Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that a Civil War monument removed under the Biden administration from Arlington National Cemetery will be restored to its original location. 
The monument, known as the Reconciliation Monument or the Confederate Memorial, was removed by the Pentagon in December 2023 under President Joe Biden because of its links to the Confederacy. First erected in 1914, the monument sat in a section of the cemetery where around 400 Confederate soldiers were buried. 
“I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as ‘The Reconciliation Monument’ — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site,” Hegseth announced on X. “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
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I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site.
It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike…
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1952851480643359156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The news was first reported by The Blaze. 
In 1906, Secretary of War and future president William Howard Taft <a href="https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Monuments-and-Memorials/Confederate-Memorial">approved</a> plans to construct a memorial near the Confederate graves. The monument was created by prominent Jewish American sculptor Moses Ezekiel, who fought for Virginia during the Civil War. 
Featured on the monument are 14 shields referencing the 11 official Confederate states, and the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. There are also figures of southern soldiers and civilians alongside mythical gods. 
The monument references Isaiah 2:4, a passage in the Bible that talks about turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, a powerful message for a nation recovering from the trauma of war and the deaths of 600,000 Americans. Many presidents, including Barack Obama, have sent flowers to the monument on Memorial Day.
After the removal by the Biden administration, the monument was moved to a Defense Department storage facility in Virginia. 
“At the request of Moses Ezekiel’s family and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Moses Ezekiel&#8217;s sculpture will be returned to Arlington National Cemetery,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/exclusive-moses-ezekiels-historic-sculpture-finally-set-for-installation-in-arlington-cemetery-by-the-southern-graves-it-once-marked">told</a> the Blaze’s Beltway Brief, “where he is buried and where his legacy as a renowned American artist and decorated veteran can be honored.”
Youngkin added that the monument would be refurbished and would be back on display in Arlington by 2027.
The announcement from Hegseth came after the National Park Service <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nama/learn/news/pike.htm">said</a> Monday that it would be returning the statue of former Confederate General Albert Pike to Washington, D.C. The statue was torn down during a riot in June 2020 and never went back on display.

US-CEMETERY-CONFEDERATE-MEMORIAL

Hegseth Returning Civil War Memorial Removed By Biden To Arlington National Cemetery

American Civil War

American History

Confederacy

Department of Defense

Glenn Youngkin

Pete Hegseth

Virginia

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum on Monday declaring that Fort Liberty — which was formerly known as Fort Bragg — would once again be named Fort Bragg, but “with a twist.”
WATCH:
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Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson detailed the announcement in a post on X, noting that the Army installation would be renamed in honor of PFC Roland Bragg, who earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge.
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BREAKING: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed a new memorandum renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Roland L. Bragg. 
Hegseth signed the memo shortly before landing in Stuttgart, Germany aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17. 
The name Fort Bragg is coming back, but…
&mdash; Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/LucasFoxNews/status/1889114865437958222?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed a new memorandum renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Roland L. Bragg,” Tomlinson reported, noting that Hegseth had signed the memorandum just prior to landing in Stuttgart, Germany.
“The name Fort Bragg is coming back, but with a twist,” Tomlinson added. “It will not be named after the former Confederate general. Instead, the new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.”
Hegseth responded to Tomlinson&#8217;s post with just four words: “Fort Bragg is back.”
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Fort Bragg is back. <a href="https://t.co/dq0mCzw2B1">https://t.co/dq0mCzw2B1</a>
&mdash; Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1889118238019293586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;There it is,&#8221; Hegseth said as he put pen to paper. &#8220;Pursuant to the authority of the Secretary of Defense, Title 10 United States Code Section 113, I direct the Army to change the name of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. That&#8217;s right, Bragg is back!&#8221;
The North Carolina-based Army installation has been named Fort Liberty since June of 2023, over complaints that it honored Confederate General Braxton Bragg — but Hegseth signaled his first day on the job that he might be heading down the road to changing some names: before walking into the Pentagon, he referred to both Fort Liberty and Fort Moore by their previous names — Fort Bragg and Fort Benning.

Pete Hegseth Sworn In As Defense Secretary

‘Fort Bragg Is Back’: Pete Hegseth Renames Fort Liberty To Fort Bragg — But There’s A Catch

‘Fort Bragg Is Back’: Pete Hegseth Renames Fort Liberty To Fort Bragg — But There's A Catch

Donald Trump

Military

Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cori-bush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cori Bush</a> (D-MO) got a virtual earful in response to her latest demand for &#8220;reparations,&#8221; in which she claimed that black Americans were &#8220;OWED&#8221; restitution for the damages wrought by slavery, Jim Crow laws, and other policies.
Bush took to X to outline her grievances and announce that she had put forth a resolution designed to address them.
&#8220;Our country owes – OWES – a debt to the descendants of enslaved Black people, not just for slavery, but for what followed, like Black Codes, red lining, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration,&#8221; she posted. &#8220;That’s why I introduced my Reparations NOW resolution. This country has an obligation.&#8221;
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Our country owes–OWES–a debt to the descendants of enslaved Black people, not just for slavery, but for what followed, like Black Codes, red lining, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration.
That’s why I introduced my Reparations NOW resolution. This country has an obligation.
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1744475131626271005?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Critics questioned Bush&#8217;s knowledge and understanding of history, noting that every one of the policies she had taken issue with had been authored, supported, and even championed by her own party: Democrats.
&#8220;All Democrat policies,&#8221; radio host Dana Loesch pointed out, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;m totally for your party making amends for what it did — including to Indigenous Americans when they sent them on the Democrat Genocide Trail.&#8221;
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All Democrat policies. I&#39;m totally for your party making amends for what it did &#8212; including to Indigenous Americans when they sent them on the Democrat Genocide Trail. <a href="https://t.co/1YFc0xz6wC">https://t.co/1YFc0xz6wC</a>
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1744766343323238643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Maybe *your* party does, but I&#8217;m a Republican,&#8221; Chad Felix Greene added.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
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Maybe *your* party does, but I&#39;m a Republican. <a href="https://t.co/oKvCdSutm6">https://t.co/oKvCdSutm6</a>
&mdash; Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadfelixg/status/1744480260677099847?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Given her list of grievances, sounds like Cori Bush is calling for the Democrat party to be sued,&#8221; another posted.
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Given her list of grievances, sounds like Cori Bush is calling for the Democrat party to be sued. <a href="https://t.co/JgeK1ACsCr">https://t.co/JgeK1ACsCr</a>
&mdash; Mary Beth | ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ 🦅🇺🇸 (@IfUCanKeepIt) <a href="https://twitter.com/IfUCanKeepIt/status/1744831957786096022?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Mass incarceration you say @CoriBush? Your Democrat boys BillClinton and @POTUS did that. You think you get to vote for the problem AND demand compensation for it?&#8221; @thevivafrei wanted to know.
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Mass incarceration you say <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoriBush</a>?
Your Democrat boys BillClinton and <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> did that. 
You think you get to vote for the problem AND demand compensation for it? <a href="https://t.co/MbFHsKNPhK">https://t.co/MbFHsKNPhK</a>
&mdash; Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) <a href="https://twitter.com/thevivafrei/status/1744828014569865474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Attorney Marina Medvin argued that families whose loved ones died fighting to end slavery during the American Civil War ought to be eligible for reparations as well, posting, &#8220;360,000 Union soldiers died in the Civil War. They paid with their lives to end slavery. If reparations were due it would be directly to the slaves AND to the families of Union soldiers killed— out of the pockets of Confederate slave owners, not from US citizens 160 years later. Many of those asked to pay today have already paid for slavery with the lives of their ancestors.&#8221;
&#8220;This discussion is both absurd and insulting to US history,&#8221; Medvin continued. &#8220;Note to Conservatives— Do not allow the talk of reparations to go on without demanding reparations for families of Union soldiers. The left wants to play. Go play.&#8221;
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360,000 Union soldiers died in the Civil War. They paid with their lives to end slavery. If reparations were due it would be directly to the slaves AND to the families of Union soldiers killed— out of the pockets of Confederate slave owners, not from US citizens 160 years later.… <a href="https://t.co/2LbcZWKtA7">https://t.co/2LbcZWKtA7</a>
&mdash; Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1744780448515977339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Rep. Cori Bush

