Posted on 02/15/2008 9:46:46 AM PST by cowboyway
Ringgold City Council is facing potential legal action based on its 2005 decision to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the Ringgold Depot Civil War Memorial.
The Southern Legal Resource Center notified the city Feb. 11 by letter from SLRC chief trial counsel Kirk D. Lyons that it will face legal action unless it replaces the battle flag within 10 days.
According to Roger McCredie, Southern Legal Resource Center executive director, the letter puts the city on notice that its clients, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its local Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1859 in Ringgold, will seek legal redress if the flag is not replaced.
The ultimatum was delivered after the city council failed to respond to a detailed three-page January 15 letter from SLRC, he said.
“That letter set forth reasons why the Battle Flag was the appropriate flag to be flown at the Depot site and asked the council to restore it to the flagpole from which it was removed in March of 2005,” he said.
Beginning in early February 2005 several Ringgold residents led by the African American community urged city council members to remove the Confederate Battle Flag flying in front of the Ringgold Depot, stating that it has become a sign of hate.
Ringgold City Council members voted 3-2, March 28, 2005 to remove the battle flag from the Depot’s Civil War monument honoring soldiers who fought in or were from Catoosa County.
As part of that vote, in place of the Battle Flag, the city raised the Hardee/Cleburne flag — the regimental flag of General Patrick Cleburne, who defended Ringgold Gap against Northern forces in 1863.
But Ringgold City Council voted 3-2 April 11 to re-hoist the Battle Flag for the rest of Confederate History Month in April at the request of Roy Neal, commander of the Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1859. The city has not flown the flag since that time.
In its January letter the SLRC cited primary source material proving that other types of Confederate flags other than the Hardee/Cleburne flag were present at the Battle of Ringgold Gap action.
Soldiers in that battle might not have used the Cleburne flag, he said by telephone on Feb. 13.
McCredie’s Jan. 15 letter also said that the battle argument was moot because the Depot monument was erected to honor Confederates who departed from Ringgold to serve throughout the Confederacy, and the battle flag, as a soldiers’ and later a veterans’ flag, was therefore the appropriate flag to display.
The SLRC also indicated that the city may have acted in violation of Georgia law by violating the integrity of the monument.
Everything at that Depot, the cannon, the stones engraved, the flag poles constitute a monument, he said.
In preparation for contacting the city council, the SLRC began legal and historical research last summer, according to McCredie.
Ringgold City Manager Dan Wright was asked if the city had a response about the letters and possible lawsuit.
“No comment at this time,” he said.
Next they will want all military monuments removed.
Isn’t it related to the British double cross?
That ship has already sailed at Soledad and a few others.
I’m still waitin’ for the government of Atlanta to chisel off the sculptures on Stone Mountain.
We can’t pretend history didn’t exist because we didn’t like it.
My great whatever grandfather died in that war. For that flag. Not for slaves, cause he picked cotton right along side of him, but according to my great great aunt, because he felt that those folks up north didn’t have the right to tell them how to run things down here. It was for principal, not for hatred of black people.
Not that I don’t think we should have removed the confederate flag from the state flags, I do think that is the right thing to do. But a civil war memorial should bear the symbol those died for.
However I am torn if a Nazi soldier should have the swastica on his memorial. Must go reassess and ponder.
If this trend continues they will be able to regulate what an individual displays on his personal property.
Here in Florida, there are a number of Black men, proudly members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Their forefathers were among the many Black soldiers and officers who served in the CSA Army.
The local chapter had a Black dentist as it’s public affairs officer for a while. It was always fun when the TV cameras would come out and try to make a “racism” story... only to be told by a Black man that it was not so.
Deliverance really was set there. James Dickey is from that area.
The confereate flag must be erased from the history books and flushed down the memory hole. That along with the holocaust. It’s important that we forget difficult and offensive history.
I too had ancestors who died fighting for the south and none of them owned slaves they were sharecroppers. They fought to keep the yankees out of their business. Wish we could do it today.
Yeah so we can repeat it.
Just wonder when all those African flags will be banned.....not only African chiefs sold many blacks into slavery....they still practice slavery in Africa today
I guess if you are black or Islamic...its OK to own, or have owned, slaves
These Confederate flag-grabbers are nothing more than anti-American, anti-white bigots
The war against the Confederate Flag is a warm-up for a future war against the American Flag. Note that the lefties who get all bent out of shape over the Confederate Flag are perfectly fine with illegal immigrants waving around the Mexican Flag. They’re also fine with rainbow flags, UN flags, black nationalist flags, and any number of other symbols that offend conservatives.
All sorts of civil war sites in this area - Chattanooga, Signal Mountain, etc.
When I lived in Chattanooga. A friend, visiting from NY, proudly informed me that an ancestor has fought and died during the civil war on Signal Mountain (on the Union side). In an effort to be a good host, I took him up the side of the mountain on the Incline Railway - turns out he doesn’t like heights and that ride nearly did him in. Then we hiked all over the battlefields up there trying to find the marker for a specific regiment. The markers are often in the woods - he was wearing shorts - I warned him about poisen ivy repeatedly. We couldn’t find the marker. Since we had no car - having ridden the Incline - we rode the Incline down again. Two days later he broke out in the worst case of poisen ivy I’ve ever seen.
Too bad, because in the interim a history freak friend of mine had provided me with the exact location of the marker and with the location of other historical items including pictures that featured his ancestor prominently. My history freak friend actually came over the house to meet my NY friend because she was so excited to meet the descendent of a rather prominent player in the battle.
The civil war still stirs rather strong emotions in this area :-)
My Great great grandfather fought for the South also. He went in at 15 and got kicked out when they found out his real age. He reinlisted at 18. He was dirt poor.
I hate the disrespect that these honorable soldiers get.
Mine fought for the CSA and while he was away and eventually captured, Union soldiers established an encampment on the family farm and took over the main house. Meanwhile his nephew was in Washington, serving as President Lincoln’s Secretary of War.
Every time we went to visit the old family farm in Culpeper County VA we used to go through the fields picking up bullets and searching for other artifacts. I’ve got jars full of ‘em as well as Union and CSA belt buckles sitting on my mantel at home.
Actually, Deliverance was filmed on the Chattooga River which is on the Georgia-SC border. It's close to the house so I go riding up there a bit.
It still does here too. There are a couple of small memorials to Confederate soldiers here in Salem and in Walhalla that both fly the Confederate battle flag.
I fear that if we end up with a El Presidente Hussein in the White House things will worsen on all fronts.
The St. George's Cross, I believe.
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