Member Review Recalling Deeds Immortal: Florida Monuments to the Civil War by William Lees and Frederick Gaske

Isn't it curious how Yankees are so interested in Southerners, how we think and act. It's a constant here; delving into the southern mind and determining how we function. We must be fascinating people though it sometimes feels like what a lab rat must go through.
I read a book from the Florida University Press and offered a review. Deal with it.
 
Inclusion of a dedication to the Union participants on the proposed monument in the 1899 legislation was controversial. Reflecting social attitudes present in the nation at the time, the UDC adopted a resolution calling for the repeal of the bill, as “they did not care to divide honors intended for the Confederate dead with negro dead of the Union army.” As one UDC representative stated, “If the union dead had been white men it is possible that we would have remembered them in the bill, but as they were negroes, and we ignored them in the bill, we consider the change made by the legislature as worthy of our highest indignation.”

I came across this thread today because I'm reading a book that mentions the Olustee monument in regards to the origin of Florida state parks.

The author of said book, who I will note consistently refers to the conflict as "the War Between The States", mentions in a footnote the modified legislation and comments "exactly what brought about this deliberate slight of the Union campaigners is unknown." That seemed unlikely.

Good to know the truth.

Marker on Stonewall Jackson Highway, northern Florida

The Stonewall Jackson Highway should have been US 17 from Fort Meade to Kissimmee as it would have loosely reflected an area where Jackson led a military reconnaissance in 1851.

I wonder if the choice of US 19 being the highway named in honor of a Confederate was a deliberate choice by UDC? It wasn't just a major pre-interstate highway, but also at the time it represented a major route of the new "Yankee Invasion." New arrivals to 20th century Tampa Bay area were predominately transplants from the Midwest. Before I-75, the best route from Atlanta to St. Pete was US 19. (It's a fairly good drive in the 21st century, other than the congested metro areas at either end. I recommend it if you're looking for an interstate highway alternative.)
 
would be interesting to study if there is any correlation between building Confederate monuments and related ceremonies and the many lynchings and extensive racial violence in late 19th and 20th century Florida.
I believed that has been dismissed as modern day revisionist history

If you mean the idea that Confederate monuments dedications were celebrated with lynchings, no I don't think that happened.

If you mean does the time period in which most monuments were constructed correlate with the time period of the majority of lynchings then yes both were predominantly during Jim Crow.

Florida is a curious state on the subject of Confederate memorial construction. For example, county courthouses were a common location for Confederate veteran monuments but Florida had quite a bit of change in its counties - their borders, the location of their seats, and how many there are. 22 of 67 Florida counties are 20th century creations. From my observation it seems, other thanparts northern Florida, most Civil War veterans buried in the state were living somewhere else when they served - another part of the state if not another state entirely. It was a much more fluid situation than probably any other ex-Condederate state. And that's before you account for all the l transplants from Northern states. A couple towns in Florida were even started as Union veteran communities.

So it makes me curious to read the book.
 
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Good to know the truth.

Question: Who, exactly is the arbiter of, "truth?"

If the answer is 21st century Northern college professors, re-fighting the Civil War from the Faculty Lounge, I have a problem. Few of them have any idea what they're talking about and most of them live in upper middle class, segregated white suburbs.

Modern, "college professor" is not synonymous with, "truth."
 
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