before you tear down another statue....

What is more important than how the Civil War began?

How it ended! Or more specifically THAT it ended.

The war ended with surrender, defeat and an occupation, than when the correct conditions were met reconciliation.

So the destructive war, devastating in blood and treasure ended in 1865.

In 1898 just 33 years, later a Unified America defeated the Spanish Navy and took a place as the predominate power in our hemisphere.

In 1917, just 52 years later, America tipped the scale in a long standing world war and took its place among the world leaders.

And just 80 years later America become the world’s greatest power defeating the combined Axis powers in WW2.

So when we begin to tear down the symbols and monuments to the conflict that nearly destroyed us we also tear down the remembrance of the unity and reconciliation that it spawned. We were tried in the crucible and we came out refined. The dross of slavery was removed from the silver of our liberty and at the cost of blood we came closer to the founding principle that all men are created equal.

We remember confederate generals, and soldiers not because we wish they had won but because once they lost, they laid down their arms and became Americans again. And America was made stronger because of it.