Our View: The Gen. Johnston statue isn’t coming down

Published 8:56 pm Monday, July 6, 2015

A photo illustration in Sunday’s Daily Citizen seems to have confused many readers who think downtown’s only historical statue was taken down for political correctness. This is of course not true.

As stated, it was a photo illustration, a picture changed to help demonstrate a point, here being that symbols, memorials and tributes related to the American Civil War have come under scrutiny because of a national tragedy.

The statue in question, that of Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, is not in danger of being taken away. As the story indicated, no government official or civic leader is calling for it to be removed. That statue was erected during the 50th anniversary of the war and has no relation to any backlash to the civil rights movement, unlike the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina that is at the center of the recent controversy.

Johnston was the commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, which was camped in Dalton during the winter of 1863-64. The general’s home and headquarters while he was in Dalton has been preserved and recently has found new life as a community center — the Huff House on Selvidge Street.

It’s doubtful any movement to remove these and similar historical artifacts will gain any traction here because that’s what they are, historical.

As has been stated previously in this space, rather than removing history, we would hope that officials in other areas would look at what has happened in Dalton and Whitfield County. Instead of censoring our Confederate history, local officials, working with state and national organizations, have worked to recognize parts of our Civil War history that had not received the attention they deserved in the past.

To those who only looked at the photo that depicted a crane lifting the Johnston statue off its pedestal and thought that was a done deal, we’re sorry you misinterpreted the message. Many readers noticed the photo was labeled a “photo illustration” and read the story by Charles Oliver that clearly stated that no removal had happened or was forthcoming.