Monday, September 18, 2017

Confederate War Horse Memorials Dishonored

In the dead of an August night this past summer, Baltimore officials unceremoniously removed from Wyman Park, near Johns Hopkins University, a magnificent equestrian statue of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, and Robert E. Lee. The monument was a gift from a local citizen and its 1948 installation had been delayed for twenty years due to the Great Depression and World War II. Maryland was a border state during the Civil War; Maryland was a slave state that did not secede from the Union. 


However ... there is an untold story here. That story is when the statue was ripped from its mountings, two magnificent war horses, Traveller and Little Sorrel, were also dumped as dishonored rubbish. Equestrian statues standing in American parks were meant to honor all war horses that served faithfully--and suffered mightily--during the American Civil War. Indeed, civilized people should remember these noble animals, especially as ignorant voices of today clamor to destroy them because they carry a warrior rider of the losing side. Once destroyed, these war horse monuments will be forever banished from our view, as never again will Americans ever erect equestrian statues.