Letter: Do not blame the boy soldiers for the South

TO THE EDITOR:

Every year, a few weeks after the fall semester begins, an incoming freshman discovers Silent Sam and is outraged.

Yes, Silent Sam is a monument dedicated to the 287 students who lost their lives in the Civil War and to all those students who fought for the Confederate Army.

Yes, the Confederate Army — the bad guys, the ones who fought for slavery. The ones who, fortunately, lost.

It is true that one could claim that this monument glorifies the atrocities of the Old South, and believe me, many have tried.

Or, it could simply be the acknowledgement of the fact that this University is located in the South — the land of tobacco and cotton — and sadly, slaves.

The students who attended our University during those days of tragedy and war were probably primarily from the South.

It follows that naturally they would have joined the Southern Army, although for the record some did join the Union Army.

They were wrong. The South was wrong. Slavery was horribly, shamefully, unimaginably wrong.

But, those wayward boys that fought were just that — boys.

Young, probably naive, thinking they were fighting for the glory of their families and friends. They were the sons of mothers and fathers who grieved their deaths.

They were the brothers of siblings who missed them when they were gone. They may have been the young husbands or fathers of equally young wives and newborn babies.

They lived. And they died. And in the embodiment of Silent Sam, their lives and deaths are remembered.

You can visit him and ponder what those days must have been like — a country split apart, families split apart and young men struggling to be patriotic in the truest sense they knew, even when now we can recognize that their motivations and choices were misguided and immoral.

Recognizing the truth of our history does not mean condoning or approving of that history. Let Silent Sam and the souls he represents rest in peace.

Johelen Courliss

Class of ’07