If this period of history is at all important to you, you would have to be living on another planet not to have heard of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s 1999 political move which mandated that the Park Service incorporate the mention of "the unique role that slavery played in the cause of the conflict" into its civil war battlefield park presentations.

Recently, the Museum of the Confederacy announced its intention to lend two of its battle flags to the new visitor's center, scheduled to open in Gettysburg in 2006. A leading figure in the SCV followed up with an article in the "Confederate Veteran" which seemed to be supportive of this move. According to the MOC, both flags are in dire need of restoration, a very expensive process costing of thousands of dollars. Display of those flags in a National Park Visitor’s center that draws 1.8 million people per year would be one way to solicit donations, according to the MOC's director. It would also, he said, be a good way to “get our foot in the door” to “tell our story.”

What I hope to demonstrate in this article is that the Park Service is not the Park Service of old, they are not to be bargained with, and they are clearly, our enemy! Ed Bearrs still does his melodramatic renditions, and not every ranger or guide exhibits hostility to all things Confederate. But, the National Park Service, as a governmental agency, IS avowedly hostile, and plans to present the story of the War Between the States as a simple conflict between good and evil. (i.e., North = good and South = evil). Collaborating with them, assisting them, hoping that if we are “nice” they will be fair to “our side of the story,” is at best, a dream, and at worst, we are assisting in our own demise.

Many blame the whole thing on Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., (D) Illinois. As one who’s been following the Park Service changes for four years and who has delved extensively into the subject, I can tell you that this would be a mistake. Jackson is indeed a race-huckster and an opportunist, and his 1999 legislation did make these changes law, but if you’ve ever read his ramblings, you'll see he’s not bright enough to power up a 25 watt light bulb, much less engineer the radical changes that are coming down the pike. By his own admission, Jackson did not begin touring civil war battlefields until 1997.

The changes that some of you are seeing in such places as Gettysburg, Corinth, Shiloh, Petersburg and elsewhere, have been in the works for two decades and perhaps longer. What you’re seeing in the National Park’s Civil War Battlefields didn't start yesterday and it has been in the works since before Jesse Jackson Jr. ever knew what the "civil war" was!

SOME CHRONOLOGY:

In 2004, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Paul Hoffman said the following to the House Subcommittee on the National Parks. Note the dates 1989 and 1990 as proof that Park Service changes in its Civil War battlefield presentations have been in the works for a long time:

"As the country approaches the 150th anniversary of the war, we are mindful that it is a different country than it was fifty years ago. The sesquicentennial of the war will be commemorated within a different political and social environment from that of the centennial. The meaning of the Civil War can be explored more fully. Its causes and consequences, subjects Congress directed the National Park Service to address beginning in 1989 and 1990, can and must be a major part of the sesquicentennial."