Forrest Hall Thesis Statement

The Civil War brought about many things, such as revolution, justice, and tragedy, but it also birthed two truly great minds of their time. These individuals were Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest. One led the North as president of the United States, while the other was a Lieutenant General of the Confederate Army. While both were brilliant and truly outstanding amongst their peers, one man truly outshined the other in regards to a stronger and more efficient leadership. While Lincoln faced more success in a national sense, Nathan Bedford Forrest clearly possessed more respected authority and was a stronger overall leader than Abraham Lincoln. Forrest’s methods may have been unorthodox and downright immoral, but at the end of the day he was feared by the Union and revered by the South. This is the true mark of a great leader. They should be respected by their followers and hated by their enemies. While the South ultimately lost the Civil War, the legacy of Forrest as a remarkable leader lived on, as he was immortalized in history and respected amongst his community.

Topic: In 1866, the Ku Klux Klan was founded by many former confederate veterans in retaliation to their current Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. The Reconstruction era sparked by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation clearly defined that the days of white superiority were in dissolution. Through a willful ignorance and an insecurity of what might postlude the civil rights movement, the KKK rose, using terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Lieutenant general in the Civil war, became the KKK's first Grand Wizard. Now with a steady leader the klan became a persistent political party aimed at dismantling the increasingly

The relationship that he worked on the most was with Jenny. Every time he got the chance he spent time with her and told her about the important things going on in his life. When Jenny left for D.C. Forrest showed her how much he cared for her. He gave Jenny the Medal of Honor that he had just received, and he said, “I got it just by doing what you told me to do.” (Zemeckis, 1994)

He was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Bedford Forrest had no formal military training; indeed, he had only six months of formal education of any kind. Forrest earned the earns nickname “ Wizard of the saddle’’ for his His lighting raid, and his rear area strike became part of the basis for modern warfare strategies and tactics. He was among the most feared commanding officers of the Civil War. The Union

The removal of Confederate monuments has been a controversial topic over the past few years. Many want to tear them down, others want to keep them up and some want them to be moved to museums. Although controversial, many still do not know why exactly people want these statues to tear down or be kept up. After reading and analyzing both Michele Bogart’s and The Guardian’s view on Confederate statues, I would say that Michele Bogart’s “In Defense of ‘Racist’ Monuments” article was the most persuasive. Right off the bat, Michele Bogart starts off with how the rise of white nationalism is causing officials around the country to remove memorials of Confederate soldiers, military leaders, and symbols of “the Lost Cause”. Bogart clearly states that not all civic statues represent white supremacy or racism, but that they are “the culmination of complex social and artistic engagement at the community level” (Bogart). She further explains how eliminating these statues is not going to help solve the problem of racism in the United States. Her purpose in this essay is to persuade the reader that civic monuments should be kept up as pieces of art, not as “symbols of hate”.

Thesis: As the debate continues on whether or not we should keep confederate monuments and symbols displayed publicly, it is important that we recognize both the benefits and downfalls of removing these symbols.

Tillman Hall. This is the name of the main building on Winthrop University’s campus and is the name of the clock tower at Clemson University. These two buildings have faced quite a number of racial incidences over the past couple of years due to the founder of the two buildings, Benjamin R. Tillman. Many people have raised the issue of having the name changed to something different over the past couple of years but no changes have been made. There hope is to end the racial incidences that occur and ultimately stop racism on these two campuses. The major question at hand is will changing the name of Tillman Hall reduce the number of race-induced incidents? I do think that changing the name of Tillman Hall on both of these two campuses will reduce racial incidences due to the fact that this changes the atmosphere of the school and really holds itself up to its diversity standard, the changing of the name does not change history but it shows that we as a people have come far and don’t need someone like Benjamin Tillman at the center representing us, and it is very likely that these racial incidents will be put to an end as the “violent racist” and his legacy is gone.

