Posted on 08/15/2011 6:35:58 AM PDT by Libloather
Confederate soldier stands his ground
By: Danielle Battaglia
Published: August 14, 2011
Despite the Reidsville Confederate Monument officially departing his post on Scales Street, another soldier is taking his place and standing up for what he believes is right.
On Friday morning, Jamie Funkhouser, the confederate soldier who came to Reidsville in June to raise awareness for the city council meeting discussing the future of the monument, returned to bring awareness to the fact that the soldier will soon be moved.
The Reidsville Monument stood at the intersection of Scales Street and West Morehead Street for 101 years until Mark Anthony Vincent, of Greensboro, fell asleep behind the wheel of his car, knocking the statue off its pedestal and onto the hood of his car, shattering the statue.
According to a press release Tuesday afternoon, the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Reidsville City Council agreed that replacing the monument on its pedestal would be a divisive factor in the community and it should be moved elsewhere.
**SNIP**
Funkhouser said this statue has the same right to be there as any other war soldier. He also said that this soldier is not a race issue because all races fought under the confederate flag and people of all races have come and supported him Friday morning.
“If they remove this monument, it won’t keep me from coming back,” Funkhouser said. “I will come back here for years and be the Confederate soldier watching over Reidsville.”
The UDC is waiting word from the Vincent’s insurance company before deciding what to do with the monument.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.godanriver.com ...
Facebook - Save the Reidsville Confederate Monument
This article was taken from the April 8, 1910 Reidsville Review. It clearly shows where the town commissioners granted permission to the UDC to place the monument at the intersection of Scales and Morehead Streets. Isn't this the same as a deed? And by granting permission wasn't it the intent of all concerned for that monument to not only be placed there but to remain there. Not to be moved the first time it was destroyed!!!
Where is Reidsville?
South of you. Just north of Greensboro, NC.
This is so sad. The Civil War was a bloodbath for both sides. Young men on both sides made tremendous sacrifices for their homes and homeland. Let’s stop this racial peeing contest and honor vets — all vets— and the great republic we love.
Put the statue back where it belongs.
My family fought on both sides...put the statue back.
You think this is a travesty?
The Antietam National Battlefield won’t even allow any monuments to Robert E Lee and all the new roadside plaques detailing what battles/actions/events occurred at any given spot now all refer to the Confederates as “The Enemy”.
There are also signs up everywhere begging for donations to keep the park open.
As if I’d ever drop a dime in their bucket.
Legally? No.
And the grantee, the UDC, has decided to move the monument.
The one entity that would have standing has already acquiesced.
I would also point out that the Confederacy wasn't particularly relevant to the history of Reidsville.
C. S. A. Longstreet's Command Maj. Gen. James Longstreet, Commanding September 17, 1862 Early in the day several brigades of this command were sent to the vicinity of the Dunkard Church in support of Jackson's Command. At about 9:15 A.M., French's Division, and shortly thereafter Richardson's Division of Federal Infantry, assaulted the position occupied by a portion of this command at the Bloody Lane. The fighting at this point, which was of a desperate character, involving heavy losses on both sides, ceased early in the afternoon. Between 1 and 3 P.M., the position of D. R. Jones' Division, covering the Burnside Bridge, was assaulted and finally carried by the Ninth Corps. At about 3 P.M., Jones' Division, assisted by A. P. Hill's Division of Jackson's Command, succeeded in checking the advance of the enemy. No. 304
Reidsville is along US 29 between Danville and Greensboro, not far south of the VA/NC line.
}:-)4
Only if you believe in the reconstructed history being taught. Go back asleep.
Nobody’s “adopted” that plaque.
I wonder how much that costs?
>:-)
An uneducated comment.
Reidsville was farmland owned by an absentee landlord from Virginia during the war.
It was not a community, and it did not send soldiers to serve in any Confederate unit.
No actions were fought there and it was located in a region that was quite famously not particularly supportive of the Confederacy.
It wasn't until after the war that the rairoad was built through the area and Reidsville was created.
The monument dates to 1910 - a time when many new monuments were going up as the 50th anniversary of Fort Sumter came around, regardless of whether or not the location had any specific historical significance.
Look somebody paid money for that statue, it should stay.
