This is a perfect example of how the Civil War has been a political football for 150 years. Back in 1959, when this plaque was put up, Texas was run by Dixiecrats with a strong political interest in spinning the Civil War as preserving states rights in the face of an oppressive Union / Republican government. Civil War Confederate nostalgia was one way that the Dems kept their white voting base in line. Now we’ve come 180 degrees and any Civil War memorial that isn’t a damnation of slavery is being erased from history. Personally, I think plaques like this should come down — they were Democrat political statements, not honoring Civil War veterans. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Plaques and statutes honoring Confederate soldiers and generals should remain.
Thanks, my views exactly.
Old Democrats loved the Lost Cause myth because it tied them to Southern whites, no matter if true or not, still useful.
Republicans, not so much.