The US civil war was the most terrible war the country ever fought. The Civil War killed more Americans than all the other wars in our history, all put together. I am a New England Yankee, and every village and town up here has a Civil War memorial. Even though it has been 150 years since Appomattox, the pain is still remembered. Naturally New England war memorials bestow honor upon Union men.
I don't seen any reason why Southern towns should not bestow honor upon the Confederate men. One of the amazing things about the US Civil War is how well we were able to re unite the country after the terrible bloodletting was over. Surely allowing Southern villages and towns to put up memorials to Confederates was part of that. And, all Americans growing up need to know the history of the Civil War. It was fought to preserve the Union and to free the black slaves, and it succeeded in these aims. The Confederates fought to repel Yankee invasions of their territory and to allow them to run their own affairs to suit themselves. They lost, but they fought hard for four years, and compared to later wars, they fought cleanly.
I can understand that our black citizens are less than enthusiastic about Confederate leaders. But they need to know about them, and about the Civil War. If the South had been a little luckier, they might have won. As it was, Union war weariness by 1864 was strong, almost strong enough to defeat Lincoln's re-election, and just pull the Union Army back and let the South go. If that had happened, blacks would still be slaves in the victorious Confederacy.
In the interests of preserving a heroic history for future generations, and keeping the United States united, I think we ought to keep all the Civil War memorials and statues, Union and Confederate. I think our black citizens are just going to have to put up with the Confederate ones. These men have been dead for better than 100 years, let's leave them and their memories in peace.
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