By dumb luck, we had the bikes out in Rosehill Cemetery taking new photos for the website when I heard lots of musket fire.
Naturally, I took off in that direction because I’m stupid like that.
Down in the meadow where the Confederate Cemetery lies was a small group of re-enactors practicing.
I watched for a while, yelling support for *some* of them.
I went down to talk with them after they were done and they turned out to be a “rotating company”; sometimes Rebs, sometimes Yanks.
These people go around to schools and other public events “educating” people on the TWBTS.
I tossed out a few historical observations and got blank looks in return.
When the lady I was talking to started giving me the spiel about what they did, I asked her if it was right to teach politically correct[ed] falsehoods to kids.
She had no answer.
Rarely am I happy to be “this old” but at least my HS Civil War history teacher wasn’t a liar.
She gave me the group’s card so I could come see their full shows and I politely pocketed it.
I have no idea where that card is, now.
The stuff I was taught in the 70s and what’s being taught now aren’t even on the same plane of reality.
I agree.
The problem is, it was shattered into pieces by a drunken meathead who, I guarantee, cannot pay for its restoration.
Funds would need to be raised, or money would have to come out of the city budget, to restore it.
The natural fundraising vehicle - an appeal by the UDC - seems to have been ruled out by the UDC themselves.
And any city funds being allocated, especially in this economy, to restoring a Confederate monument in a town that is almost half African-American is a nonstarter politically.
Amen.
There is the politically correct version in the modern public schools, and there is also the mythical League of the South version.
And then, outside of those two caricatures, there is a more complicated actual history.
Check out the Lee = Bin Laden propaganda/”logic”:
http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/lee_statue_suit.htm
But still, he stands.
I’m happy with the -actual- “complicated” history, as little of *that* as you’ll ever find, these days.
It has all been, if you’ll pardon the bad pun, divided totally into black and white with no shades of gray.
Here’s my analogy to summarize the Civil War.
Two people wed, and form a union.
Years later the wife wants a divorce. The husband refuses to allow the divorce, but the wife declares herself divorced and moves out.
For the sake of their previously declared “union,” the husband arms himself and comes to take her back. He invades her new home and assaults her. She tries to defend herself but is much weaker, and after a long and mutually bloody struggle the husband subdues her and drags her back home, where he abuses her, and hobbles her so she cannot run away again.
For the rest of their lives, he never seems to understand why she no longer respects him or thinks of him as her husband, why she cannot forgive and forget.
I reckon the Daughters of the Confederacy could come up with the scratch, much as they did for Heyward Shepherd.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=10482
Last year I went there, on a promise, to lay flowers at the marker.
During the interim between its erection and now, it was first repeatedly vandalized and finally covered up with plywood and after spending an hour looking for it, it appears to just be “gone”.
Too many people complained that it showed Brown in an “unflattering light”.
Gunning down a free black man in cold blood *is* “unflattering” but apparently that’s beside the point.
Perhaps before the summer’s over, I’ll go looking for it again.
I made a promise, after all and if I have to lay flowers on a damned empty sidewalk, I will.
Dead on.
What part of “voluntary union” don’t people understand?
That is correct. Mostly through studied anachronism.
That was possibly the most apt, succinct and perfect analogy ever written.
“Mostly through studied anachronism.”
You misspelled “through pandering to political agendas”.
In other words we had to destroy the republic in order to save it.
King George would agree with you.
He said, with a sense of foreboding.
Not really very wide awake to much of anything.
Let me help you with your analogy. The marriage probably would have been better if she didn't smoke crack and abuse the children.
I'm all for state's rights. But of all the issues that war could have been fought over the South chose to plant their flag on the most reprehensible.
high five all round...to be fair..on south basher scale... wideawakes is low on the obnoxious scale compared to the most egregious
Yours is the best analogy I’ve ever read on the subject of “The War of Northern Aggression”.
The victor always gets to rewrite history to suit themselves, and that’s just what they’ve done. - I will say, though, that we have BIG TROUBLE now; partly as a result of the white man’s guilt trip over slavery and wanting to show that he wasn’t “racist” by helping elect a (sorta) black man. None of us has the energy to fight TWNA today; we got enough trouble.
