Southern Discomfort: U.S. Army seeks removal of Lee, ‘Stonewall’ Jackson honors
Revisionist history would remove portraits of Confederate legends
It seems
that the war college is conducting an inventory of all its paintings and photographs
with an eye for rehanging them in historical themes to tell a particular Army
story. “During the inventory, an
unidentified official — not the commandant, Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III —
asked the administration why the college honors two generals who fought against
the United States, college spokeswoman Carol Kerr said. ‘I do know at least one person has questioned
why we would honor individuals who were enemies of the United States Army,’ Ms.
Kerr said. ‘There will be a dialogue when we develop the idea of what do we
want the hallway to represent.’”
[snip]
“This person
was struck by the fact we have quite a few Confederate images,” she said,
adding that the portraits were rehung on a third-floor hallway. “[Lee] was
certainly not good for the nation. This is the guy we faced on the battlefield
whose entire purpose in life was to destroy the nation as it was then
conceived. … This is all part of an informed discussion.”
Well that is
one way to look at it, another would be that the object was to leave the Union
that they has voluntarily joined and the North, by force of arms, was
preventing them from doing so.
The story goes
on to point out that in 1975, Congress enacted a joint resolution reinstating
Lee’s U.S. citizenship in what could be considered a final act to heal Civil
War wounds. The resolution praised Lee’s character and his work to reunify the
nation. It noted that six months after surrendering to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant,
Lee swore allegiance to the Constitution and to the Union.
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