William Henry Trescot's Poem at the Confederate Soldier Monument

While contemplating the meaning of Confederate ancestry a while back, I stumbled upon a poem that is inscribed, or was inscribed, on the Confederate State Memorial at the South Carolina State Capitol. Personally, all forms of racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, etc. are absolutely repulsive and anathema to me. Yet as a passionate genealogist and recorder of family history, I cannot deny the reality- I descend from a legacy of racism. Many of my ancestors owned Slaves- three of my four grandparents descend from Slave owners. And multiple ancestors of mine saw service for the Confederate States of America, an illegitimate entity formed out of rebellion against the Union, in the defense of African chattel Slavery. While I also have ancestors who fought in defense of the Union, more of my ancestors were Confederates then were loyal to the Union. This is probably because much of my maternal ancestry is traced to Dutch immigrants, but the point still stands. And so this moral conundrum is central to my reflections in my genealogical research- how can I love and honor my ancestors, when so many of them led downright evil and despicable lives? 

The inscribed poem on the Confederate Soldier Monument at the South Carolina State House by William Henry Trescot does an excellent job in summarizing my feelings on those men in my ancestry who saw service for a brutal cause. Without them, I would not exist. They are my ancestors just the same as those who fought for the Union, fought for American independence from Britain, came to West Michigan from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, lived as faithful Anglicans and Puritans in Merry Old England and Puritan New England, and were pious Lutherans in the Holy Roman Empire. I honor them as well as all my other ancestors, despite my horror at their lives. 

This monument perpetuates the memory, of those who

true to the instincts of their birth, faithful to the teachings of their fathers,

constant in their love for the state, died in the performance of their duty:

who have glorified a fallen cause by the simple manhood of their lives,

the patient endurance of suffering, and the heroism of death,

and who, in the dark hours of imprisonment,

in the hopelessness of the hospital, 

in the short, sharp agony of the field

found support and consolation in the belief

that at home they would not be forgotten.

Let the stranger, who may in the future times

read this inscription, recognize that these were men

whom power could not corrupt, whom death could not terrify,

whom defeat could not dishonor and let their virtues plead

for just judgment of the cause in which they perished.

Let the South Carolinian of another generation remember

that the State taught them how to live and how to die.

And that from her broken fortunes she has preserved for her children

the priceless treasure of their memories, teaching all who may claim

the same birthright that truth, courage and patriotism

endure forever.

In Memory of Complicated Men: Sgt. Joseph Franklin Winn Sr., James F. Benton, William J. Humphreys, Bartholomew K. Bragg, Noah G. Pittman, and possibly others.