Editor, Gazette-Journal:

This is a copy of a comment I sent to the Mathews County Board of Supervisors:

The Confederate monument honors the ordinary soldiers who served in the army of the Confederacy.

The Confederate Conscription Acts of 1862-1864 made any white male 18-35 years old liable to serve three years of military service with the exception that anyone who owned 20 or more slaves was exempt.

So, the ordinary Confederate soldier was most likely a draftee who owned no slaves. These are the men who fought valiantly and suffered enormous losses who are honored by the monument. Many were our ancestors. To dishonor them by holding them responsible for slavery and the insurrection is denying our history.

James McKinnonCobbs Creek, Va.
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