Cori Bush Demands Reparations, Gets A Virtual Earful Instead

Congress

Cori Bush

Dana Loesch

Politics

Racism

Reparations

Slavery

Over the years, the United States has produced many remarkable generals and admirals, but only a few have stood out as world-class strategists and leaders of troops. As Veterans Day approaches on November 11, let’s remember and celebrate them. Here is my list of America’s finest 11 commanders.
This series is about military prowess and those who excelled on the battlefield. The inclusion of any Confederates in this list should not be misconstrued as in any way supporting the cause of the self-described Slave-Holding Confederacy itself for which such men fought. The preservation of the monstrous injustice of slavery in North America and the stated goal of the seceding states had to be destroyed. But this does not diminish the achievements of certain Southern generals on the field of battle, which is solely what this series seeks to examine.
<h2>Robert E. Lee, 1807 &#8211; 1870 (Civil War)</h2>
An officer who served with Lee once said of him: “His name might be audacity. He will take more desperate chances and take them quicker than any other general in this country, North or South.” This was an apt description of the man the Northerners came to know as “The Gray Fox.” Yes, Lee was fighting against the U.S. and not for it. However, he was still very much the product of the American military tradition, and it would be remiss to not include him for brilliance as a battlefield commander, even if his choice of political causes was disastrous. The fact is, Lee, as the historian Shelby Foote noted: “Is a great general on both the offense and the defense.” And few commanders have managed to fight so long and effectively while being so out-manned, out-gunned, out-fed, and out-supplied as Lee.
<div id="attachment_648329" style="width: 364px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-648329" class="size-large wp-image-648329" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-114951008-354x576.jpg" alt="American Confederate Army general Robert E Lee (1807 - 1870), Richmond, Virginia, 16th April 1865. (Photo by Mathew Brady/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)" width="354" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-114951008-354x576.jpg 354w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-114951008-185x300.jpg 185w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-114951008.jpg 630w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px" />American Confederate Army general Robert E Lee (1807 &#8211; 1870), Richmond, Virginia, 16th April 1865. (Photo by Mathew Brady/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)</div>
At the outset of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was America’s most prominent soldier. Son of the Revolutionary War hero “Light Horse Harry” Lee, he was from one of the first families of Virginia. Having turned down Lincoln’s offer to command the Union Army, Lee would end up taking over the premiere Confederate Army being pressed back against the capital of Richmond in June 1862 after Gen. Joe Johnston was wounded. Within two months Lee counterattacked Union general George McClellan’s advancing Yankees at the brutal Battle of the Seven Days on the outskirts of the city and sent him sailing back to Washington D.C., saving the rebel capital.
Then, while one Union army was effectively off the chessboard in transit, Lee pivoted north to face another threat. In a masterful campaign, he marched his army up northern Virginia to intercept, out-maneuver, and defeat a second Union army under Gen. John Pope at 2nd Bull Run (August 1862). In the three months he’d been in command, Lee had rescued the Southern capital, defeated two different armies while inflicting some 30,000 Union casualties, and cleared the entire state of Virginia of enemy troops. It was a remarkable turn of fortune that put the North on notice that a clever and dangerous foe was now in command of the South’s principal army.
<div id="attachment_648331" style="width: 892px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-648331" class="size-large wp-image-648331" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99645445-882x576.jpg" alt="An illustration of Thomas Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Bull Run, during the US civil war, circa 1863. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)" width="882" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99645445-882x576.jpg 882w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99645445-300x196.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99645445-768x502.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99645445.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 882px) 100vw, 882px" />An illustration of Thomas Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Bull Run, during the US civil war, circa 1863. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)</div>
Although his vaunted Army of Northern Virginia was exhausted, ill-fed, and clothed from a poor supply chain and constant marching and fighting, Lee nevertheless gambled on an invasion of Maryland. Believing a Confederate victory on Union soil would convince Great Britain and France to form an alliance, his hopes were dashed when McClellan and his 87,000-man Army Of The Potomac, back from the peninsula and now infused with the remnants of Pope’s army, stopped him along the banks of the Antietam Creek in September 1862. In the bloodiest single day in U.S. history, Lee showed tactical brilliance in the field by holding off repeated attacks by a determined Union army twice his size, fighting McClellan to a stalemate. Nevertheless, Lee retired back into Virginia to recoup his losses and await the North’s next move.
In December 1862 a new Union commander, Gen. Ambrose Burnside, attempted to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg and march on Richmond. Lee was waiting and delivered the most one-sided victory of his command, laying waste to 12,000 Union troops with little loss of his own.
Burnside, like Pope and McClellan before him, was relieved of command and a new, confident Gen. Joe Hooker was next up as head of the Army Of The Potomac. This time Hooker surprised the Confederates with a well-conceived pincer attack, crossing the Rappahannock at several points to fall on both Lee’s flanks at Fredericksburg on the Confederate right and the Wilderness, a dense woods, on the left. Hooker confidently predicted that in the face of this squeezing attack, Lee would be compelled to either retreat or be destroyed in a pitch battle against overwhelming odds. Instead, the unperturbed rebel commander responded to Hooker’s boldness in kind and out-flanked the flanker. At the Battle of Chancellorsville (considered a military masterpiece) Lee divided his inferior army and took an enormous chance by sending half of it under his indomitable corps commander Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to hit Hooker seven miles to the west on his exposed flank amidst the impenetrable Wilderness. The attack was a complete surprise and rolled up the Union Army’s shattered flank. Hooker, like the preceding generals who’d attempted to outfox the fox, retreated.
<div id="attachment_648337" style="width: 831px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-648337" class="size-large wp-image-648337" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-3427049-821x576.jpg" alt="1863: The Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)" width="821" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-3427049-821x576.jpg 821w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-3427049-300x211.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-3427049-768x539.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-3427049-1536x1078.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-3427049-2048x1437.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 821px) 100vw, 821px" />1863: The Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)</div>
