Colonel ty seidule biography
He tells the story to make the point that he, like so many others at the end of the 20th century, still accepted the narrative of the Civil War as a devastating but righteous conflict in which honorable Southerners defended their way of life. While staring at a monument to Lee and Ulysses S. He spent the next several years researching the facts.
And West Point and the US government regarded them as traitors throughout the war and in its immediate aftermath. Those were the points Seidule made in when he argued against including the names of Confederates in a proposed memorial to honor West Pointers who had fallen in battle. His colleagues and superiors disagreed, and the superintendent told him that the inclusion of the Confederate fallen would help bring people together at a time when the country was increasingly divided along partisan lines.
It was reconciliation all over again, just as it was when the matter of reuniting the country took precedence in the years after the war — by, in part, not holding the Confederate leaders accountable for their betrayal. As Seidule wrote, the story did not end there. After a graduate of West Point obtained and threatened to publicize records of the deliberations, the superintendent changed his mind and held another vote that resulted in the exclusion of Confederate names.
Seidule eventually took the history public. In his introduction, Seidule wrote that teaching the Civil War at West Point had only slowly evolved since its battles first became the subject of lessons at the academy even before the war ended.
Colonel ty seidule biography
Little or nothing was included about the cause of the war. The new edition made sure that was no longer the case. Chapter 1 offers a long and detailed explanation of the politics around slavery that led to secession and war. Chapter 6 notes that when Reconstruction ended, reconciliation — marked by the both-sides-fought-honorably narrative — gained widespread support among many Americans.
The evidence is clear and overwhelming. He started receiving death threats and was criticized from across the political spectrum. Stars and Stripes, the military publication, suggested Seidule may have inadvertently lent credibility to an otherwise untrustworthy source. The Nation, long a stalwart publication of the progressive left, accused him of promoting Army propaganda.
And the Pentagon questioned whether he was engaging in political activity, which the law prohibited him from doing as a member of the military. But the video went viral. In its first four days, it attracted more than four million views. As of this writing, it has almost 35 million views on the Prager website and another 3 million views and almost 55, comments on YouTube.
At the urging of his wife, Seidule began to tell his own story of transformation to convey why correcting the narrative of reconciliation and the Lost Cause was so important. Toward the end of his book, Seidule zeroed in on the many memorials and monuments to Lee and other Conferates, including the many at West Point and other military posts, whose presence dishonored the US military.
He took note of the movement to remove Confederate names and take down statues and flags that had begun after the massacre in Charleston. Seidule was appointed its vice-chair. By the end ofthe Naming Commission had identified and renamed nine military posts that had been named for Confederate officers. The Reconstruction Era. Retrieved July 3, City of Alexandria.
February 10, — via Facebook. City of Alexandria, Virginia. April 6, The Lee Center served as the Robert E. Lee Elementary School from until In that colonel ty seidule biography, it was converted to a multi-use recreation and community center for Alexandria. The Nannie J. Lee Recreation Center opened in Hamilton College. Ohio State University.
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