Confederate Soldiers Have A Place In Jonesborough Memorial
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Confederate Soldiers Will Have A Place In Jonesborough's...
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously in favor of including them. It remains unclear whether or not that vote will incite Marion Light's resignation from the V.A. Committee.
George Jackson/11 Connects
Local members of the ‘Sons of Confederate Veterans’ await Monday’s vote
Jonesborough, Tenn.—Last month, Tennessee’s oldest town celebrated the near-completion of Veterans Park.
To Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Marion Light, Memorial Day Weekend was a dream come true.
“It has been a labor of love and a lot of time,“ Light said.
The park includes hundred of bricks, all placed to honor fallen veterans from Washington County—but the collection of names etched in granite did not include confederate soldiers. That changed Monday night when the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted them in.
Light said the park was intended for U.S., not confederate soldiers.
“We’re not trying to discriminate,“ he said. “We were just trying to honor the people who held this country together.“
An organization called the ‘Sons of Confederate Veterans’ thinks both groups are one in the same.
“It was their sons that went on to fight in World War I, their grandsons went on to fight in World War II,“ Brigade Commander David Roberts said. “We’re as American as anybody else and we want our place in history. We don’t want it covered up.“
Roberts said federal law provides equal rights to the confederate soldier.
According to the U.S. Department Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Government denied benefits to Confederate soldiers until 1958. That year, Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower pardoned the entire group—when they pensioned 80 year-old Minnie Cave, the last living confederate widow.
Jonesborough Town Attorney James Wheeler looked into the issue’s legal background. Monday night, he presented that research (and the following conclusion) to the board.
“All authority cited to me or found by me is persuasive rather than controlling on this issue,“ Wheeler said. “In other words, this is a decision for the town of Jonesborough as the owner of the park to make.“
The board made that decision immediately—and voted unanimously in favor of including confederate soldiers.
It remains unclear whether or not that vote will incite Light’s resignation from the V.A. Committee.
“I plan to get this {project} finished,“ he said. “Then I’ll look at what the town has required. But, I want to finish what we’ve got started first.“
Light suspended brick orders last Monday in anticipation of this ruling. He said the town has 1,400 bricks left to lay.
Wheeler said the V.A. Committee will decide how markers for Washington County’s confederate soldiers will be incorporated.
For a video version of this report, click the play icon above.
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Reader Reactions
The strawman just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Did anyone see today’s Johnson City Press? In a letter to the editor, a lady wrote that Union reenactors have not marched in Jonesborough’s parade in 15-20 years and that the Union has not been allowed to have an encampment in the town.
She’s wrong on both counts.
Both Union and Confederate groups marched together there about 2 or 3 years ago. I remember it because I was one of them.
Last year, both groups were invited to do an encampment. The Confederates came, but the Yankees didn’t. That’s not the Confederate reenactor’s fault.
I had forgotten about Johnny Cash and June Carter playing there. Why can’t the town do something like that now?
I’d love to go to the storytelling center, but they rarely ever seem to have a resident storyteller that I’m interested in hearing, so I pretty much lost interest and don’t even bother to keep up anymore.
I’m a transplant myself. I moved to the JC area from southwest Virginia about 15 years ago, and to Jonesborough about 7 years ago, but I’ve visited the place all my life. I love the people here dearly and I want to feel invested in the community, but right now that would be about like investing in General Motors.
I’ve lived in the Appalachian Mountains all my life and for all the places I’ve visited, there’s nothing more beautiful than the old Appalachian culture and history right here. Or that was here.
There are things that the town can do that will preserve and promote the local heritage and culture, that would be of equal interest to locals and tourists, but nobody seems to be thinking in those directions. TPTB seem determined to turn Jonesborough into Gatlinburg-Lite.
How long will it be until we have a roller coaster and Ripley’s Aquarium?