The Antietam National Battlefield won’t even allow any monuments to Robert E Lee and all the new roadside plaques detailing what battles/actions/events occurred at any given spot now all refer to the Confederates as “The Enemy”.
There is a monument to General Lee at Antietam that was dedicated in 2005. See: http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/mnt-lee.htm
The number of monuments to Northern units/commanders at Antietam far exceeded those to Southern units/commanders. I've found this to be true at other battlefields, such as Shiloh in Tennessee. The South was economically devastated after the war, and may not have been able to afford monuments at the battlefields. There are, however, many monuments to Southern troops in Southern towns.
Here is a link to what I found was the most moving monument at Shiloh, dedicated in 2005: http://www.tennesseehistory.com/class/firstmonument.htm
Here is my photo of that monument:
![](http://i52.tinypic.com/fx9zk1.jpg")
You need not fear sunburn on your scalp.
My question is why do yankees on a conservative forum care whether the state that lost more men in that war wish their deaths commemorated by statue
It’s not really their business.
It would be akin to me going north and protesting their monuments to folks who contributed to the expansion of America and the genocide of Indians
I mind my business.
They always have to have a self congratulatory horn to toot ....always have ...one reason they often embrace social liberalism....
Major cultural descendency difference between me and them
Now they are streaming down here quick as their Prius will carry them...hope they leave that crap above the MDL...some do....especially those from Detroit
It would be like me heading up to W T Sherman’s grave and taking a leak on it... oh wait, never mind.
I’ve been to a lot of Eastern Theatre battlefield parks and Antietam is the most “realistic” one. It looks quite close to when the battle happened. Not much development up there(yet). Some improvements would be get rid of the sunken road tower, and restore the sunken road all the way to Burnsides bridge.
Wideawake is at least civil.
[no pun intended...maybe]
;]
Thanks for the link to the story behind the General Lee statue at Antietam. It was built on private land outside of the park, then the park bought the land.
We face a similar situation at Point Lookout Prison in Maryland where many Confederate soldiers where held and many died. The park there will not allow Confederate flags to be flown except on maybe two days a year. Folks then built a monument on private land next to the park.
We went to Point Lookout after visiting Antietam. My wife’s great grandfather died in the prison in 1864, but the official death rolls did not have a record of him. This was true of many Confederates who died there. My wife found a brick honoring her ancestor at the private monument. Some other descendants must have paid for the brick.
That is the one I’ve been referring to and it’s *outside* of the national park property.
A private citizen paid for both the land and the statue.
There are NO monuments to Lee on site and I think there’s like *4* Confederate stones in the whole, huge park.
And yes, it is agonizingly beautiful country.
I’m blessed to live so nearby.
I hope y’all climbed the tower while you were there....:)
You’re right...the TN monument is heart breaking.
One of the Gettysburg documentaries I watched recently they devoted a lot of time to the “lowly” standard bearers.
-Knowing- that they were painting a huge target on their backs, the nearest soldiers would rush to grab the flag before it hit the ground when the current bearer went down.
And now, scumbags joyously burn our flag in the streets.
There’s an object lesson there, somewhere.
Perfect example of re-writing history, er...making up krap to enhance YOUR storyline. If you don't like the history...MAKE UP YOUR OWN.
*chortle*
So many flawed analogies, so little time.
How long ago was your last visit?
I hardly recognize it between the 70s and now.
Back then, it was still sunken, dirty, dusty, rough and wonderfully atmospheric just as it was.
Now there’s a parking lot right on top of it, grass planted all over it and it just looks to “happy”, to me.
There’s just no “feel” of what happened there left, anymore.
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/antietam/tour8.htm
Back when I was young, you could actually drive *over* Burnside Bridge.
Now it’s blocked off with a parking lot on the hill overlooking it.
We were just there a couple weeks ago and I was shocked.
I *like* the tower.
[hubby’s not much for heights and I get to mess with his head once we’re up there]...;D
I like Gettysburg better, especially during the off season when I have Little Round Top and Devil’s Den pretty much all to myself.
Well, I just hope everyone is enjoying their new, massive, intrusive, jack-booted centralized and federalized government.
I know I am.
/s
“hope they leave that crap above the MDL”
Nope.
They didn’t.
We got carpet-bagged, big time.
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