Congress said it would provide gravestones for Confederate veterans and pay pensions to their widows (in 1958, after virtually all Confederate veterans were dead), but it didn’t say that they were to be considered US veterans or soldiers.
He might be right about that. My view is that, while some might find the “Stars and Bars” offensive, everyone can find something to get offended about if they look hard enough. It is what it is, part of our history. In that context, I believe cemetaries for example, where either Union and Confederate soldiers are buried, should be exempt, or it should be understood. It seems to me we as a society should look to the future, and not the past, while at the same time we honor the soldiers that fought bravely on both sides in that war. They deserve that much.
SORRY but you are 100% WRONG. = A federal law was overwhelmingly passed by Congress in 1914 & signed by POTUS Woodrow Wilson.
(I used to have a copy of the law.)
The law specifically stated that ALL Confederate veterans were also US VETERANS & entitled to all of the same benefits as any other veteran.
JACKSON CIRCLE (named after GEN Stonewall Jackson) at Arlington National Cemetery has had US-provided CSA gravestones since the 19th Century.
(Union gravestones are rounded on top & CSA gravestones are pointed on top.)
Notes:
1. The sisters of MAJ Audie Murphy, of WWII fame, requested a “pointed top” tombstone to mark his grave at ANC. - The request was refused as those stones are reserved for CSA veterans.
and
2. The last CSA veteran (unless another unburied corpse has been discovered since) was interred in Section 161 in 2009.
Yours, TMN78247