Forrest has conquered many hindrances that include attending college and playing for the college football team. Forrest enlists in the United States Army and shows a distinctive kind of intelligence by his prompt rifle assembly in a record setting time, the drill Sargent uses positive reinforcement (p. 42) to acknowledge

VMI is inextricably bound to the Civil war and some of its key figures. Tearing down the Newmarket Monument and Stonewall Jackson statues and erasing Robert E. Lee’s name from buildings, wipes out over a decade of VMI’s history. No college in America was more involved in the Civil War than VMI and that history should be acknowledged by the school and discussed. We mentioned the illustrious careers of “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee earlier. It is all right for the school to honor their achievements, especially Jackson’s as he was a professor at the school, however, they must also acknowledge that these men were on the wrong side of history as well. Of the 1,930 alumni, who were living at the onset of the Civil

Throughout history, there have been people whose names and faces have become synonymous with the time periods in which they lived. For example, Julius Caesar is synonymous with the late Roman Republic and George Washington is synonymous with the American Revolution. Just like these two men, the name Robert E. Lee has become synonymous with the American Civil War. Not only did Lee rise to become the most important and recognizable person in the Southern Confederacy, but his honor and virtuous acts during and after the war made him a hero to modern-day Americans. Even though he fought for what many consider the morally erroneous side of the war, the virtues of his character have made him a figure in American history

A recent hot-button subject in the media has been what to do with Confederate monuments in the South. After the removal of a statue honoring Robert E. Lee, a general in the Confederate Army considered by many to be a hero for the part he played in the American Civil War, a clear divide has formed over whether it was the right thing to do. Some agree with this choice, calling the statues remnants from a time of racial oppression in the United States. Others are outraged, considering it desecration of their proud history. Still others don't understand either side of the issue, and see it as a pointless feud. It is imperative to understand that to many people, these are more than just statues. Whether their impression is positive or negative, this issue goes beyond physical monuments.

In his article, “In Richmond, students seek to revive ‘Rebel’ mascot” published by The Washington Post, T. Rees Shapiro says that a group of students, graduates and parents started and signed a petition to bring back an old mascot because many students think or have the concept that the mascot will be a catalyst to improve the school’s spirit, the athletic occurrence and others; yet, because the mascot represents ‘rebels’, which shows relations to the confederacy and slavery, it is controversial. However, proponents of the mascot change such as Charlie Bonner says that although the idea of a Confederate soldier appears to bring bad memories to many people and many schools and universities such as the University of Mississippi, got rid of their

My reasoning behind this was further supported by a name changing case that I had done research on from Clemson University in which the board of trustees chairman David Wilkins released a compelling statement, “Every great institution is built by imperfect craftsmen. Stone by stone they add to the foundation so that over many, many generations, we get a variety of stones. And so it is with Clemson. Some of our historical stones are rough and even unpleasant to look at. But they are ours and denying them, as part of our history does not make them any less so. For that reason, we will not change the name of our historical buildings” (Wilkins). This statement resonated with me and I thought that the reasoning behind it was solid. And I viewed the positive changes that Deady made in the later parts of his life as a reason in which the name shouldn’t be changed; because his transformation and open mindedness embodies a progressive philosophy our University can take pride in promoting. I felt as if Deady needed to have his name left on the building because of his historical importance and because the changes he made throughout his life are inspiring. As far as changing the name of Dunn hall is concerned, I was and am still in favor of removing the name of anyone that has the nerve to support white supremacy groups such as the Ku Klux

Imagine your children living in a world full of hatred, prejudice, and discrimination from their brothers and sisters of America. The ultimate reality where a minority man or woman can’t cross the street without feeling vulnerable or concerned of an issue occurring because of who they are. I am telling you this because if we let the Robert E. Lee statue remain standing, our world will become a dystopia of animosity and bigotry with the support of White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis. In the late 1800’s, President Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery all throughout the United States, however, the South believed that it was unconstitutional to eradicate slavery. Due to the disagreement about slavery between the Union and the Confederates, they began the American Civil War and endured the four years of combat casualties on both sides, until the Union won and slavery was completely abolished. Subsequently, many statues emerged in southern states honoring Confederate soldiers and leaders that fought against the Union in the Civil War, such as the Robert E. Lee monument. With rich history, like ours, we can see the evolution in our society and learn from our racial, degrading, and dishonorable actions that has affected one to several millions of Americans. Although the Robert E. Lee statue is a form of history, the statues need to be removed from the public property because of the true representation behind the monument and the pain in remembering our infamous racial past.

The official entrance to the campus of the University of North Carolina is a green field called McCorkle Place. In the middle of this field on a pedestal, a large bronze statue, Silent Sam, stands. Silent Sam was requested by the North Carolina chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908, to memorialize the 300 UNC students who died fighting for the Confederacy during the civil war. Since the statue’s completion in 1913, Silent Sam has had many meanings to many different people around Chapel Hill. In the 1960s, debates over Silent Sam’s symbolism and place on UNC’s campus gained public attention for the first time. To this day, protests, demonstrations, writings, and debates- both for and against the statue- have drawn in students and community members.