Good point Charles.
One of the reasons that leftist fascist AntiFa protesters are showing up here is that it is easy to tear down symbols of the past — any past. People are reluctant to tie themselves to the old and whatever negative items can be linked to it.
Whatever these creeps are protesting — I will say a good word for it on the forum < /churchill >
The great accident of the end of the civil war was the Grant / Lee attitudes and legacy of Appomattox. Each side was treated with honor. Each side soldiers were considered honorable men fighting on an honorable cause. Four plus years of death had to be put behind us.
"...And on April 14, 1865, after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, President Abraham Lincoln said: “Now Let the Band Play Dixie; it belongs neither to the South, nor to the North but to us all.”—New York Times Sunday Magazine, August 11, 1907."
I always thought that occurred the day after the surrender, but I suppose the date means less than the comments and the gesture. The too-easily-forgotten gesture, it turns out.
For 150 years Northern and Southern Bands played "Dixie", but no longer - it was more easily killed by political correctness than carved stone statues would be - but the same forces are pushing for the latter to go away now, too.
I assume that the link between political correctness and AntiFa (and similar groups) is obvious to all here.