When the Red Shirts Helped Dedicate a Confederate Monument

This week the mayor of Augusta, Georgia appointed a commission to study public spaces throughout the city that honor Confederate leaders and make recommendations as to how to move forward. This includes the city’s large Confederate monument. My hope is that they do a thorough review of the relevant history surrounding this particular monument.

I have suggested more than once that Confederate monuments and memorials dedicated during the Jim Crow era need to be understood, in part, as a response to Reconstruction. The proliferation of monuments in public spaces by the turn of the twentieth century represents the success at overturning Reconstruction and the establishment once again of white supremacy.

As anyone who has studied this subject knows, white southerners celebrated the return of white rule in their monument dedication addresses and on the monuments themselves.

Augusta’s Confederate monument is a case in point. It was dedicated in 1878, just after the formal end of Reconstruction, but a closer look allows us to see it as part of this turbulent and violent period in American history.

First, the monument’s inscription is instructive, which reads in part: “No nation rose so white and fair, none fell so pure of crime.”

Like most of these celebrations, the dedication of Augusta’s Confederate monument would have brought out most of the city’s white population as well as from the surrounding area. The local Ladies Memorial Association raised the funds for the monument and helped to plan the event itself.

While searching newspaper articles about the dedication of the monument I learned more about who attended. Interestingly, it included the governor of South Carolina, Wade Hampton. The crowd also included four companies of Red Shirts from Edgefield, South Carolina.

The Camden Journal, October 31, 1878

The Red Shirts functioned as the paramilitary arm of the Democratic Party. Like the Ku Klux Klan, the Red Shirts challenged Military Reconstruction and wreaked havoc on Black communities. But why were they in Georgia for this particular monument dedication?

Historian Bruce Baker helped me make the connection. Two years earlier in July the Hamburg Massacre took place just across the Savannah River from Augusta in the small, but predominantly African-American village. You can read a thorough account by historian Stephen Berry, but the violence involved Red Shirts and a local Black militia unit that eventually found itself confined to a warehouse.  The stalemate was broken by the arrival of cannon from Augusta.

According to Hampton biographer, Rod Andrew Jr., “the tragedy led indirectly to his nomination for governor.” In October 1878 Hampton was in the midst of a reelection campaign, which he went on to win.

Hampton’s presence at the dedication ceremony could easily be seen as just another campaign stop, but the presence of the Red Shirts may perhaps be interpreted as a collective “Thank You” to the people of Augusta.

With Hamburg still fresh in the minds of local residents, the presence of the governor and Red Shirts was a show of solidarity between white Georgians and South Carolinians in their commitment to reimposing white rule in their respective states.

The cheers and martial music that rang out that October day in Augusta were not in recognition of a dead past, but a rallying cry for the work that would need to continue to ensure that a “nation so white and fair” did not die in vain.

Hey folks, there is still time to pick up a signed/personalized copy of Searching for Black Confederates and calling it summer reading.

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66 comments… add one
  • Kelly M Aug 19, 2020 @ 15:27

    First time to your blog, and I thank you for providing this space for thoughts and comments. It appears you are exposing some truths that many find hard to accept. One poster mentioned “both sides” . History doesn’t have a side, but many get caught up with that. They want to fight that war all over again.
    Keep exposing the harsh truths so we can move forward. I don’t want to see a monument to the victims of lynching, of people getting redlined out of neighborhoods, of systematic injustices. I want these things to end.

    • Kevin Levin Aug 19, 2020 @ 17:02

      Hi Kelly,

      Welcome and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

  • BillF Aug 14, 2020 @ 15:12

    The fact that Hampton was the governor shows how badly we botched Reconstruction. All of the plantations should have been divided up among their former slaves and Confederate officers and politicians should have been barred for life from holding any public office. However it would probably have required military occupation for at least the rest of the century and the North had no stomach for that.

  • Hugh Bondurant Aug 9, 2020 @ 18:21

    Is not the black race not celebrating the current wounding of the white race similar to the perceived wounding of the black race in 1878? “Don’t Hate Seprate”!

  • Neil Hamilton Aug 9, 2020 @ 18:14

    Kevin,

    It appears you and your above article have been “targeted” in the hopes that a rash of nonsense will completely obscure your facts and sources.