Though bloody (Lee suffered 25% casualties) his stunning victory at Chancellorsville prompted Lee to head north again. This time, however, he faced an Army Of The Potomac now being led by the competent and cool George Meade. In July 1863, during a three-day struggle around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lee was dealt his worst loss of the war, losing some 27,000 out of the 75,000 men he brought north. He retreated back into Virginia, never to go on “the aggressive” as he called it again.
<div id="attachment_648559" style="width: 782px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-648559" class="size-large wp-image-648559" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99858355-772x576.jpg" alt="Confederate prisoners at Seminary ridge during the battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania circa July,1863. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)" width="772" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99858355-772x576.jpg 772w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99858355-300x224.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99858355-768x573.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-99858355.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" />Confederate prisoners at Seminary ridge during the battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania circa July,1863. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)</div>
By the summer of 1864, with no hope of foreign intervention, and lacking the strength for any more offensive actions in the face of an overwhelming Union superiority in manpower and industry, Lee would grapple with U.S. Grant, his final and most formidable foe. The two gifted commanders fought a series of brutal engagements across the Virginia countryside from The Wilderness and Spotsylvania (May 1864) to Cold Harbor (June 1864) and finally settling in for a siege at Petersburg that would last nine months. Although weakened, Lee saw that his situation was not so hopeless as it appeared. He’d effectively halted Grant’s thrust towards Richmond and now the two armies were at loggerheads southeast of the capital at Petersburg. And Lee had managed to inflict over 50,000 casualties on his Northern enemy.
Understanding that wars are political as well as military, General Lee realized that with the 1864 elections approaching, the high casualties the war weary North was suffering at his hands might be enough to vote out Lincoln and prompt a more pro-South Democrat administration which might welcome the rebellious states back into the Union, or even let the South go its own way. But due to the actions of another Union commander further up our list, this political upheaval did not come to pass. When Lincoln handily won re-election in November 1864, the South was doomed. A tired but resplendently-uniformed Robert E. Lee surrendered what remained of the surrounded Army of Northern Virginia to the mud-splattered Grant in April 1865.
<div id="attachment_648339" style="width: 798px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-648339" class="size-large wp-image-648339" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1249715907-788x576.jpg" alt="Vintage illustration at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia depicts Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendering his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the American Civil War." width="788" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1249715907-788x576.jpg 788w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1249715907-300x219.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1249715907-768x561.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1249715907-1536x1123.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1249715907.jpg 2025w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px" />Vintage illustration at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia depicts Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendering his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the American Civil War. Keith Lance. Getty Images.</div>
Lee went on to head Washington College (later renamed Washington And Lee) and died in 1870 of a chronic heart ailment.
Robert E. Lee has been called a “marble man” for his stoicism and almost impenetrable personality; following the Civil War, he was idolized in the South to the point of being a demigod. But, Lee was just a man, like any other, and as such showed flaws…some of which could be quite detrimental to his cause. Most damning was his tendency to be profligate with his men’s lives. Indeed, the historian James McPherson calculated that Lee suffered the highest casualties as a percent of those under his command than any other army commander of the war, North or South. Lee’s confidence in the almost superhuman capacity of his troops to overcome all odds prompted him to send them into suicidal charges against well-prepared Union positions at Malvern Hill (June 1862) and again at Gettysburg a year later. It was, in fact, a very dangerous business fighting for “Marse Robert”.
Still, his men adored him. One man in the ranks declared, “I would charge hell itself for that old man!” So commanding a martial figure did Lee cut that once when the Confederates were marching through a Pennsylvania town, a brave loyal Union woman was brazenly waving the American flag before them. Then Lee rode up to her and looked down from his white horse Traveller. She dropped the flag, clasped her hands together and said of Lee: “Oh how I wish he were ours!”
Although Lee fought for an unjust cause in the preservation of slavery — one that had to be destroyed — there is no doubt that his campaigns will be studied in military academies as long as such institutions exist.
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America’s Top 11 Generals
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americas-top-11-generals-11-curtis-e-lemay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: #11 Curtis E. LeMay</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americas-top-11-generals-10-matthew-ridgway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: #10 Matthew Ridgway</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americas-top-11-generals-9-nathanael-greene" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: #9 Nathanael Greene</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americas-top-11-generals-8-george-patton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: #8 George Patton</a>
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Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader, columnist, and author of two acclaimed novels. His newest book, the fact-based <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Pits-Rough-Tumble-Exchange/dp/B0CKPNCMQW/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1331509151681009&amp;hvadid=83219665089301&amp;hvbmt=bp&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=97755&amp;hvnetw=o&amp;hvqmt=p&amp;hvtargid=kwd-83219680392082%3Aloc-190&amp;hydadcr=18892_13467888&amp;keywords=brad+schaeffer&amp;qid=1698162015&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LIFE IN THE PITS: My Time as a Trader on the Rough-and-Tumble Exchange Floors</a> will be published in December and is currently available for pre-order. You can also find more of Brad’s articles on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Substack</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Vintage Civil War photo of Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

