More Statues To Be Removed? Where Does It End?

John Breckinridge Castleman is an unfamiliar name to most. I certainly didn't know the name when it was brought to my attention this morning.

John Castleman was a soldier from Lexington, Kentucky. He studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington before joining the Army of the Confederacy when the Civil War broke out. He achieved the rank of Major during the war. Castleman was arrested in Missouri for attempting to destroy supply boats and was sentenced to death. He was pardoned by Abraham Lincoln.

Following the war Castleman was exiled from the United States and spent time in France studying medicine. He was pardoned by then President Andrew Johnson and returned to Kentucky in 1866 where he revived his old army unit and commanded the new First Kentucky Volunteers unit, fighting for the United States of America in the Spanish-American war. He was promoted to Colonel during that time.

Castleman was part of the invasion of Puerto Rico and after the war ended he was promoted to Brigadier General. He served as one of the military governors in Puerto Rico before returning to Kentucky, where he became the Adjutant General of Kentucky and served 25 years as the Commissioner of the Board of Parks.

John Breckenridge Castleman is becoming more well known in Kentucky these days, particularly in the citiy of Louisville. Activists in Louisville want a statue of Castleman on public to be removed because he fought for the South.

Apparently returning to the United States after exile and serving these great United States in the Spanish-American war isn't enough to forgive Castleman's transgression of being a Confederate for a few years. In my book his service to the United States should outweigh his service to the Confederacy. He put himself in harm's way for the United States.

Some Americans in 2017 can't find it in their hearts to care about his service to the United States. The Castleman statue in Louisville was vandalized over the weekend and activists are demanding it be removed.

In Lexington, Kentucky, there is a statue of John Castleman's distant cousin, John Cabell Breckenridge, who was the 14^th and youngest Vice President of the United States from 1857 to 1861, when the Civil War began. He encouraged his fellow Southern politicians to maintain the union but when that failed to happen he went home to Kentucky to fight for the Confederacy.

Following the war Breckenridge had to flee the country. He returned to Kentucky after President Andrew Johnson granted amnesty to all Confederate soldiers. Yes, he was a Confederate. But removing his statue from it's current resting place is not going to change history.

The assault on historic monuments continues. In Durham, North Carolina yesterday citizens pulled down a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier and destroyed it. The bronze statue became misshapen on impact with the ground and the protesters began kicking it. (Watching them kick it was actually rather humorous. I would bet more than a couple of them are limping today.)

The statue was entitled “Remembering The Boys Who Wore Gray.” It wasn't an officer. It was a foot soldier put there in memory of all of America's Southern sons who were lost in the war. Now it's trash and I hope the people responsible for destroying it face criminal charges. It wasn't their place to destroy it.

Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally change America.” And in many ways he kept his promise. The entitlement generation who believe they have an absolute right not to be offended by anyone or anything is mostly a product of the last 8 years.

Safe spaces, hot chocolate, coloring books and puppies for college kids heartbroken over the election might comfort them today but it's not going to teach them how to survive in the real world. Ripping down statues because you don't like them is stupid. And I would bet very few of them know anything about the Civil War. I doubt they teach the truth about it anymore.

I'm curious and a little frightened to see where all of this ends. Who knows how far people are willing to go to correct their perceived wrong...?