Though the city was in ashes, the retreating Confederates failed to burn the Arsenal, located at the strategic junction of the Kanawa Canal and the James River, because the ironwork's employees formed a militia to defend the facility.
What, regular folks used firearms (?) to defend private property and their own livelihood? Oh the horror.
An interesting look at history, and a bit of "the shoe on the other foot" for the anti Confederate flag crowd.
http://kfty.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=EFF9859D-F296-41CD-83E2-10B39502756B
Lincoln Statue Ignites Confederate Passion
By LANCE GAY - Scripps Howard News Service
RICHMOND, Va. -- It's been 138 years since Abraham Lincoln was last in Richmond, and Confederate groups want to keep it that way.
Opposition forces are manning the barricades to stop the National Park Service from installing a statue of Lincoln on the grounds of the arsenal at Tredegar Iron Works in the historic heart of this capital of the Confederacy.
Irate Confederate-heritage groups complain that the Park Service is trying to rewrite the history of the Civil War, unnecessarily reopening old wounds by putting a bronze statue of Lincoln in Richmond. In a letter to the editor, one writer told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that placing such a statue in the city is as provocative as installing a statue of Osama bin Laden in downtown New York.
They also point out that Lincoln has no connections to the five-acre Tredegar site, which produced more than half of the cannons used by Southern forces in the Civil War. Lincoln never visited the site when he brought his son Tad to see the evacuated and smoking ruins of Richmond on April 4 and 5, 1865. On April 9, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, and days later Lincoln was assassinated in Washington.
"There are no Lincoln statues in the South that I know of, and for good reason," said Brandon "Brag" Bowling, Virginia commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
He said the Confederate states never forgave Lincoln for the harshness of the Union Army's bloody march through the South, which left Virginia's Shenandoah Valley devastated and Atlanta and Columbia, S.C., in cinders. The statue, he said, "is a not-so-subtle reminder of who won the war, and who our heroes should be."
Representatives of the Park Service and the nonprofit group paying for the statue say they are surprised by the vehemence of the opposition, but aren't retreating.
"We're going ahead. There's no going back," said Robert Kline, president of the Richmond-based United States Historical Society, which is selling 750 replicas of the statue at $875 each to offset the $675,000 costs of putting it up. Kline's firm has been involved in selling historical replicas during the Bicentennial and of the Navy Memorial in Washington.
Kline, who was born in Illinois but has lived in Virginia for the last 50 years, said he expected some opposition, but not to the extent he's encountered in e-mail messages he's received. Opponents have prompted Virginia's attorney general to look at his group's nonprofit status, and Web sites have attacked him and his businesses.
"It's been so vicious and untrue," he said. "We had no thoughts in mind of being insulting to anyone. We were trying to do something good."
David Ruth, assistant superintendent of the Richmond battlefield parks, said the Park Service didn't intend the statue to be provocative. The Tredegar site was chosen because it's the largest Park Service site in downtown Richmond. Ruth said the agency has received 1,500 letters, most in opposition to the statue.
"This was not done intentionally to incite any group," said Ruth, who has lived in Richmond for 12 years. "Nothing in America elicits as much interest as the Civil War, and feelings run very deeply and emotionally," he said.
Bowling, whose great-grandfather was a Spotsylvania County, Va., farmer who fought with the South, says that the Park Service is trying to rewrite history by demonizing the Confederacy and deifying Lincoln. He said this glosses over Southern suffering at the hands of Lincoln.
Ruth said the Park Service has changed its presentations to present a "more holistic story" of what happened, but defended that as being a more meaningful history.
Meanwhile, the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization is putting on a "Lincoln Reconsidered" conference to be held at the John Marshall Hotel in Richmond in March. And the Virginia Historical Association is working with the Park Service to hold its own historical conference on Lincoln's visit to Richmond on the evening of the statue's April 5 dedication.
Lincoln brought his son Tad to see Richmond April 4, 1865 - the boy's 12th birthday - and freed slaves turned out to thank the president. "Such wild indescribable joy I have never witnessed," wrote one eyewitness.
Though the city was in ashes, the retreating Confederates failed to burn the Arsenal, located at the strategic junction of the Kanawa Canal and the James River, because the ironwork's employees formed a militia to defend the facility. Tredegar was put back to work making rails after the war, and manufactured shells in both world wars before closing in 1957.
Ron Holland, who edits the Web site Dixie Daily News from Asheville, N.C., said he would not object to a statue of Union and Confederate soldiers shaking hands for the site, but putting Lincoln in Richmond "is throwing oil on the fire."
Holland's Web site has pages of letters protesting the statue. He said that 70 percent of respondents in polls in Richmond and Newport News, Va., objected to the statue. He said protests will continue even if the statue is erected.
"We're going to continue to fight it - let them put Lincoln in Gettysburg, it's appropriate there." But he admitted the statue is likely to be installed. "After all, the North won the Civil War, and they can write the history the way they want it."
