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Dear Editor:

“Before Appomattox, there was Farmville. Still reeling from the battle of Sailor’s Creek, General Robert E. Lee and his men in gray moved westward to this town in central VA.” (this quote from the site: “Travel/Tourism -Last Stand: The Civil War Comes to Farmville.”)

Grant drafted the terms of surrender while in Farmville and the surrender was signed by Lee, 20 miles away in Appomattox.

Yet with this wealth of history, Farmville has but one modest statue related to the Civil War, the one on High Street, in memory of the brave men and boys who died defending their homeland.

I have heard that our mayor and town council, in order to please Longwood University in a quest for political correctness and inclusiveness, would like to remove this monument. To do just that in making their point would be an incomplete statement indeed, if not the ultimate hypocrisy without also renaming the university; as it (Longwood) is, after all named for Longwood Estate, birthplace of Civil War General Joseph E. Johnston.

Attempting to “cleanse” Farmville of any of its historic ties to the Civil War should in all fairness require Longwood University to cleanse its own ties to the Confederacy.  A name change would be an expensive proposition that should give them pause.

Ruth Catlin

Farmville