The Civil War was the bloodiest in U.S. history; even more killed or wounded than World War II or the Viet Nam war. It was the most divisive event in our history; and Sectionalism is still a thing today. (As a Tennessean, I have encountered irritating Yankees putting down the South and the Volunteer State in particular.)*
Anyway, after the Civil War, several G.A.R. units from Northern states erected monuments on battle sites such as Shiloh and Lookout Mountain that were often garish and ostentatious. After all, they came mostly from states that wallowed in the Gilded Era!
The South pretty much had to make do with the ordinary business or survival after the Civil War. Any statues they erected came later. So it was, in the 1890-1920 era primarily. Any erecting that went on took place primarily in bed.
Anyway, it dawned on me that the Yankees put up their monuments in part as a message to the South: "We whipped your asses, and we're letting you know it! And we can come around and do it again. And rape your mules, as well."
And they left their sculptures there on the battlefield sites as an original 'F-you, Rebs' message!
So a few years later, their Southern brethren came along and erected their own bronze or marble 'F*** You' expressions.
In Franklin, where I came from, there's the Confederate soldier nicknamed Chip there. This has always been seen as a token of defiance in Williamson County.
*I can't figure out why they came to a place they don't like. Is this a type of masochism?
Yes, there's still a lot of sectional bad blood. I have gotten caught in between at times, as I was born in Ohio and lived most of my life in Alabama. The resentments have taken on a life of their own, irrespective of their origins. It may very well be that the American Experience is handicapped from the start by the country being too large and diverse. After all, California, Mississippi, Ohio, and New York are geographically too diverse and each having their own interests that they consider important. We do best uniting when there's an external enemy to unite against.
ReplyDeleteI think goes all the way to neighborhood against neighborhood. No matter where you live you have to pick a side.
ReplyDeleteI do admit to feeling like an outsider when I went to Boston and New York. More so than when I went to Paris.
ReplyDeleteAhh....Godwin's Law strikes again! LOL
ReplyDeleteYeah, I used to respect the South and her monuments. But lately it seems clear that the traitors of the civil war and their defenders today are an obstruction to the rest of us trying to live up to the constitution and live in the real world with it's real issues. Sorry
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