IMMEDIATEREL//ATTN//CD@TCNET//VIAJC//UNR//N0TCLASSIFIED//2020
14 June 2020--
"Every free black face that looks up at those marble lineaments, is a witness of a cause so utterly lost that it can never be restored. …"
(The Studio)--Symbols of the Lost Cause may reflect attitudes of intolerance and outrage currently but following the Civil War when they were commissioned show completely different feelings. Confederate statues are tumbling down nationwide, either by legal authority or by the vandal's hand creating yet another wave of rage and indignance from those who believe the dead that the memorials represent are being thrown under the wheels of the caissons as they go rolling along. It wasn't that way when the statues were commemorated.
Memorials first began appearing, as with any war, soon after hostilities ended, for the South and the Confederacy, that meant during the Reconstruction Era. Already rejecting the federal edicts issued from Washington, DC, many of which allowed the Northerners a free reign in dealing with the conquered Southerners, it was no wonder that at least one way to express sympathy for the fallen, not just the soldiers but the cause itself, was through statues. A search of primary sources, newspapers in particular, indicate that very bonding with both men and movement as the distant sounds of battle passed into history. That remembrance was meant for everyone, not just white privilege to which it is usually attributed.
Under the title of "A Confederate Statue," published in The Lawrence Daily Journal in 1881, the article referred to a memorial in Macon, Georgia;
"Let him stand there. The dead soldiers he commemorates are not more dead than the idea of a government among civilized men, the cornerstone of which shall be human slavery... Every free black face that looks up at those marble lineaments, is a witness of a cause so utterly lost that it can never be restored. Bravery, patriotism, freedom, these live; but the spirit that filled the graves this marble warrior marks, is as impotent now as the weapons he holds in his pulseless hands of stone."
Clearly, the meaning of the memorial was directed at everyone, including African-Americans, who had the most to remember as the Civil War was fought to free them from slavery. But in modern times, the meaning is lost in Southern white privilege. Was the purpose, then, of erecting the memorials directed solely to glorify the Lost Cause as a possible reaction to oppressive Reconstruction policies or was there deeper meaning?
Under the same newspaper title, "A Confederate Statue," The Winfield (Kansas) Daily Courant reported in 1882, the appearance of another statue commemorating the Lost Cause;
"Yesterday, M. Muldoon and Co. received from Carrara, Italy, a magnificent life-size statue, ordered by the Ladies' Memorial Association of Columbus, Tenn. It is a piece of artistic work, perfect in all the minor details. It represents a confederate soldier, in full uniform, leaning on his gun after the surrender. The gun in his hand is placed muzzle downward. He carries a cartridge-box, belt and bayonet. The statue represents the true type of the proud-spirited young Southerner, crest-fallen and heart-broken at the defeat of the cause he deemed to be just. It forms a grand and a solemn picture and is worthy of an hour's study."
Again there is a sense of genuine effort to honor the men who participated in the Civil War no matter which side they were on. This particular statue was commissioned not by politicians out to further their own interests but by an organization of women who had every reason to be promoting their own plight at the time considering their own oppression. Instead, they chose to memorialize the common soldier on the front lines, and not necessarily the pompous general out riding on his horse issuing suicidal orders as the men advanced on the field of battle in the face of rifle fire and cannon fusillades.
An 1885 article published in the New Bern, North Carolina Daily Journal reports; "children sending in contributions for the Confederate Statue. They have been told of the deeds of the brave soldiers, and they want a monument to perpetuate them." The article goes on to report that 500 men volunteered from New Bern to go and fight and many did not return. "They did their duty like men. Shall we forget them?"
Ground zero for controversy for opposition of symbols glorifying the Confederacy is the Lee statue and it's nothing new. Even before it was dedicated, at least one effort up North to prevent its installment in Richmond was made in Congress, according to the Alexandria Gazette;
"A republican member of the House from Ohio has prepared a bill and was consulting his colleagues about its phraseology today and about the advisability of introducing it, to prohibit the exhibition of Confederate flags and the erection of Confederate statues in any public place within the limits of the United States. The idea, he says, was suggested to him by what he has read in the newspapers concerning the unveiling of the Lee statue in Richmond next Thursday."
The Gazette went further to report on 26 May that it also included banning the playing of "Dixie" in the South but the proposal was abandoned because "the constitutionality of such a resolution would not stand the test of the courts."
The sense of pride related to the unveiling of the monuments throughout the South, wasn't just isolated to the Lee dedication at the end of May in 1890. The 28th anniversary of the battle of Baton Rouge was commemorated by the unveiling of a statue of a Confederate soldier, as reported in The Times Picayune;
"The weather was fine and the streets crowded with ladies and children in gay attire, presented an animated appearance."
The newspaper listed the long procession of the parade which included local officials, contributors and veterans marching along in gray uniforms. Animated indeed from the description, as if history had been suspended and the war for secession had just begun. The statue was unveiled as "Dixie" played;
"The statue, which is poised upon a granite shaft, resting upon a base of solid masonry, represents a soldier of heroic cast, clad in the slouch hat and fatigue suit of confederate gray, and stands at parade rest."
Other unveilings in newspapers of the day in the South showed similar turnouts with large attendance and marching soldiers. The cause was lost at the turn of the century but certainly not the pomp and circumstance that went with it.
By 1900, the South still hadn't fully recovered emotionally from the Civil War and the monuments were a direct reflection of it. The Northern "South-hating" press was blamed for instigating dissent that stemmed all the way from the early days of Reconstruction. In overt radical form, dissent emerged in the form of Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan; in more covert pacifist form, in the monuments themselves. The last of that voice of dissent is now formally being challenged.
'Gone with the Wind' pull from Paris theater draws tirade from French culture minister
The South shall rise again - just not in Paris. Hours after the French capital's most prestigious movie theater, the Grand Rex, announced that it was suspending an upcoming screening of "Gone with the Wind" because Warner Bros. yanked its distribution in light of Black Lives Matter protests, France's culture minister lambasted the decision.
"A Confederate Statue," The Lawrence (Kansas) Daily Journal, 14 May 1881, page 2.
"A Confederate Statue," The Winfield (Kansas) Daily Courant, 10 February 1882, Page 1.
Children Contribute to Fund, New Bern, NC Daily Journal, 25 April 1885, Page 1.
Lee Statue, Alexandria Gazette, 22 May 1890, Page 2
Dixie, Alexandria Gazette, 26 May 1890, Page 2.
Baton Rouge, The Times Picayune, 08 August 1890, Page 3.
Newspaper Bundle Image, https://www.123rf.com/photo_13550482_bundles-of-bound-newspapers-for-recycling.html
IMMEDIATEREL//ATTN//CD@TCNET//VIAJC//UNR//N0TCLASSIFIED//2020