Confederate Statue at Oak Bluffs,
Vineyard, Martha's
Confederate Statue at Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard "What's that rebel doing here?" you asked with patriotic scorn. As if I cared about a statue peering at the sea. But there he stood, cap...
...The dunes rose up against a swirling wind...
...Only victors have magnanimity...
...But there he stood, cap angled to deflect the sun, on a plinth in a northern state no single Gray had seen throughout the war...
...You shook your curls in disbelief...
...Nothing seemed to fit until we walked around behind and read the brief inscription: "The chasm is closed," it said...
...Breaking waves rolled across the sand...
...The past is a corroding monument," I said...
...Paint peeling on his rifle stock, smart dress uniform bombed and blotched by Union gulls, he looked across the sea to Europe, not to Richmond...
...Dedicated by Union veterans ...in honor of Confederate soldiers...
...Imagine Grant preening on a pedestal in Georgia or Custer honored at a Reservation...
...Phillip Corwin 11...
Vol. 126 • February 1999 • No. 3
