Confederate Statue Removed from Red Brick Courthouse Grounds (VIDEO)
Work crews used a crane Saturday morning to lift a statue of a Confederate soldier from a bed of pachysandra over the Red Brick Courthouse in Rockville and onto the back of a waiting flatbed truck.
David Dise, director of the Department of General Services, provides some details about the project:
The statue has been the center of controversy for some years. Some people have thought a monument to the Confederacy was inappropriate for county property. Others defended it as part of the county’s heritage.
The statue will be delivered to private property at White’s Ferry, along the Potomac River.
The county did not reveal the timing of the move in advance. David Dise, director of the Department of General Services, explains why:
In a statement released Saturday, County Executive Ike Leggett said he had a “simple and straightforward” motivation in wanting to move the statue.
“[T]his statue is inaccurate because it pays tribute only to the Montgomery County young men who fought for the Confederacy, not also to those County residents who fought to preserve the Union and free those held in bondage,” Leggett wrote.
“Because it has significance locally, I want it to remain in Montgomery County — but not on county-owned land,” he wrote.
Some opponents to moving the statue have claimed removing it from the Red Brick Courthouse grounds would erase a part of the county’s history. Leggett responded to that notion:
“Like most Americans, I do not believe in ‘erasing’ past history to conform to what might be presently prevailing politics,” Leggett wrote. He then quotes former President George W. Bush, speaking at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, who said a great nation does not hide its history.
“I believe this relocation is consistent with those sentiments,” Leggett said.
Here are still images from Saturday:
Here are videos of the work to move the statue:
Here is Leggett’s full statement:
The carpetbaggers and scalawags are pushing a false history of the war. (i.e. “residents who fought to preserve the Union and free those held in bondage”) They desperately want to claim Maryland favored the Union, yet few Maryland natives fought on the Union side. Some Maryland Union soldiers may have agreed with “preserving the Union”, maybe, but freeing those in bondage? Maryland was a slave State, at the time, and the Union wasn’t fighting to free the slaves. They’re propagating a lie.
At least the county is moving the statue to private property. Of course, it won’t be seen anymore, and that will make all these people who want to hide the history of this country very happy. One less thing to remind them of the War of Northern Aggression. One day, someone will want to remove something that is near and dear to your heart, and I hope you hurt just like I do when I see my America destroying her history; hiding it, storing it, put away all because of slavery that ended 150 years ago. I just don’t understand how a group of people can be so hateful about something that is long gone; gone forever, never to return. I guess some people just aren’t happy unless they are stirring the pot. As for me and my ancestors, I will take my love and respect for them to my grave.
Slavery that ended 150 years ago??!!! People are still enslaved today. I’m glad they removed the statue. If it was your ancestors that were slaves you wouldn’t feel the way you do.
There seems to be a lot of hate directed at white southern people and for what reason are we persecuted ??
The statues are not controversial. It’s the people who are ignorant of history. The war was fought due to the high tariffs and taxes that the North charged the South. And, the money was spent in the North. Blacks want to remove Confederate monuments in retaliation to their being slaves. They ought to demand reparations from Africa who sold them into slavery. And, from New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Is and Connecticut who were the slave traders.
Ike Legget yet proves how wishy-washy he is with the lack of a backbone. The statue should be destroyed and replaced with something about what blacks went through. Token Leggett needs to go! And take your idiot police chief with you. Yes, I’m THAT LUEL HAYES!
Its your town
Regardless of what happened with the Civil War and slavery – it is American history and you cannot change what happened but you can educate people instead – mind you while on the subject of some of the dark times in American history I must admit I am looking forward to reading when all you righteous god fearing people decide to give the native Americans all their land back