The Confederate soldiers who formed and joined the Klan after the war are not the ones we celebrate on Confederate Memorial Day.
When Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865, the army under his command, the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered too. Then on May 10, 1865, Confederate president Jefferson Davis was captured. The Civil War was over.
In South Carolina, we have on our Statehouse grounds a beautiful monument to the Confederate soldiers. The inscriptions are inspiring: “This monument perpetuates the memory of those who … died in the performance of their duty … these were men whom power could not corrupt, whom death could not terrify, whom defeat could not dishonor….”
On Confederate Memorial Day, May 10, we have a regular state holiday to honor the Confederate soldiers who were killed during the Civil War and the Confederate soldiers who did not dishonor themselves after their defeat. It is on Confederate Memorial Day that we should fly the Confederate battle flag to honor these soldiers.
Unfortunately, many Confederate soldiers chose to dishonor themselves after their defeat. During the period known as Reconstruction, many former Confederate soldiers formed and joined the Klan. As part of the Klan, these former Confederate soldiers terrorized people in the southern states, especially the former slaves.
Thus, the first people to associate Confederate soldiers with terrorism, racism, and hate were the Confederate soldiers who became Klansmen. After the war, how are the now former slaves supposed to distinguish between an honorable Confederate veteran and a Klansman? There is no way for them to know who is under the Klansman’s hood. And thus, these former slaves were the second people to associate Confederate soldiers with terrorism, racism, and hate.
Now, let’s recall what Sen. Glenn McConnell said in 1999 about the Confederate flag controversy in South Carolina, “It hurts us to see groups like the Klan holding that [Confederate] flag. You want to talk about a sick feeling? Our group, our historical groups, we are disgusted when we see it. But we’re equally disgusted and sickened by the political rhetoric and people say it’s an emblem of racism, it’s an emblem of hate, it’s shameful and all of this. How do they think we feel when it’s the emblem of our ancestors? They hurt our feelings.”
Sen. McConnell feels disgust when he sees the Confederate flag being held by the descendants of the Confederate soldiers who dishonored their own service by turning to terrorism after the war. And he feels equal disgust when he hears talk associating the Confederate flag with racism and hate from the descendants of those who were terrorized by these former Confederate soldiers.
How can Sen. McConnell feel equal disgust for cause and effect?
Now, the people of South Carolina should be proud of the service and the sacrifice of our Confederate soldiers who served honorably during the war. Unfortunately, the legacy of all the Confederate soldiers who served honorably during the war was tarnished, to put it gently for those whose feelings are hurt easily, by those Confederate soldiers who became Klansmen after the war.
Thankfully, the legacy of the Confederate soldiers who were killed during the war is safe, because we know that they never joined the Klan. We will fly their Confederate battle flag to honor them on Confederate Memorial Day. We will honor them and their honorable colleagues who surrendered at the war’s end and never joined the Klan.
In South Carolina, we must honor those who did their duty, and we must not honor terrorists. The way for us to make sure that this message is crystal clear is to pass H-3588. We must complete the compromise with clarity.
2 Comments
September 17, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Sir,
The period following the civil war was not as cut and dry as you tend to believe and wish to portray. It was a time of northern oppression, opportunistic carpetbagger terrorism, and the desolation of the southern states within the U.S. Yes, the Confederacy did lose the war. However, there was no eutopia of northern ideals that struggled against post war rebellious ex-confederates within the Klan as you believe (and most of America today believes). The Klan that you recognize from the 20th centure does not mirror that organized during the years directly following the war. I am against the bigotry and hatred that the Klan stand for by all means. However, once one truly researches the pre-war, war, and post-war periods it can be seen that the lines within the issues that you try to present within this blog tend to blur.
September 21, 2008 at 12:53 pm
We need to learn the lessons of Reconstruction so we can apply them to our efforts with Iraq. We won the War in Iraq years ago, when U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein, just as the U.S. won the Civil War when U.S. forces captured Jefferson Davis.
Many of the Iraqi soldiers honorably surrendered to U.S. forces, just as Gen. Robert E. Lee’s soldiers did. Many of the former Iraqi soldiers, after surrendering honorably, have formed paramilitary groups, just as many of the former Confederate soldiers did.
Did Reconstruction in the southern states fail or succeed, and did sending federal troops help or hinder reunification? Should U.S. forces continue to surge in Iraq so that we can help the new Iraqi government win the peace? What can we learn about Reconstruction and how soon can we learn it? Time is of the essence.
Until we resolve the Confederate flag issue with clarity and unity, we will never begin to learn the lessons of the Civil War (pre-war, war, and post-war). It’s time to put our country first. It’s time to take down the Confederate flag.