Confederates In National Statuary Hall Collection Is A National Disgrace
It is April of 1864, and Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant is about to begin his Wilderness Campaign Offensive into Northern Virginia to end the Confederate rebellion and the bloodiest conflict in American history. A short 70 miles away, back in Washington, Congress had voted to turn the Old Hall of the House of Representatives meeting chamber into a gallery of statues. Their aim was to represent no more than two deceased individuals from each state that were worthy of national commemoration.
Therefore, it would probably be stunning for members of the 38th United States Congress to learn, that the room would eventually enshrine eleven individuals who, at that very moment, were engaged in sedition and succession for the purpose of having the right to keep another human being as a slave.
The decades following the Civil War saw revisionist history take hold as “The Lost Cause” became the defining Southern narrative of the Civil War. It spoke of a valiant, Southern revolt against the tyrannical Northern States, who were hellbent on stamping out their noble way of life. Reframing the Civil War meant turning traitors into heroes, and this led to the construction of numerous monuments to the Confederacy over the next hundred years.