What, regular folks used firearms (?) to defend private property and their own livelihood? Oh the horror.
An interesting look at history, and a bit of "the shoe on the other foot" for the anti Confederate flag crowd.
http://kfty.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=EFF9859D-F296-41CD-83E2-10B39502756B
Lincoln Statue Ignites Confederate Passion
By LANCE GAY - Scripps Howard News Service
RICHMOND, Va. -- It's been 138 years since Abraham Lincoln was last in Richmond, and Confederate groups want to keep it that way.
Opposition forces are manning the barricades to stop the National Park Service from installing a statue of Lincoln on the grounds of the arsenal at Tredegar Iron Works in the historic heart of this capital of the Confederacy.
Irate Confederate-heritage groups complain that the Park Service is trying to rewrite the history of the Civil War, unnecessarily reopening old wounds by putting a bronze statue of Lincoln in Richmond. In a letter to the editor, one writer told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that placing such a statue in the city is as provocative as installing a statue of Osama bin Laden in downtown New York.
They also point out that Lincoln has no connections to the five-acre Tredegar site, which produced more than half of the cannons used by Southern forces in the Civil War. Lincoln never visited the site when he brought his son Tad to see the evacuated and smoking ruins of Richmond on April 4 and 5, 1865. On April 9, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, and days later Lincoln was assassinated in Washington.
"There are no Lincoln statues in the South that I know of, and for good reason," said Brandon "Brag" Bowling, Virginia commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
He said the Confederate states never forgave Lincoln for the harshness of the Union Army's bloody march through the South, which left Virginia's Shenandoah Valley devastated and Atlanta and Columbia, S.C., in cinders. The statue, he said, "is a not-so-subtle reminder of who won the war, and who our heroes should be."
Representatives of the Park Service and the nonprofit group paying for the statue say they are surprised by the vehemence of the opposition, but aren't retreating.
"We're going ahead. There's no going back," said Robert Kline, president of the Richmond-based United States Historical Society, which is selling 750 replicas of the statue at $875 each to offset the $675,000 costs of putting it up. Kline's firm has been involved in selling historical replicas during the Bicentennial and of the Navy Memorial in Washington.
Kline, who was born in Illinois but has lived in Virginia for the last 50 years, said he expected some opposition, but not to the extent he's encountered in e-mail messages he's received. Opponents have prompted Virginia's attorney general to look at his group's nonprofit status, and Web sites have attacked him and his businesses.
"It's been so vicious and untrue," he said. "We had no thoughts in mind of being insulting to anyone. We were trying to do something good."
David Ruth, assistant superintendent of the Richmond battlefield parks, said the Park Service didn't intend the statue to be provocative. The Tredegar site was chosen because it's the largest Park Service site in downtown Richmond. Ruth said the agency has received 1,500 letters, most in opposition to the statue.
"This was not done intentionally to incite any group," said Ruth, who has lived in Richmond for 12 years. "Nothing in America elicits as much interest as the Civil War, and feelings run very deeply and emotionally," he said.
Bowling, whose great-grandfather was a Spotsylvania County, Va., farmer who fought with the South, says that the Park Service is trying to rewrite history by demonizing the Confederacy and deifying Lincoln. He said this glosses over Southern suffering at the hands of Lincoln.
Ruth said the Park Service has changed its presentations to present a "more holistic story" of what happened, but defended that as being a more meaningful history.
Meanwhile, the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization is putting on a "Lincoln Reconsidered" conference to be held at the John Marshall Hotel in Richmond in March. And the Virginia Historical Association is working with the Park Service to hold its own historical conference on Lincoln's visit to Richmond on the evening of the statue's April 5 dedication.
Lincoln brought his son Tad to see Richmond April 4, 1865 - the boy's 12th birthday - and freed slaves turned out to thank the president. "Such wild indescribable joy I have never witnessed," wrote one eyewitness.
Though the city was in ashes, the retreating Confederates failed to burn the Arsenal, located at the strategic junction of the Kanawa Canal and the James River, because the ironwork's employees formed a militia to defend the facility. Tredegar was put back to work making rails after the war, and manufactured shells in both world wars before closing in 1957.
Ron Holland, who edits the Web site Dixie Daily News from Asheville, N.C., said he would not object to a statue of Union and Confederate soldiers shaking hands for the site, but putting Lincoln in Richmond "is throwing oil on the fire."
Holland's Web site has pages of letters protesting the statue. He said that 70 percent of respondents in polls in Richmond and Newport News, Va., objected to the statue. He said protests will continue even if the statue is erected.
"We're going to continue to fight it - let them put Lincoln in Gettysburg, it's appropriate there." But he admitted the statue is likely to be installed. "After all, the North won the Civil War, and they can write the history the way they want it."
Get over it. You lost. Move on and do something constructive.
