By Juan Montoya
With the Texas Division of the Confederate Veterans, Sixth Brigade fighting tooth and nail to keep the Jefferson Davis Highway Memorial at Washington Park, at least two City of Brownsville commissioners say they would consider moving it to Veterans Park next to the Central Library.
The comments came during a city commission meeting where Mayor Tony Martinez suggested holding a Town Hall meeting to get input from the community on whether to move the monument from its present location, or remove it to another place.
The justification for moving it to Veterans Park, according to commissioner Ben Neece, is that Confederate soldiers have been declared U.S. veterans regardless of what side they fought on.
“I have been receiving a lot of emails and the majority of them are asking it to be moved to the [Brownsville] Veterans Park because in 1957, all soldiers that fought in the Civil War were given status as U.S. veterans," Neece said. All of them on both sides.”
Likewise, commissioner Cesar de Leon also voiced the same opinion.He told the UTRGV Rider that he could see moving the stone monument to Veterans Park which honors U.S. male and female veterans and the military branches.
"What we tabled for is [to have] a town hall meeting, [so] we can get input of the community,” De Leon told the Rider. “If you ask me, I think it should be relocated to Veterans Park because all Civil War veterans are veterans of the United States military. It didn’t matter which side they fought for.”
But those suggesting that a president or the U.S. Congress had pardoned the soldiers of the confederacy or granted them veteran status seem to be mistaken.
According to a Snopes.blog fact check, Neo-Confederate apologists have blurred the issue by claiming that codified changes in burials and pensions enacted over the years declared U.S. and Confederate soldiers as the same.
"When a debate over Confederate monuments and flags came under the national spotlight in June 2015, codified changes in burials and pensions enacted in 1929 and 1958 were puffed up to suggest that a nebulous act of Congress, either in the 1920s or the 1950s, officially declared that Confederate soldiers were the same as United States veterans in the eyes of the federal government.
"However, no legislation either explicitly or implicitly granted Confederate soldiers status as United States veterans. Survivors of dead Confederate soldiers often took offense at measures appearing to equate them to Union soldiers, objections that died off as Southerners from the Civil War era did."
https://www.snopes.com/confederate-soldiers-veterans/
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Some websites have taken these puffery as fact, and a popular poster arguing this has been taken as fact.
But even Confederate researchers admit that the legislation passed to make the Confederate soldiers and widows eligible for pensions only did not confer U.S. veteran status on rebel soldiers.
Snopes noted that Confederate history researcher, author and blogger Andy Hall noted recently, when someone claimed that "Congress passed a law making any and all confederate soldier [sic] a US veteran" (emphasis Hall's):
Some websites have taken these puffery as fact, and a popular poster arguing this has been taken as fact.But even Confederate researchers admit that the legislation passed to make the Confederate soldiers and widows eligible for pensions only did not confer U.S. veteran status on rebel soldiers.
Snopes noted that Confederate history researcher, author and blogger Andy Hall noted recently, when someone claimed that "Congress passed a law making any and all confederate soldier [sic] a US veteran" (emphasis Hall's):
"If you're referring to the 1958 legislation, all it did was make Confederate veterans eligible for the same VA benefits as Union soldiers were. It did not make them U.S. veterans, make any other official change in their status, or extend any particular protections to graves or monuments."
For his part, Martinez said he did not have a particular place in mind for the monument.
“I just want to have people voice their opinion or voice their views,” Martinez said after the meeting. “Let’s take a look at it. Let’s do something that’s in a positive way.”
“I just want to have people voice their opinion or voice their views,” Martinez said after the meeting. “Let’s take a look at it. Let’s do something that’s in a positive way.”
Antonio Castillo, a high school history teacher, started a petition to relocate the monument, which has more than 5,280 signatures.
"The SCV is now actively trying to relocate it to Veterans Park, a bigger insult to U.S. Veterans," Castillo said.
And just recently, someone defaced the memorial, by writing “No Trump,” “No KKK” and “No fascist USA” with red spray paint.
The monument pays tribute to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The monument pays tribute to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The erroneous view on Confederates being granted U.S. veteran status has been pushed along on the mistaken belief that it actually occurred.
The Snopes website clarified the issue: "The Sons of Confederate Veterans cited the 1958 law to make the case that all Americans should honor Confederate veterans. An undated official history of the Department of Veterans Affairs that covers the period up to 2006 goes so far as to claim that the law "pardoned" Confederate service members. A 1997 in VFW Magazine also referred to the the "congressional pardon" of 1958."
The Snopes website clarified the issue: "The Sons of Confederate Veterans cited the 1958 law to make the case that all Americans should honor Confederate veterans. An undated official history of the Department of Veterans Affairs that covers the period up to 2006 goes so far as to claim that the law "pardoned" Confederate service members. A 1997 in VFW Magazine also referred to the the "congressional pardon" of 1958."
A historian who did not wish to be identified stated it more clearly: [It’s] clear that Public Law 85-425, section 410 of 1958 was intended solely to provide a symbolic, Civil War Centennial gesture late-life pension to Walter Williams, the supposed only surviving Confederate veteran, and did not apply in any way to any other Confederate soldiers. Of course it turned out (as many people knew then) that Williams was not, in fact, a Confederate veteran – but the desire to still have a living link to the War proved more important than fact."
And, later: The section of the law that Confederate apologists seem to be misconstruing is this one:
"(e) For the purpose of this section, and section 433, the term 'veteran' includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term 'active, military or naval service' includes active service in such forces."
"For the purpose of this section" is referring to Section 432 of the Veterans' Benefits Act of 1957, which set pensions for widows of U.S. veterans of the Civil War; Section 433 of that act pertains to pensions of Civil War veterans' children. There is nothing in U.S. Public Law 85-425 or the law it amends that says anything about making Confederate veterans U.S. veterans or 'pardoning' them."
"(e) For the purpose of this section, and section 433, the term 'veteran' includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term 'active, military or naval service' includes active service in such forces."
"For the purpose of this section" is referring to Section 432 of the Veterans' Benefits Act of 1957, which set pensions for widows of U.S. veterans of the Civil War; Section 433 of that act pertains to pensions of Civil War veterans' children. There is nothing in U.S. Public Law 85-425 or the law it amends that says anything about making Confederate veterans U.S. veterans or 'pardoning' them."