Rarely does a day go by when I don’t think that the self-hatred and wussification of the American white man has reached its apogee. And rarely does a day go by when I am proved wrong.
Two brothers descended from a Confederate general are calling for Mayor Levar Stoney [Pictured right] and Richmond City Council to remove from Monroe Park the statue depicting their great-great-great-grandfather.
The statue honors Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham. It has stood in the park, located in the heart of Virginia Commonwealth University, since 1891.
Clayton and Will Wickham, ages 25 and 21, respectively, are related to the general on their father’s side. They emailed the letter to the mayor’s office and all nine members of the council on Tuesday, Clayton said in an interview.
“First, we want to be sure you know that, as a plantation owner, Confederate general and industrialist, General Wickham unapologetically accrued power and wealth through the exploitation of enslaved people,” the letter states.
“Second, we hope that our voices, though far less important than those of black Richmonders on this issue, will underscore a common feeling: The removal of these statues is long overdue.” [Emphasis added.]
For the record, take note that the brothers do not offer to surrender whatever riches they inherited because of its sullied provenance.
Wickham was the son of William Fanning Wickham and Anne Butler (née Carter) Wickham. His paternal grandfather was John Wickham, the constitutional lawyer. On his mother’s side, he descended from historic roots, as the Nelson and Carter families were each First Families of Virginia, prominent in the Virginia Colony.
He was something of an important Confederate general, of course, but also an accomplished railroad executive.
Wickham was commissioned brigadier general on September 9, 1863, and put in command of Wickham’s brigade of Fitzhugh Lee’s division. On May 11, 1864, he fought at the Battle of Yellow Tavern. Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded during this engagement, with his final order being: "Order Wickham to dismount his brigade and attack." In September 1864, after the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Fisher’s Hill, Wickham blocked at Milford an attempt by Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan to encircle and destroy the Confederate forces of Maj. Gen. Jubal Early. He then attacked the Federal cavalry at Waynesboro and forced them to retreat to Bridgewater.
Wickham resigned his commission on October 5, 1864, and took his seat in the Second Confederate Congress, to which he had been elected while in the field. Recognizing that the days of the Confederacy were over, he participated in the Hampton Roads Conference in an attempt to bring an early end to the war. …
After the surrender of the Confederacy, Wickham was active in improving harmony between the states and reorganizing Virginia’s economy, which had been ruined by the war. He became a Republican and voted in 1872 for General Ulysses S. Grant as a member of the lectoral College of Virginia.
Now unpopular — note that the two hands clasping in friendship are both white.
In November 1865, at the conclusion of the War, he was elected president of the Virginia Central Railroad, which had been one of the most heavily damaged during the War. In 1868, when the Virginia Central merged with the Covington and Ohio Railroad to form the new Chesapeake and Ohio, Wickham was retained as the new company’s president. In the new capacity, he was anxious to complete a railroad line to the Ohio River, long a dream of Virginians.[5] However, unlike fellow Confederate officer and railroad leader William Mahone had done, he was unable to secure capital or financing in Virginia, or from Europeans. Turning to New York City, he was successful in attracting an investment group headed by Collis P. Huntington. Fresh from recent completion of the western portion of the U.S. transcontinental railroad as a member of the so-called "Big Four", Huntington joined the effort, became the C&O’s new president. His contacts and reputation helped obtain $15 million of funding from New York financiers for the project, which eventually cost $23 million to complete. The final spike ceremony for the 428-mile (689 km) long line from Richmond to the Ohio River was held on January 29, 1873 at Hawk’s Nest railroad bridge in the New River Valley, near the town of Ansted in Fayette County, West Virginia.[6]
After Huntington assumed the presidency, Wickham served as vice-president of the C&O from 1869 to 1878, when the company went into foreclosure, with Wickham as receiver.
And so on and so forth.
Thinking about it, here’s a good idea: Leave the statue, and let this pair of wussies jettison their surname.
