Confederate Soldier Statue Analysis

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The Confederate Soldier statue was built on the grounds of the Loudoun County Courthouse, which was built in Leesburg, VA in 1758. It has been a part of Loudoun history since then; serving as a jail, courthouse, legislature, and executive office. The statue, erected in 1908, depicts a confederate soldier aiming a rifle. Its purpose was to “serve as a memorial to the many Rebel soldiers who died fighting for the cause in which they believed” (as stated by Loudoun.gov). In fact, the courthouse, even served as the site of a small skirmish between north and south soldiers.
This statue needs to be preserved because it is an important part of Virginia’s history as part of the Confederacy. Although the confederacy did support slavery and the oppression
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The only reason he had agreed to become general of the confederation was due to the fact that Virginia had voted him to secede from the nation. He may have joined to remain loyal to his state, but he didn’t exactly agree with the idea of slavery. So by putting up a Robert E. Lee statue up, it is like getting the best of both worlds; able to see the association with the confederation yet the person was a person who had not supported slavery. If our solution is used to change the memorial, it will eliminate controversy since it will be able to satisfy both …show more content…
Although Confederates were supportive of slavery and doing wrong towards African Americans, their courage and loyalty shall still remain eminent in this nation. The reason we have chosen to change the statue to Robert E. Lee is because he symbolizes the honor of the fallen Confederate soldiers, yet he also was against slavery. Many people may disagree and presume that he is still a terrible person for “defending” slavery, but it is part of this nation’s history, so if you were to extract the memorial, it is like altering history and pretending the Civil War had not transpired.
The “new” memorial depicting Robert E Lee represents essentially the same thing the original statute did - a confederate soldier. While we would be taking off the confederate flag, it would have little to no effect because it is commonly known that Lee was a soldier for the confederacy. Replacing the soldier with Robert E Lee would hold nearly the same regards as the previous statute, only our new memorial would not be found nearly as offensive as the previous. This would also hold even more significance considering Lee’s loyalty to

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