Lessons from an Ohio Monument to the War of the Rebellion

This very impressive monument stands in front of the old Wilson Childrens Home in West Union, Ohio. It was erected by the Honorable John T. Wilson as a tribute to the soldiers of Adams County, Ohio, who were killed or died during their invasion of the Confederate States of America during the War to Prevent Southern Independence.

It is interesting to note that the monument refers to the "War of the Late Rebellion." Apparently Mr. Wilson knew what many Americans today do not know - that our country did not have a "Civil War" in 1861-1865. The United States has never had a civil war - which is when two or more factions within a single country fight for control of the government. Instead, there was a peaceful and legal secession by several southern states over a complex variety of reasons, centering around States Rights and unfair taxation of the under-represented Southern planters.

To the Confederate States, that secession was a bid for independence from an out of control central government which had overstepped its Constitutional authority. "The North, which had become dependent upon heavy and unjust taxation of Southern agricultural production, mislabeled the secession as "Rebellion." When most of President Lincoln's advisers and hundreds of Northern newspapers argued that the South should be allowed to secede in peace, Lincoln replied, "If the South goes, who will pay for the government?"


The Honorable John T. Wilson, a wealthy business and civic leader from Adams County, spent $5,000 to erect the 50-foot monument in 1893 - almost three decades after the war had ended. By putting his name and bust at the base of the monument, it seems to me that Mr. Wilson was as interested in memorializing himself as he was in honoring the Union soldiers, but who am I to judge. Mr. Wilson lost his only son in the war - a fact which is not mentioned on the monument.

I also find it most interesting that this monument - like scores of others from the same era -gives no pretext that The War was about freeing the slaves. That politically correct "spin" did not become widely believed until later. John T. Wilson's son, like the other young men from Adams County, fought for no such just cause. Instead, they were pawns in the heavy hands of a federal government set on conquest and empire. Perhaps the average soldier was motivated by a misguided patriotism, but in reality they fought and died to satisfy the lust for power and greed of Abraham Lincoln and his minions.

Story and Photos by J. Stephen Conn