The Civil War and Its Legacy

Battle of Ball's Bluff and the Confederate Statue

Leesburg, Virginia October 25th, 2017.

Many thanks to former Mayor of Leesburg and current member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Kristen Umstattd for discussing Civil War legacy issues. Joining her are Nestor, Vily, Jen and Nataly.

Herndon High US/Va History students hiked Ball's Bluff Civil War battlefield in Leesburg Virginia and then discussed the Confederate statue at the Courthouse in Leesburg. Above-arrival at Ball's Bluff. Students visited the same week as the battle which took place this week 156 years ago. 

Loudoun County Courthouse Lawn Leesburg, Virginia

Brayan (absent) -Which statues should stay and which should be removed? ANSWER-Any statue that stands in front of a government building, like a courthouse or a state capitol building, should be moved. Statues that are in museums or on battlefields could stay.

Katherine (center)- Have you lived your whole life in Leesburg and if so, how have you viewed this statue over the years? ANSWER- Although most of my ancestors come from the South – Charlottesville, VA, Bristol, TN, and Kentucky, I was born in Philadelphia, PA, a northern city. I do not identify with those in the South who supported slavery or the Jim Crow era laws to deny equal rights to African Americans. I believe the South’s institution of slavery, and the South’s willingness to commit treason to defend slavery in the Civil War were evil. I believe we should not celebrate slavery or those who fought to keep people enslaved. The Confederate statue on the grounds of the County Courthouse in Leesburg is a slap in the face of our African American community and all those who believe in equality. The statue was erected in 1908, during the Jim Crow era when southern states were passing laws to deny African Americans equal rights. At the same time, the General Assembly also passed laws to prevent anyone from moving statues like the one in Leesburg. Those laws are still in place. In 1991, I worked with members of the local NAACP and filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Justice to oppose a redistricting plan that reduced the number of African American voters in the Leesburg District. In 1995, I helped an African American woman protest a racist story that had appeared in a local newspaper by picketing the newspaper office. In 2005, as Mayor of Leesburg, I voted against allowing the Confederate flag to appear on Town property. In 2008, when the Daughters of the Confederacy staged a reenactment of the placement of the Confederate statue, I did not participate. In 2015, I joined members of our African American community in protesting the statue’s location on government property. And in 2017, I voted to ask the Virginia General Assembly to pass a bill to give Loudoun County the authority to move the statue. In my opinion, the appropriate location for the statue would be in a museum or at the Ball’s Bluff Battlefield.

Jen (right) We know you were in the military. Would you have been willing to kill for your country like they did in the Civil War?  ANSWER- Yes. I joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1980, after I finished law school, because I was worried about the military threat to our country from what was then the Soviet Union. Although, when I joined, women were not allowed to serve on ships or in combat, I would have been willing to kill for my country.

Nestor- Was your daughter in Charlottesville the day Heather Heyer was murdered by a white supremacist? ANSWER- No,I had attended an earlier Charlottesville rally organized by the NAACP in May to protest the first KKK/Neo-Nazi/white supremacist march in Charlottesville; and my daughter and I went to Charlottesville after the deadly second KKK rally to visit the memorials that had been set up to honor Heather Heyer.

Audrey aka "The Girl"  and Jarn

Lochen- What do you think of Phillip Thompson's (Loudoun NAACP) view that this statue is not a war memorial but a "white supremacist memorial"?  Have you talked with him about this?  ANSWER-I agree with him. It was built during the Jim Crow era and it appears to be a warning to African Americans not to approach the courthouse. Unfortunately, the Virginia General Assembly views it as a war memorial and passed laws to protect it. Four (out of 9) of us on the County Board of Supervisors and two members (of 7) of the Leesburg Town Council have asked for those state laws to be changed, so that the statue can be moved to a more suitable location. Mr. Thompson and I communicate frequently, usually be email, on this topic and others. I remain a member of the NAACP. If I had the power to do anything with this statue, I would move it to either the Ball’s Bluff Battlefield or to a museum.

Mike- I know you're not a Leesburg elected official but if you knew the same neo-Nazi, etc., protestors that came to Charlottesville were going to come to Leesburg, what would you want the local government to do?  ANSWER- I would make sure the Leesburg Police Department, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and the National Guard were all on alert and in place to stop any violence. In fact, even as Supervisor, I have already contacted the Governor and the Secretary of Public Safety to request that they do a better job responding to racist violence in Leesburg than they did in Charlottesville. Although I requested a response from both, they did not respond.

