re: Why did none of our great progressive thinkers here decry confederate statues?

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No Confederate Memorial days. Not appropriate.

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Is it still a state holiday in Tennessee?

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Who gives a frick where your great-great-great grandpappy fought? Do you even know his name?

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With some ambiguity yes, I do care. My great grandfather was in Vaughn's Brigade of Cheatham's division defending the apex of the main Yankee attack on Cheatham's Hill. This attack was driven off.



This monument is just a few yards from where my GGF fought. The culvert looking thing is where the Yankees tried to dig a tunnel. The rebel positions were in the trees beyond the monument facing the site of the camera.

Shiloh




Gettysburg

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I wrote this in 1992.

Was Tennessee one of the East-West split states where the more mountainous areas were hotbeds of Union support?

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Tennessee rejected a referendum in February 1861 to leave the Union. The governor was strongly secesh and a second vote in June was for secession, but research now shows with considerable ballot box stuffing.

Many east Tennesseans were persecuted and many were hanged for loyalty to the old flag.

I do like the Lee Circle monument and wish they would keep that. As to the others I don't care whether they stay up or get taken down.

Do you have as much concern for the thousands of Confederate pows who were starved and frozen to death in Yankee prisons? Are you even aware of their suffering? I imagine your ancestors would really be ashamed of you.

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Do you have as much concern for the thousands of Confederate pows who were starved and frozen to death in Yankee prisons?

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Not really, no.

And if you check, you'll find that mortality rates in Confederate army camps was similar to what they were in Union POW camps.

It is not generally known but for every battle death there were two deaths in the army camps on both sides.

It wasn't until World War One with machine guns, rapid fire artillery, aerial bombs, poison gas and all the rest that battle deaths were 50% of all deaths. 50% of course were non battle deaths.

My great grandfather was incarcerated at Camp Douglas in Chicago from some time after he was captured at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, until May, 1865 when he was released.

His knowledge of the war is considerable. His one-sided view of the war is questionable. You can honor the sacrifice but not the cause at the same time. To say they should not have Memorial recognition is another thing.

If this is how you feel, do not worry, many of us will respect and honor your forebears for you. You are not worthy of their name or my time.

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Until after Mitch deemed to contrive it into a vitally important "issue" seemingly overnight a couple of years ago?

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It certainly gained steam after the Charleston Church shootings, but there has been opposition (ranging from political vandalism to organized calls for their removal, esp. Liberty Place) to the monuments since the 1990s.

I remember being young and seeing the Jeff Davis statue defaced (and only later noticed the irony that Jeff Davis Parkway and Martin Luther King Blvd bisceted!) My memory, and my casual research into the history of opposition to the monuments, only goes back about that far. Can't speak for the great progressive thinkers in this forum.