Joe Boyles: Guest Columnist
A national news story these days is how the City of New Orleans is removing, under the cover of darkness, four pieces of sculpture and monuments dedicated to the memory of Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. A new wave of political correctness and sensibility has demanded their removal, to the delight of some and horror to others.
All of this causes me to ask several questions: are we trying to rewrite history, and are Madison’s historic monuments in danger? And while I’m at it, who will pay for the removal and where will the monuments go should they be removed from the town square?
The American Civil War was the most contentious moment in our nation’s 240-year history, and it remains so today. The future of our nation hung in the balance and brought great passions to bear. It is without question the most costly war in our nation’s history. Fundamentally, the central question was the issue of slavery which is the justification today to remove all vestiges of this national crisis … as if it never occurred. What are we saying about the more than 800 thousand Americans who sacrificed their lives for the cause they believed?
Madison, like most old southern towns, has a Confederate monument on public grounds. It stands in the middle of the Four Freedoms Park owned by the city. As I recall, the monument was erected in 1909 and paid for by the United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter to honor their forbearers. I’m not sure who the artist was that carved the monument or his fame.
The soldier carved in marble at the top of the pedestal is not a general or politician but rather, an anonymous private solder standing sentry. He is depicted guarding his homeland which is how most southerners saw the war which was fought almost exclusively in the South. It is a powerful image.
But Madison’s monument is different in this way from most that I have observed: fixed to the base is a bronze tablet that bears the names of 298 local men who did not return to their families at the conclusion of the war in 1865. One-third died in battle while the remaining two-thirds perished from other non-combat maladies. So the monument is actually a memorial to their sacrifice.
In many cases, the families left behind did not know where or how their loved one died or where he was buried; they simply did not return at war’s end. The descendants of many of these soldiers still live in our community; you would recognize a lot of the last names. They have a stake or interest in this debate. It is hard to imagine the devastation of this war and the impact on surviving families that were left to pick up the pieces when peace returned to their land.
Those who advocate for removing all things Confederate from the public square cite that these symbols are reminders of slavery. But Madison already has a reminder of slavery – a monument erected some twenty years ago to the memory of enslaved African Americans whose labor built our community. That is a wonderful tribute and we certainly wouldn’t want to remove that reminder, would we?
Last week, the Alabama legislature passed a bill to protect statues and the like that have been in public parks for more than forty years from popular sentiment and the mood-of-the-day. When the ‘remove the statue’ movement comes to the Sunshine State, will our Legislature do something similar?
One of the statues removed in New Orleans is of PGT Beauregard, a native Louisianan and important figure in New Orleans history. The monument was sculpted by Alexander Doyle, a very famous artist. Beauregard did many things for his state, before and after the conflict. It seems to me shortsighted to remove public recognition of his contributions from history.
When I take a group of visitors through the Four Freedoms Park, one of the points I make is that the monuments in the park are a microcosm of our history, depicting the Seminole Indian Wars; the Southern Baptist Convention; the role of temperance; etc. Isn’t the American Civil War an important part of our history?
This weekend we will celebrate Memorial Day, honoring the dead from our nation’s wars who fought valiantly and paid the ultimate sacrifice for their efforts. What does it say about us if we choose to dishonor a large portion of that sacrifice?