America’s Top 11 Generals: #7 Robert E. Lee

America's Top 11 Generals: #7 Robert E. Lee

American General

Civil War

Readers Pass

Robert E. Lee

A man recently made the discovery of a lifetime when he unearthed a massive cache of rare Civil War-era coins — the majority of them gold — on his Kentucky farm earlier this year. 
The incredible find, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/11/man-discovers-700-civil-war-coins-worth-millions-buried-at-kentucky-farm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubbed</a> the “Great Kentucky Hoard,” could be worth millions of dollars. The unidentified man who found the coins recorded himself as he sifted through the dirt, pointing out the different types of gold coins he had discovered. The location of the discovery has not been revealed. 
“This is the most insane thing ever,” the man said in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JDUdmp-L3Q&amp;t=19s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a>. “These are all $1 gold coins, $20 gold coins, $10 gold coins and, look, I’m still diggin’ them out.”
The rare coins date between 1840 and 1863 and include eighteen 1863-P $20 Gold Liberty coins, which is the rarest year for that specific coin, <a href="https://www.govmint.com/great-kentucky-hoard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to GovMint, a coin dealer. These reportedly often fetch six figures. 
Additionally, “hundreds” of American gold dollars from 1850 to 1862 were discovered, as reported by the Numismatic Guaranty Company, a coin grading service. Roughly 95% of the hoard is made up of gold dollars, and some silver coins were also discovered. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A man from Kentucky unearthed a Civil War-era fortune of over 700 gold coins in his cornfield.
Now that’s a good day on the farm. <a href="https://t.co/Ayvkvxh4rH">pic.twitter.com/Ayvkvxh4rH</a>
&mdash; Gold Telegraph ⚡ (@GoldTelegraph_) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoldTelegraph_/status/1678548367897493505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The importance of this discovery cannot be overstated, as the stunning number of over 700 gold dollars represents a virtual time capsule of Civil War-era coinage, including coins from the elusive Dahlonega Mint,” rare coin dealer Jeff Garrett <a href="https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/11795/kentucky-hoard-civil-war-coins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> of the hoard.
The story behind the hoard is also interesting, as it’s often reported that wealthy Kentuckians buried much of their wealth to prevent it from being stolen from bootleggers and outlaws, the Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12287423/Kentucky-man-digs-700-rare-coins-worth-MILLIONS-know-youre-sitting-fortune.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notes</a>. Georgia Southern University archeologist Ryan McNutt <a href="https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/kentucky-man-finds-over-700-civil-war-era-coins-buried-in-his-cornfield" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Live Science, &#8220;given the time period and the location in Kentucky, which was neutral at the time, it is entirely possible this was buried in advance of Confederate John Hunt Morgan&#8217;s June to July 1863 raid.&#8221; 
Just a month after the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in 1861, Kentucky Democratic Governor Beriah Magoffin officially <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/house-divided-civil-war-kentucky" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> the state neutral, making Kentucky one of four slave states <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-war-glass-negatives/articles-and-essays/time-line-of-the-civil-war/1861/#:~:text=Four%20Slave%20States%20Stay%20in,kept%20these%20states%20from%20seceding." target="_blank" rel="noopener">not to secede</a> from the Union, despite divided loyalties among the citizenry. Two years later, after numerous successful raids of the Bluegrass State, Morgan and his men set out from Sparta, Tennessee, and made their way into Kentucky. His attack would go into Indiana and end in Ohio, and it cost the Union hundreds of thousands of dollars in both military and civilian property damages, <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/morgans-great-raid-1863" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the American Battlefield Trust. 
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McNutt told Live Science that because the coins discovered in the hoard were federal currency, it would “be wise to conceal from a Confederate raiding party.&#8221; He also said during this time period, many Americans &#8220;became experienced with hiding goods and valuables.”
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Great Kentucky Hoard Unearthing!" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0JDUdmp-L3Q?start=19&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Gold Coins

Man Discovers ‘Great Kentucky Hoard’ Of 700 Civil War-Era Coins

Archaeology

Gold

Kentucky

Money

U.S.

While Franklin Pierce was widely regarded as a kind and friendly person, his presidency would destabilize the fragile peace between the North and the South, according to Joseph Forneri, professor of political science at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Franklin Pierce was born in New Hampshire near the turn of the 19th century, and was the son of Benjamin Pierce, a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Benjamin distinguished himself at the Battle of Saratoga and was renowned as a war hero &#8211; he would later serve as governor of New Hampshire, and Franklin spent much of his early political career in his father’s shadow.
Pierce began his political career shortly after graduating from college in 1824 – by 1829 he was elected to the New Hampshire state legislature and by 1832 he had been elected to Congress. By 1837 he was the youngest member of the Senate.
“The overriding political issue of the day was slavery,” Forneri said. “While not a slave owner himself, Pierce believed that the constitution committed the federal government to protecting slavery. Not surprisingly, Pierce’s position endeared him to his Southern Colleagues. This support was key to his political career.”
By 1842, financial concerns and his wife’s chronic illness compelled him to resign from the Senate and take a step back from any electoral ambitions, although in political terms he arguably became more powerful during this period as he emerged as an influential apparatchik and Democratic party boss in New Hampshire.
However, the seizure of large swaths of the Southwestern United States after the Mexican-American War destabilized the delicate balance of power between slave and free states and created an opportunity for a man like Pierce to achieve national prominence.
A tentative compromise was reached in 1850 which admitted California to the Union as a free state and left the status of the New Mexico and Utah territories indeterminate.
“That’s where things stood when Franklin Pierce, through an improbable series of circumstances, became America’s 14th president,” Forneri said.
“When the Democratic convention opened in June 1852 in Baltimore Pierce was not even a dark horse candidate &#8211; he wasn’t a horse at all,” Forneri explained. However, a continual deadlock between candidates representing different regional interests created an opening for Pierce, a Northerner who would protect Southern slavery.
Pierce was selected as the Democratic nominee on the 49th ballot and coasted to a victory in the general election, as the rival Whig party was even more sharply divided on the slavery issue.
While in office, however, Pierce would fracture the country even further by shepherding the Kansas-Nebraska Act advocated for by Illinois Democrat Stephen Douglass, which undid all previous legislative compromises and let the various territories decide for themselves whether or not they would permit slavery within their borders.
While Douglass’s concept of popular sovereignty was meant to end the controversy surrounding slavery, it only escalated it. Kansas and Nebraska saw widespread violence between settlers as pro- and anti-slavery factions flooded the new territories, determined to swing the state’s formative elections in their favor.
“Bleeding Kansas” presaged the violence that would engulf the country as abolitionist and anti-abolitionist forces split the young nation in two.
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WATCH:
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Franklin Pierce: A Torn President in a Torn Country

