4/28/2009 10:16:00 PM Memory of Confederate Veterans Honored Locally For Most, Slavey Was Not The Cause
Participants at last weekend's dedication of a historical marker honoring Confederate veterans buried in Oakwood Cemetery took turns reading all 128 names. - Free Press Photo by Rich Heiland
How do you honor Confederate Civil War veterans in this politically correct, sensitive day and age?
The answer last weekend at Oakwood Cemetery was pretty direct. You honor people who fought for a cause so wrapped up in the history of a part of the land that it never can be separated, and you don't apologize.
The big issue, of course, is slavery and the big question is "if you honor people who fought to retain slavery, how do you deal with that issue."
For Huntsville's Jerry McGinty, who helped lead the effort to identify the graves of 128 Confederate veterans buried in Oakwood, you simply recognize them for who they were.
"The vast majority of Confederate veterans never owned a slave. We acknowledge that if there was anything good that came out of the war it is that slavery was ended. But for most of these men it was not about slavery," he said.
Historically, that's true. Most of the men in ranks for the South were not wealthy landowners, were not lawyers or doctors. Many were sharecroppers, small farmers, small town laborers. Most were not drawn to service because they were defending slavery, but because they were convinced their way of life and basic freedoms were under attack. The same was true of the average Union soldier, who fought less to free slaves and more to defend their view of the union.
Greg Manning, the Texas division commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said in his keynote address that leaders in the South at the time felt they actually were supporting the entire country economically, which made the attacks on slavery all the more onerous. He also said secession was not a discussion started by the South.
"In 1815 some northern states threatened to secede because the Federal Government was demanding they pay their share of the debt from the War of 1812. Most southern states already had paid that debt. So the South was not the first to mention secession," he told the audience at the unveiling of a historical marker bearing the names of the 128 Confederate dead on Oakwood.
He said by the time the secession issue heated up, the South was supporting the economy of the nation to the tune of a 4-to-1 ratio and was not getting anything in return for that contribution, in its view. The question then became one of economics - why continue to financially support an arrangement that no longer was fair in its benefits?
Of course, that argument still does not escape the ugly grip of slavery because much of the economy that led to the economic dominance of the Old South would not have existed without the labor pool provided by slaves.
Still, in the minds of most who fought for the South, and most likely those who marched off from Walker County, they weren't going off to die for slavery. And, that is the point McGinty and others are making.
They also are concerned that when all the reasons for the Civil War, and all the history that went into it and came out of it are not taught, young people don't have a true sense of what their ancestors' lives were like.
Manning said little is taught these days in classrooms about the Civil War other than it ended slavery. While he said that was certainly a significant outcome, the rest of history should not be ignored.
The project to identify the Confederate war dead in Oakwood grew out of that sense of history. James Patton, chair of the Walker County Historical Commission and also County Clerk of Courts, worked with McGinty and several others to chart all the graves in the cemetery. Patton said he did it to ensure the tapestry of history is complete.
"I believe in giving credit to the people living and dead who contributed to their community," he said during the dedication ceremonies. "That's why 10 years ago we began the process that brought us to this day."
The marker, which will be the largest in the cemetery when placed, contains many names prominent in Walker County history, many that are still found today: Adickes, Durham, Eastham, Elkins, Estill, Gibbs, Goree, Hightower, Keeland, Keenan, Oliphant, Robinson, Smither, Gibbs, Woodall, Wynne.
And, that is the point Patton and McGinty say they are trying to make. The Confederacy is indelibly blended into whatever Huntsville and Walker County are today. Sam Houston, whose marker stood as a backdrop to the ceremonies, was run out of his governorship and came home to Huntsville a virtual exile because he refused to sign allegiance to the Confederacy, noting he had had worked too hard to get Texas into the Union to take it out.
History is not easy to reach back into, but it's always there and escaping it is hard. For those who placed the marker in Oakwood, it's about understanding those who lived it, and why, and learning from it.
April is Confederate History Month in Texas. The Walker County Commissioners Court and Huntsville City Council also proclaimed it Confederate History month locally.
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, April 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Danis Surface
Excellent article! Thank you.
Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Article comment by:
Dennis
This ceremony was magnificent. As a scholar of the North South War it is simply ignorance to think the war was fought for slavery. If that is your position then you are historically mis-informed, uneducated on the subject and simply wrong. Less than 1 tenth of 1 percent of the soldiers in the CSA Army were slave owners.
The honoring of the confederate veterans is a noble and magnificently worthy cause. These men fought for a just cause, they fought for their nation and fought against invaders. That is definition of nobility. Many Texas and others today would again fight if their home and their way of life was threatened by in vaders.
I applaud the SCV, UDC the OCR and others for this event and their extraordinary efforts.