    While it is sad there are those who cannot bring themselves to face actual history nor be bothered todo a bit of research on their own, your efforts are sincerely appreciated to bring fact to the debate table.

    I believe what we are seeing is a last, desperate, rear guard action of Lost Cause myth. It’s apparent in the desperate words that some reply with above. What it says to me is you are having a real impact with the truth, hence all the silly replies that do not address your topic.

    Hang in there, your hard work is appreciated.

    Sincerely,
    Neil

  • Matthee Aug 9, 2020 @ 17:45

    Kevin, I have one minor point of contention and I would also like to offer a thought on monuments.

    Calling Confederates traitors and saying they wanted to destroy the United States borders on being disingenuous. The Confederacy desired to separate from not to destroy the other states in the union. Now in a Darth Vader killed Anakin way that would be the destruction of the union, but not a literal destruction of the northern states. As for traitors, let me use the most famous example Robert E. Lee. In a case of divided loyalties who should win? Was Lee an American first or a Virginian? If the US sends an officer to work for the UN and then the US and UN come into conflict where should that officers loyalties belong? That answer seems clear to us now, but I submit that many people of Lee’s time would and did chose State over Federal. Lee also resigned his commission in the US Army before accepting any position in the Confederacy. These are the actions of a dual citizen that is forced to chose not of a traitor. Now I firmly believe that Lee chose wrong and that the Confederate States would have been an immortal abomination, so please do not let my argument seem to provide approval or support for the rebels.
    Monuments are necessarily caricatures of the people and events they portray. A monument should be an embodiment of a trait or idea that we want to glorify and instil in our selves and the people around us. The warriors of Lacedaemon at the hot gates springs to mind, the devotion to duty and sacrifice for the state are things to be admired. As men these Spartans were lacking, they had slaves and practiced infanticide but as soldiers they are worthy of emulation. We must understand that our statues and monuments are a celebration of only one part of the story. Examining our statues and monuments and asking what we are glorifying is essential but it is important to not throw out something admirable just because that person was also flawed. In the current discussion should a US Naval officer that is considered the father of modern oceanography have a research ship named after him, even if he chose loyalty to State over loyalty to Federal authority?

    • Kevin Levin Aug 10, 2020 @ 1:21

      Calling Confederates traitors and saying they wanted to destroy the United States borders on being disingenuous.

      Americans in the 1860s called them traitors.

      As men these Spartans were lacking, they had slaves and practiced infanticide but as soldiers they are worthy of emulation.

      We will have to agree to disagree. There is no distinction between the cause of the Confederacy and the participation of every soldier. They deserve to be studied, not celebrated.

  • Steve Aug 9, 2020 @ 16:28

    God bless you Kevin. Real FACTS are out there if anybody cares to read them. Yet folks continue to believe & repeat alternate-history. And that’s exactly what those statues are… alternate history. It’s BEEN time to stop using my tax dollars to preserve these lies. The statues are just a small part of needed change. There are city names, highways, 2 carved mountains, laws, etc that are so humiliating & unfair.

    Confederate supporters… please tell me where there are equal opposite dedications to “history”? A mountain with Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nat Turner? Any FEDERAL honoring of the non-white history so important to tell.

    Again Kevin. Good luck teaching closed minds & hearts.

  • Toliver Skinner Aug 9, 2020 @ 15:26

    Would you agree Lincoln should be removed from Mt. Rushmore? It’s in land sacred to the Dakota. Lincoln was president for the largest mass hangings in American history. Lincoln was president during the “Long Walk” of the Navajo, forcing them to leave their ancestrial lands to stop the US army genecide.

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 15:40

      What does this have to do with the content of this blog post?

  • Mark Snell Aug 9, 2020 @ 15:05

    Kev, it looks like you have been hit by a “flash mob” of Southern Heritage bloggers . . . .

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 15:07

      Hi Mark,

      Great to hear from you. I’ve been trying to figure out where they are coming from. They are a reminder that there is still a good deal of work to be done. Hope you are doing well.

      • Christopher Mitchell Aug 9, 2020 @ 20:17

        Kevin,
        I found your article enlightening, but found the comments just as informative. I’m a biracial (black/white) man from Ohio, who loves the South for many reasons. Monuments to Confederate soldiers and politicians was in my opinion done for one reason. Not to commemorate, but to intimidate. Most people are memorialized in a cemetery. That’s where these Confederate monuments belong.
        Thank you for the article.