History

PragerU

America’s 12th president, Zachary Taylor, was a walking contradiction who came into power at a pivotal moment in American history, and his untimely demise may have cost the US a chance to avoid its devastating civil war.
A career military man, Taylor had little interest in politics and had never voted in a presidential election until he became a candidate himself in 1848. The son of a veteran of America’s Revolutionary War, Taylor joined the army in 1808 and served in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War(1835) and the 2nd Seminole War(1837), rising to the rank of Brigadier General, although the defining moments of his career would occur during the Mexican-American War.
After the United States annexed Texas in 1845, it inherited the problem of a disputed border with Mexico — the US also had designs on the sparsely populated Mexican territory in what was now the American southwest. In 1846, President James K. Polk, who ran for office on a promise of “Manifest Destiny” sent Taylor and his men into the disputed land between the Rio Grande and Nueces River to extract territorial concessions from the Mexican government.
Mexico responded by shooting at Taylor’s men, killing 11 and triggering the Mexican-American War.
The war went disastrously for Mexico, and Taylor distinguished himself by winning a string of battles at Palo Alto, Buena Vista and Monterrey. By early 1848, Mexico surrendered and ceded roughly half of its territory to the United States.
“No soldier could face either danger or responsibility more calmly than he,” Ulysses S. Grant, who served under Zachary during the Mexican-American war, said of his former commander. “ He was known to every soldier in his army, and respected by all.”
The war created several new political realities: the careful balance of power between slave states and free states was called into question by the acquisition of so much new territory, and Zachary Taylor became a national hero. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-536779 aligncenter" src="https://dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-24-at-6.59.02-PM-300x169.png" alt="" width="440" height="248" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-24-at-6.59.02-PM-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-24-at-6.59.02-PM-1021x576.png 1021w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-24-at-6.59.02-PM-768x433.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-24-at-6.59.02-PM-1536x867.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-24-at-6.59.02-PM-2048x1156.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px" /></div>
“The political balance stood precariously at 15 free states and 15 slave states,” Joseph Fornieri, Professor of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology explained. “Any additional states would tip the balance one way or the other… If anyone was in a position to resolve it, Taylor seemed to be that man.”
President Polk, a Democrat, declined to seek reelection despite his own wide popularity due to failing health and a previous campaign promise to only serve a single term. The Whigs, who had seen great electoral success with war hero William Henry Harrison in 1840 and saw a Taylor presidential ticket as an ideal means of replicating that success, and courted him as their nominee. Taylor, himself not a particularly strong partisan of any kind, agreed.
Taylor was born in Virginia and was a wealthy landowner who controlled several plantations and over 300 slaves — he also opposed to slavery’s expansion into America’s newly acquired territories and was a firm supporter of the Union. During his presidency, he went so far as to threaten to hang potential secessionists.
Taylor would ultimately die 16 months into his first term &#8211; the precise cause is disputed but the historical consensus is that the cause was some sort of stomach infection, and none of the sources suggest any kind of foul play. Nevertheless, he was unable to forge any meaningful compromise, and his successor, Millard Fillmore, would oversee the Compromise of 1850, which was so loathed that it largely set into motion the series of events that would a cataclysmic Civil War that would kill more than 600,000 Americans to finally put an end to the abominable institution of slavery.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Zachary Taylor: The Man Who Might Have Prevented the Civil War | 5-Minute Videos" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9-nGyk0v5mE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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WATCH: Zachary Taylor, The Man Who Might Have Prevented The Civil War

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Civil War</a> reenactor and self-identified member of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/antifa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antifa</a> pleaded guilty Tuesday to planting a bomb at a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a> battlefield and to mailing threatening letters.
Gerald Leonard Drake, of Winchester, Virginia, pleaded guilty to placing a pipe bomb at the Cedar Creek battlefield in Middletown, Virginia, back in 2017, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdva/pr/civil-war-reenactor-admits-planting-bomb-cedar-creek-battlefield" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia. According to investigators, Drake had placed a pipe bomb composed of metal nuts, a mercury switch, a battery, ball bearings, black and red wires, and powder at the battlefield during a reenactment.
“This defendant sought to intimidate and harm innocent people, and further, he tried to sow discontent by falsely claiming that the attempted bombing was politically motivated,” United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said. “I am deeply grateful to the first responders for their work to quickly neutralize the bomb, as well as the special agents of the FBI and the federal prosecutors who – for years – tirelessly worked this case to identify Mr. Drake and bring him to justice.”
The DOJ said that Drake had claimed to be a member of Antifa in letters sent to newspapers and several individuals. In years past, Drake had participated in reenactments at Cedar Creek and had been a member of the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation (CCBF).
The CCBF <a href="https://ccbf.us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is a nonprofit</a> organization &#8220;dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, and protection of lands, artifacts, and writings” linked to the battle. They offer a history museum and manage about 350 acres of land.
One of the letters addressed to the &#8220;Cedar Creek Battlefield people” said that reenacting the battle “clearly celebrates the war to keep African-Americans in chains,” and that the Charlottesville riot would be like “a Sunday picnic” compared to havoc purportedly threatened from Antifa. The letters were emblazoned with the black and red flag logo associated with Antifia, according to court documents. 
A pipe bomb was discovered during the recognition of the 153rd anniversary of the battle in October 2017, which was organized by the CCBF. Although the bomb did not go off, it did result in the cancellation of the rest of the planned events. According to the DOJ, Drake said that the purpose of the bombs was to “instill fear and cause harm to those attending the reenactment.”
The battle of Cedar Creek <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/cedar-creek" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took place</a> on October 19, 1864, and saw Union forces under Major General Phil Sheridan face off against Confederate Major General Jubal Early. Union forces had 5,764 casualties and Confederate forces had 3,060 casualties. The battle involved over 50,000 men combined. Despite the casualty count, the battle is considered a Union victory as Sheridan was able to lead a successful counterattack that forced Early’s troops to retreat after Confederate forces surprised three Union corps at the beginning of the battle.
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 According to the American Battlefield Trust, the battle helped to give President Abraham Lincoln some momentum in the lead-up to the 1864 election when he was facing stiff competition from George McClellan, a former Union general. It also <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/battle-of-cedar-creek.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">effectively</a> ended Confederate resistance to the Union in the Shenandoah Valley, a place where the Confederates had wracked up several victories under Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson earlier in the war.
Drake could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

