, according to the Beacon. “Many of them were great Christian men on both sides. They fought hard and they were fighting for states’ rights as they saw them.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Great Christian men. The Civil War will never end, will it?

  2. The morons do realize that the 20th Maine held Little Round Top at Gettysburg and in doing so probably saved the Union. After they ran out of bullets they charged with bayonets and defeated a large force. They then held their position until they were relieved. They deserve a ballad.

  3. What a knife to the heart of the memory of Joshua Chamberlain! There isn’t a real Republican left in the Republican party is there? If they have this attitude in the Maine, can anyone be surprised why Republicans act they way they do in the former states of the confederacy or the border states like Missouri and Kentucky?

  4. “I find it a little bit, we are united states, we are not Union, we are united states. And I find it just a little bit – I won’t say offensive but that’s what I mean – to say that we’re any better than the South was,

    “I am a lover of history and especially a lover of the civil war period and regardless of what side people fought on, they were fighting for something they truly believed in,” Reed said, according to the Beacon. “Many of them were great Christian men on both sides. They fought hard and they were fighting for states’ rights as they saw them.”

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