We Must Preserve the Confederate Monuments in National Parks

We lived in Columbia, South Carolina back in the mid-'90s.  It was a wonderful place with a large, friendly bluegrass music community in a city with lots of vibrant, southern culture and a rich history.

In the 1990s, the newly constructed State Museum in Columbia was the centerpiece of the tourist district.  It had a phenomenal American history section.  Included were excellent exhibits on the French and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War right through wars that were fought in the 20th Century.  

There was one weird thing though.  There was absolutely no mention of the Civil War. 

The Civil War was the one major historical event that had the most impact on the city of Columbia and the state of South Carolina - and not one word about it in the State museum.  

There was no mention of Sherman marching through town and burning it to the ground.  Not a word was said about the the secession of South Carolina (the first state to do so).  Nothing was exhibited on the freeing of enslaved people, the granting of "40 acres and a mule" (an important event for people of the South Carolina low country) or the subsequent turbulent period of reconstruction. 

There were a few references to the "War of Northern Aggression" in a display of military uniforms of the 18th Century.  And right down the street from the museum, the Confederate Battle Flag was flying proudly above the South Carolina Statehouse, just below the South Carolina and the US flags.

Thankfully this has changed. The current website for the museum refers to an exhibit on the civil war and its impact on South Carolina.  And the battle flag was first moved to a corner of the statehouse grounds and then removed all together.  

The Lost Cause Narrative

They say that history is often written by the winners.  In this case, however, the losers of the Civil War have perhaps had the longest lasting impact on many people's view of the historical record - especially in the Southern states.  

For most of the last 150 years or so, the South's version of the war and reconstruction period has been recounted in literature, feature films and even in schools.  As you can see from our experiences in Columbia, as well as elsewhere in the South, the Civil War has been at least partially expunged from the collective Southern memory.   

Inserted in its place is a narrative that was conceived in the postwar period of reconstruction by, among others, prominent veterans of the Confederacy.  Historical scholars refer to this narrative as the "Lost Cause".  

The Encyclopedia Virginia defines it as follows:

• The Lost Cause is an interpretation of the American Civil War (1861–1865) that seeks to present the war, from the perspective of Confederates, in the best possible terms. Developed by white Southerners, many of them former Confederate generals, in a postwar climate of economic, racial, and social uncertainty, the Lost Cause created and romanticized the "Old South" and the Confederate war effort, often distorting history in the process. 

The Encyclopedia goes on to list the six tenants of the Lost Cause:

1. Secession, not slavery, caused the Civil War.
2. African Americans were "faithful slaves," loyal to their masters and the Confederate cause and unprepared for the responsibilities of freedom.
3. The Confederacy was defeated militarily only because of the Union's overwhelming advantages in men and resources.
4. Confederate soldiers were heroic and saintly.
5. The most heroic and saintly of all Confederates, perhaps of all Americans, was Robert E. Lee.
6. Southern women were loyal to the Confederate cause and sanctified by the sacrifice of their loved ones.

It is arguable that the Lost Cause narrative is at the root of many of the racial and social issues we are dealing with today.  For example, the film "Birth of a Nation" - inspired by Lost Cause rhetoric in 1915 - motivated many to join the KKK.  More recently, Confederate flags have been used as symbols by many people ascribing to White nationalist beliefs.  It is true that there are folks that innocently believe these Confederate battle flags stand for a rich southern heritage and are not racists, but not everyone interprets it this way.  

There are echoes of the Lost Cause in many of the present-day discussions and Facebook posts.  For example, I personally have heard people argue that "states rights" was the cause of the Civil War and that it had nothing to do with slavery.  

What about the Statues?

Many statues of Confederate war heroes were originally put up in the late 1800s and early 1900s - basically as propaganda supporting the Lost Cause narrative.  These statues continue to plague us and I have argued in a previous blog post that without historical context, these statues should come down.

But I have also argued in the same blog post that Confederate statues in the proper context really are more than just statues - they are monuments commemorating the Civil War.  These are necessary to interpret and preserve the historical record.  

In fact, the storehouse for our nation's historical narrative consists of museums (such as the aforementioned State Museum in South Carolina) and national historical parks (such as Gettysburg).  It is absolutely essential that a complete and accurate record be maintained in these parks and museums so future generations can experience all of the rich history our nation has to offer.  Eliminating Confederate monuments from these places would result in the exhibition of an incomplete version of American history.

H.R.7608

The United States House of Representatives recently passed a bill - HR-7608 - that funds a number of disparate programs, including some of the Coronavirus relief.  Buried deep in the bill is a provision directing the National Park Service to remove all Confederate monuments, memorials, placards and statues at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Antietam, Chickamauga, Manassas, Petersburg, Fredericksburg and 18 other battlefields and historic sites within six months.

This is a huge mistake.

The Lost Cause narrative and its impact on American society has taught us the lesson that expunging historical events impacts the lives of future generations.  It is essential that a complete story of the Civil War be preserved in historical parks such as Gettysburg - removing the Confederate monuments there would be as just as egregious as eliminating any mention of the Civil War in state museums.  The result would be a biased narrative of American history.

The Senate should act to eliminate the portion of HR-7608  that removes Confederate monuments from our national parks.  We don't want to propagate revisionist history such as another version of the Lost Cause.

As the writer and philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."