US Civil War Confederate Cavalry Ride Away in Shenandoah Valley

Civil War Enthusiast Pleads Guilty To Planting Bomb During Battle Reenactment

Antifa

Crime

Political Violence

The U.S. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-navy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Navy</a> announced this week that it would be renaming a ship named for oceanographic pioneer Matthew Fontaine Maury because of Maury’s ties to the Confederacy during the later years of his life. 
Maury, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/cable-matthew-fontaine-maury-1806-1873/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">known</a> as the “Pathfinder of the Seas,” was a Navy officer and accomplished oceanographer who helped come up with the idea for a transatlantic cable. The USNS Maury will be renamed after Marie Tharp, an oceanographer cartographer and geologist who lived in the 20th century. 
“As the history of our great nation evolves, we must put forth the effort to recognize figures who positively influenced our society,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro <a href="https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2023/03/08/confederates-name-removed-from-navy-survey-ship/#:~:text=The%20Navy%20announced%20Wednesday%20that%20it%20was%20renaming%20an%20oceanographic,will%20be%20renamed%20Marie%20Tharp." target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>. “This renaming honors just one of the many historic women who have made a significant impact on not only our Navy, but our nation.”
The oceanographic survey ship was renamed as part of a congressionally mandated commission that recommended purging any names or entities associated with the Confederacy from military property, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/29/arlington-cemetery-confederate-memorial/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">including</a> the historic Confederate Memorial which sits surrounded by the graves of Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. 
Maury was born in Virginia in 1806 before his family moved to Tennessee and he joined the U.S. Navy in 1825. During his time in the Navy, he was aboard the first Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe and released a book on navigation at the age of 30. 
After an injury rendered him unable to sail, Maury became heavily involved in charting the ocean for the Navy. He was placed in charge of the Navy’s Depot of Charts and Instruments before rising to lead the U.S. Naval Observatory from 1844-1861. 
He was an effective navigator and sailors were able to cut almost 50 days off of travel time for ships going from New York to San Francisco. His influential books on the ocean <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Fontaine-Maury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> “The Physical Geography of the Sea,” and “Sailing Directions,” both originally published in 1855. 
When the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Civil War</a> broke out, he chose to side with the Confederacy as he was from Virginia. During the war, he tried to create an electric torpedo and went to England as a Confederate agent. After the war, he worked for a short time with Mexico’s emperor to see if they could establish a Confederate colony before he became a meteorology professor at Virginia Military Institute. 
A monument of Maury, who died in 1873, was also removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, in 2020. 
Another Navy ship, a missile-guided cruiser named after the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville, was recently renamed. The Navy chose to the ship to be named in honor of Robert Smalls, a former slave who commandeered a Confederate ship during the war.

The Research Ship USNS Maury During Sea Trials

Navy Removes Name of Oceanographic Pioneer From Ship Over Confederate Ties

U.S. Navy

A treasure hunter has accused the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> of a coverup as a dispute over the search for a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Civil War</a>-era gold stash continues to play out in court. 
Dennis and Kem Parada, a father-son treasure-hunting duo called “Finders Keepers,” believe that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-forced-to-reveal-study-showing-possible-civil-war-gold-cache-in-case-against-treasure-hunters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">newly released documents</a> and video pertaining to the FBI’s search of Dents Run, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pennsylvania</a>, show that the federal agency has not been completely straightforward about their search for gold. 
“We feel we were double-crossed and lied to,” Dennis Parada <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-war-and-unrest-pennsylvania-clearfield-ec6f923036d4da94d0d8b07a6e0e82bb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the Associated Press in an interview, though he says he believes that “the truth will come out.” 
The dispute hinges on the Paradas’ belief that gold, part of an 1863 shipment of Union gold intended for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, ended up buried about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh after a potential train robbery. The gold, if found, has a current <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/treasure-hunters-searching-55-million-025705312.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated value</a> of $55 million.
After years of research, the Paradas led the FBI to the suspected location of the gold at Dents Run which the agency searched in 2018. The FBI said the dig came up empty though the Parada has remained skeptical. 
“I will stick at this until the end, until I know everything that happened to that gold,” he said. “How much, where it went to, who has it now. I gotta know.”
New videos and images from the search obtained by Parada through a Freedom of Information Act request shed new light on the 2018 search and have raised more questions for Parada. 
“We’ve identified through our investigation a site that we believe has U.S. property, which includes a significant sum of base metal which is valuable &#8230; particularly gold, maybe silver,” a Philadelphia-based FBI agent said in the video. 
Parada says he thinks the agency may have dug overnight when the search was supposed to be on hold and moved the gold, though the FBI has said it never dug at night. In 2018, locals <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-pa-state-wire-wv-state-wire-us-news-ap-top-news-b8b4d27254814894b3a79aa3083fb356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the AP that they had heard digging equipment at work throughout the night and that the hill where the gold was suspected to be was lit up. 
Another question raised by Parada and consultant Warren Getler is about why a photo of a large boulder said to be taken after a snowstorm began had no snow on it. “We have compelling evidence a night dig took place, and that the FBI went to some large effort to cover up that night dig,” Getler, a Civil War gold researcher, said.
A recent legal filing from Parada also alleges a number of other problems with the FBI’s response to his inquiry for more details on its search of Dents Run. The filing says that Finder’s Keepers was not given any video of the dig’s second day, did not provide details on a 30-foot-long trench that is mapped at the site, and claimed that a report given to them on the dig seemed to be missing pages. 
According to Anne Weismann, a lawyer for Finders Keepers, the records given to the group “cast doubt on the FBI’s claim to have found nothing and raise serious and troubling questions about the FBI’s conduct during the dig and in this litigation, where it has gone to great lengths to distort critical evidence.”
A judge will determine if the agency will be required to respond to the treasure hunter’s latest request.

