Jenny Smith
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Many are protesting the statues of Confederate generals. These generals took up arms against our country. They are not heroes. We should not be honoring these rebels or the flag that represented their cause. Many of these statues were erected in Southern states in the early 1900s by white supremacist groups not by local governments, Lions Club or Rotary.
On the other hand, I find it far-fetched to question statues of Thomas Jefferson or the Civil War memorial stone at the intersection of Moreau Drive and Fairmount Boulevard in Jefferson City. Jefferson was a Founding Father and he did not take up arms against his country. Yes, he had slaves. Unfortunately, it was legal in those days and common among wealthy land owners. But he wasn't a traitor.
The memorial on Moreau Drive is a historical commemoration of "The Battle that Never Was," a term coined by David Lineberry. In the fall of 1864, Confederate Gen. Sterling Price was rampaging his way north from Arkansas through Missouri. When he reached the southeast edge of Jefferson City with intent to liberate the city from Union control, he was dissuaded from attacking after he estimated the Union troop strength in the city was too great. According to Lineberry, the Confederate general was the victim of a clever deception by the Union troops under the command of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon. Civilians marched with Union troops, strategically placed cannons were fired, barricades were erected all to bolster the appearance of numbers and strength. Price proceeded west, bypassing the city, eventually suffering a decisive defeat in the bloody battle of Westport.
That marker does not honor a Confederate general but honors the memory of a clever Union maneuver that thwarted his plans. To be accurate the marker is several blocks north on Moreau Drive of where Price likely turned west. As an east-ender, I pass by that marker often and gaze around trying to imagine those events. There is still evidence of those Union entrenchments nearby at McClung park. This is our history.
We must be sensitive to and focused on those symbols of racial injustices that exist but we must never forget the history that underlies this struggle - warts and all.