Hate and Love for the Confederate Flag in my class.

Jam (center)- As an elected official have you ever had to interact with Virginia Pro Confederate organizations?  ANSWER- As an elected official, I have often interacted with individuals who believe the Confederate flag and the statue are representative of their Southern heritage. I disagree strongly with them, but they have a First Amendment right to say what they believe.

Vily- What do you think of the Anti-Fa organization? Should they be allowed to stop marches or demonstrations?  ANSWER- If you believe in freedom of speech you have to tolerate speech that you hate so no they should not try to stop demonstrations.

Musab (front) with Joey, Carlos, Brian and Jam.

Natally- We were just at Ball's Bluff Battlefield. What do you want us to know about that place and what happened there? ANSWER- Mrs. Umstattd cited the Civil War Trust account of the battle to answer this question. "On the evening of October 20, 1861, Union army commander George B. McClellan ordered Gen. Charles Stone to send a scouting party across the Potomac River to identify the positions of Confederate Col. Nathan Evans’s troops near Leesburg.  In the darkness the party’s inexperienced leader, Capt. Chase Philbrick, mistook a line of trees for a line of tents, and reported that he had stumbled across an unguarded Confederate camp.  Early the next day, Col. Charles Devens was sent across the river to attack the camp, and after realizing that the supposed “camp” was nothing but a line of trees, his men encountered a company of Mississippi infantry and a skirmish began. Col. Edward Baker, a U.S. Senator, decided to reinforce Devens, but with only four small boats available to transport men, Union reinforcements arrived slowly. Evans used the Federal delay to organize his men, and when Col. Baker was killed in the afternoon, Union resistance crumbled. The victorious Confederates drove the Yankees over the bluff and into the Potomac, where many drowned and hundreds surrendered rather than risk escape into the river. The battle, while small in scale, had major political implications that would haunt the Union army for the rest of the war.”

HHS Principal Dr. Noto, ready to blast Mr. Kim's head off!

Jam unearths battle relics...or maybe not.

Jarn- Since I'm black and if I'm walking down this street why should I not view this statue as a symbol of racism and white supremacy endorsed by the local government?  ANSWER- As an African American woman, you have every right to view the statue as a racist symbol. Many of us who are white or Latino or Asian also view the statue as a symbol of racism and white supremacy. As to endorsement by local government, in 1908, when the statue was erected with the permission of the Board of Supervisors, it would have been accurate to say local government endorsed that symbolism. Today, the statue is protected by state law, so those of us in local government who believe it symbolizes racism are requesting that we be given the authority by the state to move it.

Abdul, second right.

Senator Edward Baker, friend of Lincoln, remains the only sitting U. S. Senator to be killed in combat.

Krystal- As a military person, what did you think of the Union strategy at Ball's Bluff?  ANSWER-  It wasn’t a well informed strategy. The bluffs were vulnerable to Union soldiers trying to fight up the hill.

Jon reading the "Bivouac of the Dead."

Felipe (left) Have you been to a battle reenactment and if so what do you think of those?  ANSWER- I have seen a couple of reenactments. Coming from the North, they don’t hold a great deal of interest for me; however, the participants on both sides go to a great deal of effort to make sure their uniforms and living conditions during the reenactment are historically accurate.

Joey- We saw a news report where a Virginia Tech professor said some Confederate statues should stay and some should be removed. How would you decided that? ANSWER- Any statue that stands in front of a government building, like a courthouse or a state capitol building, should be moved. Statues that are in museums or on battlefields could stay.

Joey and Jam composed a prayer on behalf of those that gave their last full measure of devotion. Ball's Bluff Cemetery:  God bless these souls who gave their lives to free the enslaved people of this country and bless every man and women who died for the righteous cause of protecting our county.

Battlefield artist Lochen working on a sketch. The finished product:

Nataly

Chris (right) with Felipe, Jam and Jarn

Jen and Nataly

Confederate flag-bearer Clinton Hatcher was a pacifist but supported the Confederate cause. He was killed during the battle. Jam on left. Wallid and Isiah on the right.

Isiah- What do you think of President Trump’s statement that there were “good people on both sides” of the deadly KKK rally in Charlottesville?ANSWER- It’s bunk. There are no good people in the KKK, the neo-Nazi movement, the Alt-Right or the white supremacist groups. They are evil.

 "The Girl" with Jam, Chris, Dr. Noto and Abdul.

Leesburg Courthouse