  • Drew O'Reilly Aug 9, 2020 @ 14:58

    History is not be erased. Men who do not deserve to be remember are having their statues torn down. Traitors do not deserve to be remembered. That’s who they and what they are. Any other justification is a red herring.

  • Legend Aug 9, 2020 @ 13:58

    Wow people are brainwashed. The racist yankee lies are outta hand. What’s the most racist Monument. Mount Rushmore 2 slave owners and a bigot that did not free blacks as Lincoln has said over and over and it’s on native ground. Why did 98% of natives fight for the South why did 4 out of 5 Mexicans ,most of the Irish who were slaves of yankee masters with the Scottish and Scotts-irish and all of the Jews in America/all colors of the South fight together. As the north said in there own words(we will not fight next to these nigros) and did not till after ww2. Slavery was bad when Juses walked earth ,but why is the north better and praised for having 87 years of slaves over the South’s 4 years and alot more masters and slaves.As for blacks fighting for the South being a myth. Well you have got to have head up butt to believe that since there are thousands of pics and people of them to prove it. Take the old president of NAACP H.K. Edgerton who stepped down to become the president of the Sons of Confederacy North Carolina and hundreds of black cement with them. There were alot of Southern black hero’s but your never know because truth of the South would rise. And your masters of the north can’t have that. As my black female Southern proud teacher said about the yanks- The winners write the history books it don’t make it true. I wish teachers were like that these days. Removing statues will not remove hate you have to remove the brainwashing haters that run this country for that. MLK said it best-its taken a hundred years. Bet he did not know it would take at less a hundred more. But keep blaming something that has not been around since the 1800s. Racism, hatred has been on this land way before the Confederacy and way after. So who’s really to blame .Time will tell. I could do this all day. But I’ll let Y’all get back to putting up statues of your Lord and savior Satan. God bless Dixie.

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 14:46

      You managed to squeeze in a lot of nonsense in that comment. Here is a link to my book just in case you are interested in learning something.

      • Matt McKeon Aug 9, 2020 @ 15:19

        He’s not.

  • Scott Aug 9, 2020 @ 13:17

    I’m a georiga boy but could somebody please be so incline to tell me who the traitors are in these monuments and why we should destroy history this way everyone goes on about the confederate monuments the confederate flag but why that flag has nothing to do with race it’s a dang battle flag please check history just because white supremacists use it is this why I dont care black ,white ,purple ,pink we are all human under god nothing separates us BLM antifa they are stiring a pot that’s about to boil and the outcome wont be good people we have a right to be who we are as a human race

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 13:37

      The only way you can say that the story surrounding this monument has “nothing to do with race” is if you didn’t bother to read it.

      • Stephan Khinoy Aug 9, 2020 @ 14:34

        If a monument has stood for a century, it’s become part of the town’s landscape. It adds to the atmosphere and no one really looks at it. Put up an interpretive plaque on all four sides of the pedestal and more people will learn something — those who bother to read — than anyone will learn from the petty, short-term triumph of tearing a statue down.

        • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 14:44

          Thanks for the comment. Most people have only recently started to look at Confederate monuments, but for others they have always represented the long history of white supremacy in this country. Some people don’t need a history lesson to draw that conclusion.

    • Bruce Phillip Stagner Aug 9, 2020 @ 23:17

      BLM is about the murders of blacks. The demand that they be brought to true justice for their crimes. Black on black crime or any other issue is not the issue. High blood pressure and stroke kill more blacks. It has nothing f to do with the act of murder of blacks.
      Now the traitors charge against these men of the mountains is they decided to part from the union and take matters in their own hands. Thus killing American soliders. So they may protect their ideal that enslaving another is ok. Especially if doing so makes you a lot of money in free labor. After the war that flag was not honor or displayed. It resurfaced in 1950’s when strom Thurmond brought it out as he ran for office on the principle of Jim crow and segregation.

