This issue provides historical context for the honoring of Confederate soldiers from Berrien County, Georgia. It opens with a discussion of the author’s concerns about recent acts of vandalism toward monuments and outlines the intended purpose of these memorials as commemorations of military service rather than symbols of enslavement. Drawing on census and tax records, the newsletter notes that most Berrien County residents in 1860 did not own enslaved people, though slavery was a central institution shaping the era.

The issue traces Georgia’s secession, local attitudes toward the Confederacy, and the legal obligations placed on citizens once the state joined the Confederate States of America. It summarizes the Confederate Conscription Acts of 1862–1863, which required most white men between ages 17 and 50 to serve in the Confederate Army regardless of personal beliefs.

Significant attention is given to postwar reconciliation, including President Lincoln’s and President Johnson’s amnesty proclamations, the Oath of Allegiance, the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, and later acts of Congress restoring citizenship and rights to former Confederate officials and soldiers. The newsletter also describes the 1914 Reconciliation Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery—removed in 2023—as well as Berrien County’s own monument honoring over 600 local Confederate soldiers.

The issue concludes by encouraging the preservation of historical monuments while also proposing the addition of a memorial recognizing enslaved people whose labor contributed to the county’s early communities.

Subjects(names): Brown, Joseph E.; Carter, Jimmy; Davis, Jefferson; Ford, Gerald; Garfield, James A.; Johnson, Andrew; Lee, Robert E.; Lincoln, Abraham; Randolph, George W.; Seward, William H.; Shaw, Bryan; Shaw, Francis Marion;