Civil War history looms large in the United States at the moment. A statue of Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard was removed from New Orleans streets Tuesday, retreating along with one of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and another commemorating an 1874 insurrection by white supremacists. A downtown tribute to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is slated to join those – as is a statue of the general in Charlottesville, Va., where protesters last Saturday invoked dark historical precedent by bearing torches.

At the Monitor, we tend to be cautious as we wonder about the forces and precedents shaping the era we ourselves are living through. Such caution is also warranted amid any temptation to think we know how historical figures would weigh in on current developments. Take General Lee, who was invited in 1865 to address a group in Gettysburg. He declined, saying: “I think it wisest not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.”

Now let's get to our five stories of the day.