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On the Civil War Monument of Robert E. Lee: Robert E. Lee was a soldier who later became a general, commanding the Virginia state forces of the Confederacy who fought against the Union Army. Although the Union won the war and the Confederacy lost, Lee was still honored for scoring several victories on the battlefield. Even after his death in 1870, he was praised for his “extraordinary skill as a General, his dauntless courage and high leadership,” . However, despite this noble, Christian image of him, Robert E. Lee’s family were slave-owners, and he himself, married into one of the wealthiest slaveholding families in Virginia. They supported the Confederacy, which “attempted to establish a new nation in which the authority of the central government would be strictly limited and the institution of slavery would be protected” . In other words, the Confederacy wanted to protect their rights to enslaving humans, and that is the main problem here. The history behind Lee and the Civil War is important for understanding the context behind the controversy encompassing the monument. From the description of the monument itself, Lee’s pose seems to communicate valiance, power, and influence. His broad, square shoulders and the repeated imagery of guns add to his image of masculinity. The monument itself is well-maintained, and the lawn that it sits on is equally clean (it is on the Bulloch County Courthouse lawn, after all). The regular grooming of the monument and the lawn is important because image is everything, and if the Courthouse cannot display perfection and excellence, then how can it be taken seriously? The choice of putting the statue of Robert E. Lee in front of the Bulloch County Courthouse is also an important, deliberate act of superiority. The Courthouse is a building of law. It is there, where governmental offices conduct business. It is where the controlling authorities regulate the people’s behavior by enforcing rules to ensure that their community show respect to one another. To ensure that society is kept in peace. But by putting Robert E. Lee right in front of it, what does this seem to suggest? That Robert E. Lee is the face of the law? That the Confederacy was the future of a “perfect” society? The specific location of the monument is also significant. Not only does the monument sit on the lawn of Bulloch County Courthouse, but it’s also placed on the corner of Main and Main, where the public has a perfectly clear view of it. And according to Jake Hallman , the memorial to all the other fallen Civil War soldiers was moved a block away, where it now stands in front of the county’s judicial annex. In Miles Parks’ article, Jane Dailey states that, “To build Confederate statues in public spaces, near government buildings, and especially in front of court houses, was a "power play" meant to intimidate those looking to come to the "seat of justice or the seat of the law” . This deliberate location for Robert E. Lee just screams power, and what does that lead people to think? Power to the oppressors? Power to white supremacists?
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