Well, it's a good thing this story didn't break before Mike Johnson became the new Speaker. This might just be disqualifying. Listen to this upsetting news. His great great great grandfather was a Confederate soldier who had to sign a pledge not to ever engage in a rebellion again.
On August 16, 1867, a young farmer named Alfred McDonald Sargent Johnson walked into the courthouse of Cherokee County, Georgia. He had an oath to swear.
The effects of the Civil War were still visible in Canton, a village of about 200 people and the county seat. For one thing, that makeshift courthouse was inside a Presbyterian church—its predecessor having been torched by William Tecumseh Sherman’s men shortly before their march to the sea. For another, Georgia was still under military rule as federal officials debated how best to reconstruct the former Confederate states. How does a government reintegrate the men who, not that long ago, were engaged in a treasonous rebellion?
With all that is happening in the world, this is what they are taking the time to drudge up.
Johnson had, like many of his neighbors, taken up arms against the United States. At age 21, he’d joined Company F of the 3rd Georgia Cavalry. The Third had fought in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns, and Johnson had even been captured as a Union prisoner at New Haven, Kentucky. But he was just a foot soldier in a much larger war. Johnson had not grown up in a stereotypical plantation “big house”; his family’s farm was modest in size and census records do not list him or his father as having owned slaves. He ended the conflict as a private, just as he’d entered it. Johnson might not even have cared much for his war experience; Confederate records list him as having gone AWOL for a period in 1863.
How is this a real publication and not a parody of braindead left-wing agitprop? https://t.co/zThMjeH9y4
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 28, 2023
If you are that obsessed with the Civil War at least put on a uniform and join one of those boomer reenactments https://t.co/TpjaN2RsdK
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) October 28, 2023
The best suggestion ever.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA https://t.co/nAwm5ribeN
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) October 28, 2023
This is likely the most frequent reaction to this article.
You truly cannot hate the American reporting class enough https://t.co/flXQmMuOwL pic.twitter.com/mlavYcD8lV
— Peter Wrangel (@PeterWrangel) October 28, 2023
You might be tempted to laugh at this. It is laughable.
— Matthew J. Peterson (@docMJP) October 28, 2023
But these people aren’t laughing. They are gearing up for 2024. They are hellbent on deepening division, stirring up hatred, and using all means of power at their disposal to delegitimize all who oppose them. https://t.co/08wWf2C8i9
This is so true. They have had a lot of practice harassing Ron DeSantis in between Presidential cycles as he opposed CRT and grooming kids.
Whatever your opinion of the media is, it's not low enough. https://t.co/yA43WxA3pQ
— Whatever (@MIFrenchieMom) October 28, 2023
This is entertaining
— Rebecca📖 (@Rquietlyreading) October 28, 2023
If they really can’t do better than a great-greet-great grandfather’s “transgression,” we’re in pretty good shape https://t.co/O8YRLEWGZF
While it is entertaining on some level, it is such a low blow.
Also in 1867, The Atlantic was a respectable magazine that published actual journalism and thoughtful writing, not the hackish left-wing vanity project it is today. https://t.co/mGCoztnkwk
— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) October 28, 2023
Comedy gold from @TheAtlantic https://t.co/6iFdU47jvo
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 28, 2023
Wonder if 'The Atlantic' knows the audience is mostly laughing at them and not with them?
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