As a Tennessee boy, born and bred in the Johnson City of the 1960s I remember old Jonesborough. I can recall even in my college days when I was a reenactor coming to town in my Confederate gray and being treated as a person who was preserving a part of our mountain heritage and not something that should be placed in a back room to be ashamed of as our Confederate roots seem to be these days. I also remember seeing both the Stars and Stripes flying along with Confederate Battle Flags and we all knew it was fine. There were black and white folk and even some Cherokee people in our area and we were poor and poor alike. We never truly thought of any of these emblems or what people would now call “labels” being offensive. We also never imagined in a thousand years that our Tennessee culture would be offensive, especially to those of us who were from here! Lord help us now. I have been forced to move from our mountains because of my job and when I come home I can hardly recognize the place, in fact I don’t except for some buildings that are still around. For years I always made a special trip to town as I had so many wonderful memories there and I wanted my children to share the gifts that those of us from East Tennessee had to offer and believe me these “gifts” cannot be found outside of our area. I’m sad to say it’s all gone. The main street in Jonesborough is just overpriced shops filled with nothing anyone other than a gullible tourist would have. There seems to be no true town for those who actually live there. Jonesborough is almost like a movie set. There are buildings, but no true substance if you know what I mean. I can stop in at the Storytelling building (I don’t know what for), buy an ice cream, a walking stick that can be found in any town in the US, over priced antiques, and maybe a cup of expensive coffee (remember the coffee house that had a picture of Gen. Robert E. Lee and a Confederate Battle Flag on the wall?). It’s to the point that I don’t even make the 10 minute drive to Jonesborough as there is nothing there for an East Tennessean. What happened folks? Now I’m not a resident, but it seems to me that something is very wrong and the magic that honestly use to be part of the town is now gone. I always said I wanted to retire to Jonesborough, but now for what? The soul of the town is gone.
It is true that Jonesborough once hosted a Civil Ware Reenactment in Mill Spring Park. I was once a part of it and know how much it added to the feel and flair of the town. I also did working demonstrations of what is now considered “arts and crafts”, but back in the day it was a part of life in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. We had it all, from blacksmiths to broom makers demonstrating their trade and educating the history loving public on the old ways.
The untold truth as to why it all stooped as far as the reenactments goes? Well here it is…..at that time Jonesborough had an African American Mayor. He put a stop to it because he stated that “he was offended by it”. After that….....it all ended. I live in Jonesborough, have served in many capacities to bring events to the town. Back in the 70’s Johnny and June Carter Cash even played in Jonesborough. We need tourists, but not at the expense of the local people who have given so much to Jonesborough.
This is where Jonesborough fails. With people like Marion Light who think that they speak for all of Jonesborough, it puts a nasty scar on the town and it’s history.
I challenge anyone to find a local in the town on any given day. More and more you find that Jonesborough is filling up with people moving in from Florida, mostly because of people like Kelly Wolf who raped farm land to build house in the name of progress. All to take advantage of poor federal policy that forces banks to loan to people who can not afford to pay it back. If you do not believe me, drive down Old Embreeville Rd and look at all the house he built in the past ten years that are now for sale in a suffering economy. Wolf made out like a bandit while local people suffer. It’s time for Jonesborough to back up and take stock in where it came from. It sure looks like a better place to be, because the direction it is going does not look good at all.
I’m gratified to see the Confederates go on the memorial. I’d like to see the town get back to its roots. I’m not happy with the directions the town has gone in in recent years, and from what I’m hearing, I’m far from not alone in that sentiment.
Many of us have watched Jonesborough change from a town rich in history, heritage, and culture into something that we don’t know what it is. The town is so focused on attracting tourists from all across the country that they’re ignoring all the local people. I’ve talked to many people who have lived there all their lives and tell me they never go into town because there’s nothing there that they are interested in. About the only time I go there is to renew my car tags.
People are interested in history and the old ways. There are many people who are starving for history and if they’ll put those qualities back in the town, plus the local flavor of the town, people will come.
From what I hear, Jonesborough used to host a Civil War reenactment that the reenactors say was one of the best ones ever. They stopped doing it a few years ago. Those battles attract a lot of tourists, and local people love to come out and watch them.
I’ve heard that there’s an Andrew Jackson reenactor who has offered to do performances in the town, but the town won’t agree to it. The real Jackson lived there for a time.
For God’s sake, put the Tennessee back in Jonesborough.
As the man who led this campaign to include the Confederates on the memorial, I do not call on Marion Light to resign. I call on him to join us in a spirit of unity and reconciliation to see to it that ALL of Washington County’s honorable veterans are inluded in the memorial. I will be more than happy to work with Mr. Light to see to to it that the memorial is constructed in a manner satisfactory to all parties concerned.
It appears to me the Mr. Light was not the person for this job. He is the one who has created division by insulting CS Veterans and their ancestors. I am glad to see that common sense has prevailed and Mr. Light enlightened as to the significance of the men who fought bravely in the last war to ever take place on American soil.
Mr. Light…...your ignorance of the matter has left you with egg on your face and you stand corrected sir!
Maybe it would be best if Mr. Light were to resign. He reminds me very much of the carpetbaggers that invaded the south at the end of the civil war.
The facts are plain that confederate soldiers were fighting for what had become the American way of life for them.
Whether they were right or wrong in their crusade is an issue they settled over a century ago.
The healing process was long and hard at the end of the civil war. We don’t need people like Mr. Light reopening the wounds of that time. Maybe he doesn’t realize that we are all Americans and should be treated as such.
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