  • Jay Brown Aug 9, 2020 @ 11:49

    All lives matters, I’m a blk man living in America, some of my closest friends are white, their is alot of racism in America, we can’t deny that, but I will tell you this, God is above the Devil, and if people really believe that they’ll get a pass when they face him for hating another race of people, they have it all wrong, God will have the final say about all this Hatred on Earth, and he’s not pleased at all, look around, covid19 doesn’t look at race. Take the test. God bless.

    • Judy Aug 9, 2020 @ 12:08

      I’ve never understood how people can mistreat others based merely on skin color. I am truly sorry if you’ve been treated badly by other races. God bless you, Jay

  • patrick haliburton Aug 9, 2020 @ 10:47

    Funny how people defend monuments of TRAITORS…… Then claim history when no history is taught about lynching and towns of black people being killed.

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 10:54

      Right. They don’t even teach the history of the very thing they were intended to honor. Monuments are not history lessons. They are intended to direct the gaze of the viewer to something that is believed to be worthy of emulation and a reflection of the collective values of the entire community.

      • Richard Phillips Aug 16, 2020 @ 16:07

        Douglas Butler in his book North Carolina Civil War Monuments: An Illustrated History makes the following observation about memory and monument building:

        “And since memory – personal as well as societal – is malleable, celebrations and physical memorials need continuing support to remain relevant. Just as personal values evolve over a lifetime, so too are events re-interpreted across generations in an on-going process, a conversation between present and past.” (p. 28)

    • Fergus M Bordewich Aug 9, 2020 @ 11:09

      Quite so. Personally, I feel that the debate over monuments, while uncomfortable for many on all sides of the issue, is very productive in clarifying what everyone really believes and what are the moral dimensions of the questions involved in both protecting or removing them. I’d like to see more monuments, modern powerful monuments — to the victims of lynching, to black CW troops, for example — rather than the elimination of existing monuments, as much as some of the latter offend me. I would love to see the site of Fort Pillow in Tennessee turned into a real national monument that boldly incorporates both the story of black federal troops and the vicious Negrophobic cruelty that underlay the Confederate war.

      • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 11:16

        I used to think that adding to the commemorative landscape was one way to deal with existing monuments without moving them. Richmond itself is a great example. As I wrote in an article a few years ago for Smithsonian, the city has taken steps over the past few decades to add monuments and acknowledge and interpret Black history.

        What we’ve seen over the past few weeks is that no number of new monuments can defuse the pain and reminder of second-class citizenship that many Richmonders have felt for decades.

  • tim BYRNES Aug 9, 2020 @ 9:59

    Ok let’s just pay every African American 100000 dollars, then no more whining and bitching. The japanese were given reperations and they do not loot ,riot ,act like animals ! The japanese respect the police , let us see how African Americans act after they receive so called REPERATIONS,? Let us see if these BLM rioters will use the money? WIll they do as real victims the japanese ,and provide meaningful help for their communities families , or will it be another welfare check ? Let’s see ?

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 10:03

      I am not sure what this has to do with the content of the post, but thanks for providing evidence as to why many Americans believe these very same monuments ought to be removed.

  • Greg storms Aug 9, 2020 @ 8:36

    The statute thing is what bothers me most of these statutes have been around for more than 100 years with the majority of the people not paying any attention to them yes the killing of George Floyd seem to start this madness city’s around the south are spending thousands of dollars to remove them including new Orleans that spent 600 thousand dollars on 4 statutes being removed meanwhile there are 14 hurricane pumps that are not working that pump the water out of the city during hurricanes keeping the flood waters out of the city should be way way more important than removeing statutes

    • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 8:44

      You may never have paid attention to the monuments before, but these monuments have always been controversial. Citizens have every right to call for the removal of monuments that are maintained with their tax dollars. My guess is that condition of the pumps has absolutely nothing to do with the removal of monuments, but if that helps to justify your position so be it.

  • Robert T Green Aug 9, 2020 @ 6:24

    Making America gag again!

  • Annie Thomas Aug 9, 2020 @ 5:28

    Racism is fear of people that are better doing that you.Whites fear that they will be the less than in USA. I have been in racism by Whites Government Elect and hire Workers.Change has come from the Government. I couldn’t get the Police to take a report and the Mayor was Black.

  • Herb Wolfe Aug 9, 2020 @ 4:46

    The South and Georgia will always be remembered as the place where whites drove the true Americans from their homes and put them on The Trail Where They Cried even after winning our case in The SCOTUS.

