Editor, Gazette-Journal:

A scheduling conflict prevented the reading of this letter at the July 28 meeting of the Mathews County Board of Supervisors:

The Oxford English Dictionary defines heritage as valued qualities and objects, such as cultural traditions and monuments, passed down from previous generations. These traditions include signs and symbols of the past.

Following the Civil War, when the wounds of war were raw, examples of the magnanimity of leaders on both sides were striking. President Lincoln spoke about malice for none and charity for all. William Tecumseh Sherman, who was probably the Union general most hated by southerners, offered generous terms to Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston when he surrendered a few days after Lee. Sherman and Johnston became friends following the war. Johnston died of pneumonia after serving, in the rain, as a pallbearer at Sherman’s funeral.

Robert E. Lee believed that, following the war, his duty was to rebuild and restore. ...