I want to congratulate the organizers, sponsors and actors who participated in the excellent production at Jefferson Military College Saturday, portraying the blacks in the Civil War.

The skits were based on original resources and were portrayed by good actors in authentic costumes. I think anyone would find this undeveloped history of Natchez interesting! Tourists would be fascinated.

As we approach the 150 anniversary of the Civil War, I would like to recommend that we demonstrate as a united community our developed understanding of the destructive war that killed more American than all the American wars.

Romance must be over and reality always faced. I would love to see our community erect in Memorial Park a bronze monument of three soldiers in Union uniforms with white and African features.

It could be placed under the oaks just behind the fountain in line with the Confederate monument.

What a statement this would make.

Almost half of our community are descendents of the Confederate army and the other half are descendents of the Union army.

I do recognize there are other stories. Three of my great grandfathers served in the Confederate army. One was as a surgeon for the North and the South, the other was in a prison in Ohio from which he never recovered, the other a 55-year-old who never owned slaves and didn’t want to fight, and another owned a large number of slaves and had nothing to do with the Confederacy.

The South is difficult to understand for outsiders. We need to tell our whole story.

Mary Jane Reed Gaudet

Natchez resident