  • Fergus M Bordewich Aug 8, 2020 @ 12:19

    Your post is exactly on point. There is today a memorial museum for the Red Shirts in Edgefield, South Carolina, a town that was described to me by a historian born near there as “the South Carolina of South Carolina.” The town square sports a statue of Strom Thurmond, a native son (as was Preston Brooks, who famously caned Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856). Thurmond’s father was a friend of “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, one of the key perpetrators of the Hamburg massacre and later a powerful U.S. Senator.

    • Kevin Levin Aug 8, 2020 @ 12:25

      Nice to hear from you. Must have been something in the water in Edgefield.

  • Jane DeLoach Aug 8, 2020 @ 8:08

    Sad but true. Let us not forget the devastation wrought on the South during the Civil War and the corruption that plagued Reconstruction. These monuments stand to honor those that died fighting a lost cause but in a war that had to be fought to remove slavery from our land and restore the Union.

    • Kevin Levin Aug 8, 2020 @ 8:25

      With all due respect, this is certainly a self-serving and misleading characterization of what happened. Thanks for the response.

      • Samuel Boyd Aug 9, 2020 @ 5:30

        What is self-serving and misleading characterization of what happened in this article?

        • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 5:44

          Let’s start with the first claim re: “corruption” during Reconstruction. This is a deeply-embedded myth that white southerners have long embraced to undercut the advances of Reconstruction and as a means to deny black citizenship and political participation.

        • Msb Aug 16, 2020 @ 9:05

          “ honor those that died fighting a lost cause but in a war that had to be fought to remove slavery from our land and restore the Union”
          It might be poor construction, but that reads if Confederates were trying to abolish slavery and restore the Union. They weren’t.

      • Paul Aug 9, 2020 @ 6:58

        On the other side of that coin, I was a white kid in a predominantly black community. Do you think I was shown tolerance ? Hardly. I was threaten constantly by people I didn’t know. I was afraid to go to school. My school had bars on the windows and graffiti on the walls. I was in 4 the grade. Black people are humans and like humans, there are good and bad people. You don’t judge a whole race on the few morons that are there getting the media time. The big difference is I don’t go around tearing down statues with black people on them. America has an amazing history. It is not perfect but we can learn from our history, which makes us as a nation, better. Tearing these down will not make the dark parts of our history go away. Someday, I would like to see everyone being called Americans, without adding skin color or nationalities. That’s what makes America great.

        • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 7:08

          Hi Paul,

          Thanks for taking the time to comment. Just out of curiosity, if you were inclined to take down monuments honoring Black Americans, which ones would it be? Which of those monuments honors men who fought to destroy the United States of America for the purposes of establishing an independent slaveholding republic? Thanks.

          • Timothy J. Aug 9, 2020 @ 8:47

            It’s ok, today white monuments are taken down and in a decade black monuments will be ripped down.. The pendulum always swings when it comes to race. Resentments run deep. How many more statues or buildings have to come down before there will be a complete whitelash against the Marxist left, BLM and white liberals. It will be interesting to see.

            • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 8:50

              What do you mean by “white monuments”? Are you referring to monuments that celebrate men who attempted to destroy the United States in order to create an independent slaveholding republic? Are those the white men you are referring to?

              • Greg Carver Aug 9, 2020 @ 9:28

                As you can see Kevin only sees his way. It’s his way or no way. Sad.

                • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 9:51

                  What exactly are you taking issue with in this post?

            • Ruth Aug 9, 2020 @ 11:08

              BLM is ran by George Soros as well as Antifa. America suffers from a cancer of bigotry that no chemotherapy can handle.

              • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 11:12

                Hi Ruth,

                With all due respect, I think your comment give us clear insight into the real cancer that is eating away at this country.

              • Msb Aug 16, 2020 @ 9:08

                Your first sentence is a lie. Did you intend it to be anti-Semitic as well as racist, or was that just luck?
                Bigotry is not the problem. Racism is the problem.

          • Ed Wensell Aug 9, 2020 @ 9:52

            Obviously the monuments he would choose to take down would be the ones he wanted to take down. Quit trying to stand on a moral high ground of criminality by framing your arguments and putting words into his mouth

            • Rick Chamberlain Aug 10, 2020 @ 2:53

              You gave us a hard choice to make, you was not much help, all you did was give somthing more to debate over..