Stacking Gold Coin In Treasure Chest On Black Background

‘Double-Crossed And Lied To’: Treasure Hunters Accuse FBI Of Coverup In Hunt For Civil War-Era Gold

General

Pennsylvania

Heated political rhetoric — and growing concerns about political violence — have fueled warning after warning that the United States might be headed for another Civil War.
An <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/08/24/politics-elections-economist-yougov-poll-august-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 2022 poll</a> from The Economist/YouGov revealed that everyday Americans worry that the country is too divided to course-correct. <a href="https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2022/9/1/23328699/is-a-second-civil-war-likely-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to that poll</a>, 42% (half of Republicans and 39% of Democrats) believe a second civil war is at least &#8220;somewhat likely&#8221; within the next decade. A decisive majority — 68% — believes that political violence will increase, and 86% believe that political divides have only deepened since early 2021.
The Brookings Institute published a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/09/16/is-the-us-headed-for-another-civil-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">piece</a> in September of 2021 that outlined some of the reasons another civil war might be inevitable. Not the least of these was the sincere belief — held by most Americans, regardless of their political persuasion — that the &#8220;other side&#8221; was not going to play fair. Competing accusations of &#8220;<a href="https://dailywire.com/news/democrats-georgias-record-voter-turnout-is-actually-voter-suppression/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voter suppression</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="https://dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-twitter-files-show-2020-was-rigged-not-stolen-but-trump-is-hurting-himself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stolen elections</a>&#8221; only serve to bolster those beliefs.
And there are some who believe a new civil war is already underway — albeit a &#8220;cold&#8221; civil war absent the body count of its &#8220;hot&#8221; counterpart. Claremont Review of Books editor Charles R. Kesler <a href="https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/americas-cold-civil-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlined</a> just such a &#8220;cold&#8221; civil war, describing it as a battle between two constitutions.
&#8220;Underlying our cold civil war is the fact that America is torn increasingly between two rival constitutions, two cultures, two ways of life,&#8221; he said during a 2018 lecture at Hillsdale College.
One faction, he explained, accepted the U.S. Constitution as written and amended. The other argued that the Constitution must constantly be reimagined in order to ensure that it meets the needs of a changing culture. The &#8220;living Constitution&#8221; they advocate &#8220;implies that the original Constitution is dead — or at least on life support — and that in order to remain relevant to our national life, the original Constitution must be infused with new meaning and new ends and therefore with new duties, rights, and powers. To cite an important example, new administrative agencies must be created to circumvent the structural limitations that the original Constitution imposed on government.&#8221;
But the fundamental problem with a second civil war in the United States — particularly one that splits Americans along ideological lines — is that there is no east-to-west or north-to-south Mason-Dixon Line along which to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/11/1071082955/imagine-another-american-civil-war-but-this-time-in-every-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener">divide the country</a>. Rather, there are tiny, fragmented lines that will divide states, counties, and even individual households.
&#8220;We&#8217;re less a nation divided into 50 states than we are two nations that are both present in each of those states. Each is dominant in its own space and certain that it is the real America,&#8221; NPR&#8217;s Ron Elving wrote in January of 2022.
&#8220;The forces of disunity are disquieting, to say the least. But must it all come to blows? Can we still center ourselves and pull back from whatever brink we are approaching?&#8221; he asked — and ultimately left the question unanswered.
Time Magazine&#8217;s Peter Coleman <a href="https://time.com/6222633/second-civil-war-us-how-to-avoid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offered hope</a> in a piece published in October, saying that the only way to truly lower the temperature and find common ground was for Americans — whether they be politicians and pundits or simply neighbors — to stop talking past each other and start listening to each other. He explained that when he tried this himself with a neighbor who had differing political views, he was surprised to learn first that they actually agreed on more things than he had expected, and second, that his own faulty assumptions about what &#8220;the other side&#8221; believed had been a part of the problem.
Another ray of hope as Christmas approaches comes from the <a href="https://poets.org/poem/christmas-bells" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1864 poem</a> written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, penned as the nation around him was quite literally being torn to pieces: state versus state; brother versus brother.
The first stanzas of &#8220;Christmas Bells&#8221; reflect on the Biblical promise of the Christmas angels, who had come to earth to herald the birth of Jesus and deliver a message of &#8220;peace on earth, good will to men.&#8221; He explains that, after many hundreds of years of the church bells repeating that message, it should have resonated with all of humanity.
<blockquote>I heard the bells on Christmas Day 
Their old, familiar carols play, 
    And wild and sweet 
    The words repeat 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come, 
The belfries of all Christendom 
    Had rolled along 
    The unbroken song 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way, 
The world revolved from night to day, 
    A voice, a chime, 
    A chant sublime 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!</blockquote>
Longfellow turned back then to his present day and the war that threatened to consume a nation — and lamented the feeling that the Christmas message was being choked out by the hatred that drove the war to continue. His own <a href="https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/christmas-bells.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">personal connection</a> to the war intensified when his son Charley ran away to join the Union Army in 1863 — he was later wounded during the Mine Run campaign.
<blockquote>Then from each black, accursed mouth 
The cannon thundered in the South, 
    And with the sound 
    The carols drowned 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! 
It was as if an earthquake rent 
The hearth-stones of a continent, 
    And made forlorn 
    The households born 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head; 
&#8220;There is no peace on earth,&#8221; I said; 
    &#8220;For hate is strong, 
    And mocks the song 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!&#8221;</blockquote>
But Longfellow held out hope, even in a nation that was already torn asunder — and concluded with the fact that the message of Christmas was still there: the church bells were still faithfully ringing their message, and the people had only to listen to it.
<blockquote>Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 
&#8220;God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; 
    The Wrong shall fail, 
    The Right prevail, 
With peace on earth, good-will to men.&#8221;</blockquote>

