In reply to: What is the artistic merit posted by rutfilthygers
and who he asked for, and what had happened to the man he asked for. And what that man did after the war. And who actually put up the monument.
" in a tansparent attempt to reaffirm white supremacy and put black people in their place?"
You found a counter-example. I guess that means you win.
The statue you cite was built in 1993. Most confederate statues were dedicated between 1890 and 1930.
A coded attempt to tell the black people of Gettysburg that they were inferior? No other sentiment could be involved?
In tribute to an incident where a mortally wounded Confederate general, asking for a man who was a close family friend (and a Union general), who had himself been grievously wounded earlier in the battle. In any event, Armistead was a Free Mason and a Union officer, also a Mason, recognized Armistead.
I do not know of a Freemason who would want anything but Brotherly Love.
Both Armistead and Hancock were Freemasons.
..the one you mention and one to Armistead alone.
He found the least objectionable monument to a Confederate soldier (one which depicts a dying Confederate general being comforted by a Union soldier) and used it to counter my statement that these memorials were largely meant to reinforce white supremacy. The statue he references, which is not even strictly a Confederate memorial, was built in 1993 whereas the majority of the statues that have garnered controversy, like Silent Sam, where built between 1890 and 1930.
While I am a Freemason and have seen the Friend to Friend Monument, I was first thinking of the open scroll near the Angle with this inscription:
Brigadier General
Lewis A. Armistead, C.S.A.
fell here
July 3, 1863
It was erected in 1887.