Forgotten Monuments

I've seen the destruction of history put several ways: "Correcting history," solving our history "problem," and "Reconciling our Past." These are merely catch phrases much like a child comes up with a positive way to spin their explanation of why they did something they knew they shouldn't have. As an historian, I've tried to figure out what the best analogy is for the destruction happening to monuments in the South right now and it brings me to an era I have been studying lately. But before I get to that, let us investigate and cross off some analogies that are floating around.

(Gone: Monument to French soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War.)

Many try to say removing Confederate monuments is like the destruction of Soviet statues after the fall of Communism. This excuse can be knocked down fairly quickly. First of all, when asking who funded the Soviet statues, the answer is the Soviet government. When asking who wanted them? The answer is again the Soviet government. Those monuments were forced upon the people. Now when we look at Confederate statues and ask the same questions, the answer to the first question, who funded them? The answer is the people. Widows, orphans, veterans, and even veterans from the opposing side, scraped pennies, sometimes over the course of 20 or more years, to erect a monument. The people of the South, (and even some veterans of the North--Grant gave money toward Southern monuments on several occasions), wanted them. And one only has to look at photographs of dedication ceremonies to see that in many cases it was ALL the local people as individuals of different races are pictured. 

At the time, and to this day, the Federal government certainly would not and will not put any money toward Confederate monuments, so in fact, and in an act completely OPPOSITE to the Soviet monuments, Confederate monuments were raised in spite of the government. It is then further interesting to note that while the Soviet monuments were torn down by the people, in broad daylight, the Confederate monuments are being torn down in the middle of the night by government entities who not once have allowed a public vote on the matter. 

Another analogy on the other side of the political spectrum, has been to compare the removal of monuments to the acts of removal and destruction by ISIS. Again, let us look at the same questions: Who wanted the monuments ISIS is removing? The answer is a little more varied as ISIS is destroying extremely old monuments, but in many instances, we can answer for religious purposes. Who funded them? Again, varied, but usually it is religious in nature. As ISIS is a group of radical Muslims who believe anyone who doesn't believe as they do should be killed, it is not surprising they have no tolerance for imagery made by other faiths. Also, from my instruction in art history, part of the teaching of Islam is that iconography is a sin. Creating images of living things--especially people--is forbidden as that is treading into Allah's line of work. Are Confederate monuments being removed by religious zealots? The answer is "No." So that argument doesn't stick either.

So what should we compare the removal of these "silent guardians of past" to? I am going to say it is like the removal of the monuments to the Franco-Prussian War.

I have not been to Paris, though I dearly want to visit, but I know enough to say that it is a city full of monuments--and it use to be covered in a lot more prior to the German invasion in 1940. Between 1941-42 an astounding 17 THOUSAND monuments were destroyed by the Nazi invaders. Most who have heard of this purge are familiar with the destruction of any monuments to freedom and republicanism were destroyed. On closer inspection, I discovered that prime monuments in the cross hairs of this purge of history were those erected to the Franco-Prussian War. Shockingly, even some to German soldiers erected in the Alsace-Lorraine region on battlefields were destroyed as well! Germany wanted to completely forget, or entirely rewrite the history that happened from 1870-71.

Why would they do this? was my next question. After all, the Germans won that war. Did they have the idea that because the French lost there "shouldn't be monuments to losers?" Were the Germans all in the wrong during that war? Should they feel a deep guilt? Maybe not. Bismarck did craft it, goading Napoleon III to declare war and King Wilhelm's army was accused of war crimes for their treatment of French civilians. Were the French all good? No. They allowed themselves to be goaded into declaring war and were foolish in doing so when they were grossly unprepared for it. It was bad all the way around, but in the end, soldiers fought bravely on both sides and need to be remembered. What do I think then was the motive for the wanton destruction of war memorials? I think, the war was decidedly more embarrassing for the Germans. Germany was united and declared a nation due to an act that could be seen as conniving and full of gross errors and cruelty. As a result, I firmly believe that Hitler wanted to erase the memory of that war so he could write a more "glorious" story of origin for the nation of Germany.

Due to this thinking, no monuments to this conflict were safe from a simple monument to GERMAN soldiers who fought at the battle at Woerth:

To the "Tireurs" or "French Resistance" irregular troops:

Even a monument to the "aeronauts" and messenger pigeons who connected Paris to the outside world during the 5 month long siege was melted down:

To combat unrest and public outcry, the Germans argued that they were merely removing more modern metal monuments to be used in the war effort. But stone monuments were destroyed as well, including this one to the National Guard and innocents killed during the Paris siege:

And while it was known Hitler was an artist, monuments to painters who had recorded the war with their pencils and brushes were also destroyed, such as this one to Alphonse de Neuville, (who painted the work I featured in an earlier blog post, Les Dernieres Cartouches, which first inspired me to study the Franco-Prussian War and put my protagonist in it):

To correlate the destruction of Franco-Prussian War monuments and the destruction that has begun on our monuments to the War Between the States, I believe few who know history and are up to date with modern politics would say that the government we have in Washington D.C. today is the same government our founding fathers intended us to have. What we have today truly sprang from the crucible of war in 1861-65 as well as Reconstruction, (which hardly anyone teaches on or writes about, which I can attest to as I have been trying to research Texas during Reconstruction for the last novel in the Grayback series, and it has been far from easy). 

That being said, it was the darkest time in our history. There was invasion, murder, destruction, slavery, and lies that followed after. Neither side can be said to be innocent. (While it is true BOTH sides legally had slavery, after the Corwin Amendment, [the first draft of the 13th Amendment, which made slavery legal FOREVER, drafted by northern senators to try and avert war--the South said no, that's not why we are seceding], was thrown away, only one side defended the institution. The other was greedy and thought it okay to invade, plunder, murder, rape and destroy in the name of forcing the Federal will over the ideals of local self-government.) This story puts a bad taste in our mouth and we are seeing a dangerous trend of rewriting history all in the name of "diversity and inclusion." If it was truly about diversity and we wanted true inclusion, then we would not be destroying what has already been erected and written, but merely adding to the narrative. Such is not the case, and our actions are placing us more in line with the idea of destruction to tell a completely different story. A story that deals with our modern nation's founding that fits not the truth, but a political agenda. A more "glorious" story of origin for the modern nation of the United States.

If you are curious to know more about the Franco-Prussian War, check out my other blog post: Researching a Nearly Forgotten War. 

Text (c) S.H. Ford, 2017