Feedback on "Do you sing Lincoln praises?"
Appreciation for the truth from a Kentucky Historian/Journalist and Educator
31 August 2005
Dear Mr. Gresham,
I wanted to write you and thank you for the article that I've just read, entitled "Do you sing Lincoln's praises?" As an historian, I can't thank you enough for putting Kentucky's true history down for others to read. I've been telling people about Kentucky's history for as long as I can remember. I was raised on it. It's as real and natural to me as any, and I can't tell you how upset I become at the mention of the "eleven Confederate States" or Kentucky's neutrality or what have you. It's all lies. I've written letters and preached until I had nearly determined that it was a lost cause. This is a topic I care greatly for, and I want nothing more than to see Kentucky take its rightful place among the Confederacy.
Kentucky allows its history to be disregarded--that's all I can say--which has led to many unfortunate happenings. I can think of two right off the bat: liberals moving to take down President's Davis' statue from the rotunda in Frankfort (though they leave Lincoln). I don't think Kentuckians, who are proud people, would allow that to be done, but they don't know the truth. They've been lied to for 150 years! Unfortunately, the lies have led Kentuckians to believe that they somehow helped Lincoln "save the Union". I can't think of anything that turns my stomach more. Secondly, this notion that Kentucky was not a Confederate state has led many to believe that Kentucky is not a Southern state at all--but rather to be Southern is to be Confederate. I cringe each time someone says it, and I've written authors who have said so. I've written to magazines who list Kentucky's subscribers among the "midwest." I always ask them to consider Kentucky's history, to consider that it was midwesterners who occupied us, destroyed our way of life, mocked us then as today, and treated our men, women, and children worse than cattle (or dare I say, slaves!). I remind them that it was President Davis who Kentucky looked to for guidance. It was Abraham Lincoln who was hated and who Kentucky did not support.
When I temporarily taught high school history, I made a point to teach Kentucky's place, to tell my students that Kentucky was not neutral, but was a Confederate state. Another teacher, who my class went to for advice, told them that I was "full of s---." I can prove my history, but I dared not ask, could he prove his! I kept a 13 state Confederate map on the classroom bulletin board, alongside a portrait of President Davis. I want Kentucky to be proud of her history, but her real history. I want Kentucky's children--now and in the future--to know the truth, to know that their forefathers were not cowards, were not Yankees, but stood alongside their brothers, fighting for a cause greater than themselves, for liberty and their way of life.
Two years ago, as I sat in a crowd of hundreds watching the reenactment at Perryville, I heard a woman just behind me tell her son, "you were born in the South--in Tennessee. Daddy was born in the North--Ohio. And, Mommy was born in Kentucky--in between." It took all the strength I had--and a little consideration for the Southern manners always stressed to me--to not correct the poor woman in front of her child. Such things--such ridiculous ideas--must be corrected!
I've even recently corrected Kentucky's history on "Wikipedia" website, only to return the next day to see it turned back to the lies of old. I emailed the service, and was told that they do not accept history that has not been published! That's frustrating, so I'm thrilled to have read your piece, and I thank you more than you know.
D. Shane Gilreath
dsg
"Vocatus atque non vocatus dues aderit"
(Bidden or not bidden, God is present)
Writer and historian, D. Shane Gilreath was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in South Central Kentucky on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau. A graduate of Cumberland College, he has worked in the Kentucky public school system and with the Kentucky Department of Parks. As well as having anchored and reported the news for radio and television, he has written for newspapers, compiled the booklet The History of Kentucky through the Parks, and authors the column "Under the Kudzu," a Southerners perspective on world events.
