Given the media’s tendency for hyperbole, there may be more (or less) to the story than is written. Given the state of PC today, I wouldn’t doubt it though. Being from Tennessee myself, I regard these as great American officers:
Only if the War College has completely lost it’s mind to Political Correctness - and if so, it’s not the institution it once was.
I don’t see a problem keeping Confederate Officers in the war College. They are part of our military history and heritage.
Should Americans who joined the British in the Revolution be honored?
The question at the center of the discussion is, who exactly is “our”?
From the article, it appears the answer to that is “America’s”
In 1975, Congress enacted a joint resolution reinstating Lee’s U.S. citizenship in what could be considered a final act to heal Civil War wounds. The resolution praised Lee’s character and his work to reunify the nation. It noted that six months after surrendering to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Lee swore allegiance to the Constitution and to the Union.
“This entire nation has long recognized the outstanding virtues of courage, patriotism and selfless devotion to duty of General R.E. Lee,” the joint resolution stated.
President Ford traveled to Arlington House, Lee’s former home in Virginia, to sign the resolution into law on Aug. 5, 1975.
You beat me too it. In the end these men were traitors to the country. They swore an oath and then broke that oath. Did they think at the time they had good reason too? Perhaps. But that doesn’t change that they were indeed traitors. I don’t see any honors heaped on Benedict Arnold.
The only traitors in that war were the Union thugs that terrorized, raped, and murdered hundreds of thousands of Southerners for exercising their right as a free state to secede from the Union.
And to exercise their right as a free state to have slaves.
Because that’s not hypocritical at all.
To make the civil war strictly about slavery falls for the the storyline the PC crowd wants you to believe. Much more complicated then that. This was a Civil War inside the US borders so comparisons to our fight against the British are not the same. The AWC is there to provide senior officers an opportunity to study politics and policy at a national strategic level, and how military might applies, NOT a political Commissar school…
Actually the war against the british was a Civil war as well. We were British subjects at the time.
Honoring the Confederate dead was/is vital to the healing process of the nation. Soldiers from both sides fought a brutal war to defend their homes. But the hard feelings and grudges have long since been settled, and that was NOT achieved by demonizing one side or the other. Battlefield heroics should not be qualified by politics, at least in this case.
From all that I’ve read, Lee and Jackson were pretty competent officers.
Should we honor Japanese, German, or Vietnamese generals for their battlefield heroics?
I heard somewhere US armor could be found with posters of Erwin Rommel in them. Is that right?
Many WW2 German officers, not only Rommel, were/are admired by many in the US (military included) for their accomplishments and talents. Not saying that’s the right thing to do, but there it is.
It is very understandable to respect the accomplishments of an enemy. But that is a bit different that the topic at hand.
Free states do what free states wish, abhorrent or not. Don’t like it? Don’t live there.
The country could not survive this way. It is a great though in theory. But in practice you must have some uniformity of law throughout the states. Civil rights are one of them. If you don’t the entire union fals apart into bickering states that can’t hold up on their own.
Exactly it’s Army history, so many stories of brothers and friends fighting. Also the Army reconciled sooner than the rest of the nation did. I was at a school at Ft. Leavenworth in 2010 and one of the displays the history dept did was Black Soldiers in the CSA. They had to cover it as a Black Major complained about. Some people don’t like facts.
This stanza from the Infantry poem written in 1955 sums it up.
From Bull Run to Appomattox, I fought and bled.
Both Blue and Gray were my colors then.
Two masters I served and united them strong…
proved that this nation could right a wrong…
and long endure.
I am the Infantry!
FOLLOW ME!
It is US Army history, not USA history, and Rommel is a respected enemy.