Confederate Soldiers Monument



From: HK Edgerton [hk.edgerton@gmail.com]
Date: Tue, May 24, 2016
Subject: Confederate soldiers monument!
To: Fred C Wilhite [fofoml@juno.com]

Commander Wilhite: I apologize for not being able to stand with you and so many in support of the Confederate soldiers monument there in the great state of Kentucky. My schedule just will not permit.

However Sir, I bring your attention back to this letter that pretty well represents the sentiments of a large majority of Black folks, living and dead, to include myself:

Rep. John F. Harris, former slave Republican member, Mississippi House of Representatives
Representing Washington County Vote on Bill
To appropriate $10,000 to complete Confederate Monument
on the Grounds of the State Capitol
The Clarion Ledger, February 23, 1890

“Mr. Speaker! I have arisen here in my place to offer a few words on the bill. I have come from a sick bed, and was forced to struggle up here leaning on the arm of a friend. I stand here in
considerable pain. Perhaps it was not prudent for me to come.

But Sir, I could not rest quietly in my room, sick though I am, and allow this discussion to pass without contributing to it a few remarks of my own.

I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentleman from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier should go on record as opposed to the erection of a monument in honor of the brave dead.

And, Sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines and in the seven days fighting around Richmond, the battlefields covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their
country and their country’s honor, he would not have made that speech. When the news came that the South was to be invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests
for monuments to commemorate their brave deeds and holy sacrifices. But they died, and their virtues should be remembered.

Sir, I went with them. I, too, wore the gray, the same color that my Master wore. We stayed for four long years, and if that sad war had gone on till now, I would be there yet. I know what it all
meant, and I understand the meaning of my words, when I say that I would have been with my countrymen still had the war continued until this good day.

I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions.

When my mother died, I was a boy who, Sir, then acted the part of a mother to the orphaned slave boy, but my old Missus? Were she living now, or could she speak to me from those high realms where are
gathered the sainted dead. She would tell me to vote on this bill.

And Sir, I shall vote for it. I want it known to all the world that my vote is given in favor of the bill to erect a monument in honor of the brave Confederate dead.

While the Press would have one to believe, the NAACP does not speak for all the Black, Red, Yellow, Brown, or White folks in the whole of America. God bless you.

Your brother,

HK Edgerton
Kentucky Colonel