          • Sue Aug 9, 2020 @ 13:24

            First let’s not confuse the Union , with The United States Of America . Part of this has truth and part does not hold truth. The Author sells books and this one caters to a one sided opinion just as his book claiming it’s a Myth that Blacks fought in the South for the South. At least once I would love to see an honest historian who has researched how Slavery was born across every Nations and in Many Tribes across the globe including the indigenous people who were Native to this land. Slavery is a topic that should include free and endentured due to poverty – tyranny and Dictatorship such as our European roots. Our History isn’t just white! It is formed and founded by every skin color which seems to be the focus of those who still desire division instead of promoting actual equality as our Great Constitution declares to all people. If there arises an Author willing to provide all truths without prejudices of our history which must begin with our very roots in Europe, that is a writer I would be willing to invest in!

            • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 13:35

              Why do I have the feeling that you haven’t read a single page in my book? It’s says quite a bit that you have nothing at all to say about the content of the blog post. I will go ahead and assume that you agree with every word of it.

            • Bruce Phillip Stagner Aug 9, 2020 @ 22:48

              The great constitution makes it very clear not to include negro’s. It refers to them not as whole humans,but as three fifths. Doesn’t say slavery. Knowing it would be opposed. Slavery mention once is accepted as form of punishment for a crime. Thus you have over half the prison population being black. Most of which committed small non violent offenses. They added a clause that no amendments would be allowed to change any of such. Before 1808. Protecting the flow of of slave trade. Our Constitution talks a good talk. But,the actions it has taken right up till today are opposite. Making us the most racist CNN county on earth. Racism is the breeding and training grounds for terrorism. Across the county and across the globe we have done so many acts of. Remember 911. It was proven that the towers fell not cause the planes hit,which they did. But,controlled demolition is what brought them down. 8.9 sec they fell. Only our government could do. I’m off subject . I’ll explain for you if you like and to why they did it. Later.

        • JEANNIE ECKHARDT Aug 9, 2020 @ 7:23

          Agreed Paul!! There are good and bad in all! To erase history like it never happened is a crime in its self!! Most people learn from history to not repeat the bad! Its a sad sad place right now!!

          • Kevin Levin Aug 9, 2020 @ 7:57

            Monuments have very little, if anything directly, with teaching history. They are statements of how individuals and organizations chose to remember and CELEBRATE the past. They are not classrooms. Your comment ignores the ways in the monuments themselves ERASE history.

            • N B Aug 9, 2020 @ 18:08

              Monuments do not erase history; they just celebrate a certain narrative of it.

              Monuments to the US for WWII or any monument to a subject which is not recieving due attention can be a public benifit.

              My point is, there actually are some monuments which should be celebrated.

        • Jerome westpoint Aug 9, 2020 @ 10:29

          Well i also think they should leave them up there. But also think we should put it in the curriculum in our national education system so everyone can learn what happened to us as a people.

          • Judy Aug 9, 2020 @ 11:46

            100% agreed. BOTH sides should be taught in school. Personally, I absolutely hate how people were treated and abused during slavery. I simply can’t understand how people can treat other humans so badly

          • Bruce Phillip Stagner Aug 9, 2020 @ 23:02

            Then they would need to I closed Tulsa 1921. Burnt the black community to the ground overnight. Killed over 800 blacks. Why,cause they were getting ahead. Having tier own banks,shops transit system. That’s the issue. The black history has been left out and distorted. Why,cause of the horrible things we did time and again. The monuments taken down were put up to praise trarriors and people that fought to enslave other humans. That’s the only side they can tell in history about these mem. Tell it like it is. They killed like ed America soliders, to protect slavery. Most all up put up in the 1950’s. During Jim crow laws . To I intimidate the blacks. The people of the civil war did not honor them.

    • washingtonsenators01 Aug 8, 2020 @ 9:20

      The scope of the destruction across the South is well-recorded. I certainly hope we do not forget this destruction was the consequence of a choice.

      • Msb Aug 16, 2020 @ 9:12

        It certainly was. That choice was secession in response to a legitimate national election.

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