Robert E. Lee was married to George Washington's granddaughter and they lived at Washington's former estate at Arlington House. Much of the present controversy about civil war generals neglects to understand the history of the founders or of the Confederate leaders that fought to keep men slaves.
George Washington's wide Martha had been married before. She and George adopted the son from that marriage George Washington Park Curtis. Curtis's daughter married Robert E. Lee. One cannot easily purge history as one might in the former Soviet Union or Hitlerian Germany and replace it with a politically correct revision.
It is easy to understand the hatred people feel toward civil rights statues of generals that fought to keep men slaves. One might want to tear down the hated symbols of slavery that some glorify as if they would put Lebron James back in to chains if they could and have him work for nothing dunking basketballs and cleaning toilets after the games are over.
Frankly, I would remove all of the old statues and replace them with modern upgraded statues of the same people. One should not tear them apart like the Taliban might. The old south may need statue infrastructure renewal.
Instead of a General Lee on a rearing horse with a hat or saber in outstretched hand I would have a more recondite Lee with downcast air signing a document of surrender. Rather than a glorious General Hood defending Atlanta one could have a tired, one-armed general fleeing toward Savannah. General Gordon, a brilliant brigadeer who almost flanked Grant at the 2nd Wilderness campaign, could be shown lying on a hospital bed about mortally wounded.
It might be a good idea to promote statues of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas if statues must be placed. Thomas was the most advanced of northern commanders who innovated numerous modern military techniques and is largely responsible for the union success at defeating the southern confederates with the Army of the Cumberland. General Thomas was from North Carolina.
The old pidgeon-dropped statues should be collected and placed together at some federal site to historically note the war. New statues could be of modern art theory and in color with blood, woven looking neo-metallic structures and perhaps reflecting rainbows and laser beams with extruding guts from eviscerating shrapnel. The potential for using new confederate war statues for education and art-for-art's sake that are interesting yet not glorifying of war in the old way of design has quite a bit of potential. Input from a number of sources regarding design could be included, with some scenes of liberators and slaves, the dead and so forth. Perhaps holographic statues could play out during the day and let the old soldiers fade toward dusk with memories of conflict.