Christmas Bells

‘Christmas Bells’: 1864 Poem Offers Hope Amid Fears Of Another Civil War

'Christmas Bells': 1864 Poem Offers Hope Amid Fears Of Another Civil War

Poetry

The city of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richmond</a>, Virginia, has dug up the remains of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-civil-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Confederate General A.P. Hill</a> as it continues to purge Confederate symbols and monuments from public spaces. 
The remains of Hill, which had been buried under a monument to the general, were located on Tuesday after two days of digging. The casket of Hill, who was reportedly buried standing up, was <a href="https://twitter.com/SchneiderG/status/1602707919958675456">rotted</a> away when workers finally found the remains using an excavator. 
According to local reporter Riley Wyant, the remains of Hill were blocked from public view using a tarp before they were transferred into a body bag and wheeled away on a stretcher. The remains were transferred to the general&#8217;s relatives, including John Hill, the general’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-richmond-6c847bb2e6e52a7048d44d2aacc2ef85" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closest</a> indirect descendent. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UPDATE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UPDATE</a> as of Noon 🚨 Crews have uncovered A.P. Hill’s remains. They are using a tarp, trucks, and cars to shield them from the public. <a href="https://twitter.com/NBC12?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBC12</a> <a href="https://t.co/oTayQQZQnu">pic.twitter.com/oTayQQZQnu</a>
&mdash; Riley Wyant (@rileywyantTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/rileywyantTV/status/1602710458691162113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The city had brought in an excavator to search for Hill’s remains, which <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/richmonds-last-confederate-monument-removed-2227847" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had</a> been buried at an intersection of the city for over 130 years. On top of the grave was a statue of the Confederate soldier. The statue, which was removed via crane on Monday, was the last city-owned Confederate monument to be removed from Richmond.
The removal of the statue and remains comes after a legal battle between the city and descendants of Hill, which was complicated by the monument’s usage as a headstone. The move was hailed by Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, but decried by Hill&#8217;s relatives. 
“Over two years ago, Richmond was home to more Confederate statues than any city in the United States. Collectively, we have closed that chapter,” Stoney <a href="https://twitter.com/LevarStoney/status/1602351556879421441" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>. “We now continue the work of being a more inclusive and welcoming place where ALL belong.”
<div id="attachment_476328" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-476328" class="size-medium wp-image-476328" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GettyImages-1245573995-300x200.jpg" alt="RICHMOND, VA - DEC 12: Workers remove the statue of Confederate General A.P. Hill from its pedestal in Richmond, Virginia on December 12, 2022. Hill's remains are buried under the memorial and will be relocated." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/GettyImages-1245573995-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/GettyImages-1245573995-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/GettyImages-1245573995-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/GettyImages-1245573995.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />(Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post via Getty Images)</div>
John Hill said he was disappointed to see the statue removed. “It’s been devastating because that is my family name up there, that’s our headstone so we don’t want the city to have possession of it and destroy it,” he <a href="https://www.nbc29.com/2022/12/12/watch-ap-hill-statue-removed-richmond/">said</a>, according to NBC 29. “We wanted his remains to be moved with the headstone so they didn’t have to be disturbed.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
John Hill, AP Hill’s descendant, and other relatives are here watching the removal. He was fighting the removal of the statue in Richmond court. He said today was a “tough” day and he wanted to ensure the remains are treated fairly. <a href="https://t.co/PqKQuND00G">pic.twitter.com/PqKQuND00G</a>
&mdash; Brendan King CBS 6 (@ImBrendanKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImBrendanKing/status/1602308805534126082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The relative also said the Virginian opposed slavery. “All of his census documents show he never owned a slave and he did not believe in slavery,” he said. Following the war, Hill&#8217;s wife Kitty <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-8Cai6KHXJ0C&amp;pg=PA22&amp;lpg=PA22&amp;dq=shame,+shame+upon+you+all,+good+citizens.+Virginia+must+crawl+unless+you+vindicate+good+order+or+discipline+and+hang+every+son+of+a+bitch+connected+with+this+outrage%22+ap+hill&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=yBKbqIH-De&amp;sig=ACfU3U3PjBP_4S37ni6bwsV6ROVOtl9yUQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwje-pzb2fb7AhUSg4kEHb6MCykQ6AF6BAgXEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=shame%2C%20shame%20upon%20you%20all%2C%20good%20citizens.%20Virginia%20must%20crawl%20unless%20you%20vindicate%20good%20order%20or%20discipline%20and%20hang%20every%20son%20of%20a%20bitch%20connected%20with%20this%20outrage%22%20ap%20hill&amp;f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that Hill had not supported slavery. 
Hill’s remains are expected to be moved to a Culpeper cemetery, nearby to where the Confederate general grew up. The monument itself has been moved to storage while Hill’s descendants and the city fight for control. The city wants to give it to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia while Hill’s family hopes to place it at a battlefield where he fought. 
Born in Culpeper, Virginia, in 1825, Ambrose Powell Hill <a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-civil-war/ambrose-p-hill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attended</a> West Point in the 1840s, where he was roommates with future Union Major General George McClellan, who would be a commander of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. The future enemies would become friends during school, and Hill was even in McClellan’s wedding. 
Before the Civil War, Hill wrote in the 1850s of his disgust at the lynching of a black man in his hometown who had been accused of murder. “Shame, shame upon all you, good citizens,” he said at the time <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-8Cai6KHXJ0C&amp;pg=PA22&amp;lpg=PA22&amp;dq=shame,+shame+upon+you+all,+good+citizens.+Virginia+must+crawl+unless+you+vindicate+good+order+or+discipline+and+hang+every+son+of+a+bitch+connected+with+this+outrage%22+ap+hill&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=yBKbqIH-De&amp;sig=ACfU3U3PjBP_4S37ni6bwsV6ROVOtl9yUQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwje-pzb2fb7AhUSg4kEHb6MCykQ6AF6BAgXEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=shame%2C%20shame%20upon%20you%20all%2C%20good%20citizens.%20Virginia%20must%20crawl%20unless%20you%20vindicate%20good%20order%20or%20discipline%20and%20hang%20every%20son%20of%20a%20bitch%20connected%20with%20this%20outrage%22%20ap%20hill&amp;f=false">according</a> to late Virginia Tech historian James I. Robertson, Jr. “Virginia must crawl unless you vindicate good order or discipline and hang every son of a b**** connected with the outrage.” 
During the war, Hill rose to prominence because of his key contributions at the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Petersburg. Hill is <a href="https://archive.ph/C34ga" target="_blank" rel="noopener">credited</a> with saving Robert E. Lee&#8217;s army at Antietam when he launched a counterattack in the battle, which saw 22,000 casualties. 
Hill was killed at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, just days before the end of the war, leaving behind his wife and three daughters. 
The removal of the Hill statue and grave follows other prominent monument removals in Richmond, including statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

A.P. Hill memorial removed in Richmond

City Digs Up Remains Of Confederate General After Taking Down Statue

Statues

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