Posted on 08/17/2017 3:44:22 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Wisconsin is quietly home to America's northernmost Confederate cemetery. On Thursday, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin ordered it taken down.
MADISON, WI — As public officials across the country grapple with calls to take down Civil War statues erected in honor of the Confederacy's military history, the Mayor of Madison, Wis. has ordered the removal of the state's lone memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers.
About 140 Confederate soldiers died at Camp Randall during the Civil War as prisoners of war, and their graves were honored in the "Confederate Rest Cemetery" within the Forest Hill Cemetery. Soglin stated he ordered staff to remove a plaque and a stone there.
"Taking down monuments will not erase our shared history," Soglin said in a prepared statement. "The Confederacy’s legacy will be with us, whether we memorialize it in marble or not. I agree with other Mayors around the country also speaking out and taking action. We are acknowledging there is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. In Madison, we join our brothers and sisters around the country to prove that we as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile, and most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves."
Confederate Rest Cemetery
Taken in context, Madison seems like an unlikely spot for anything resembling a Confederate monument, yet according to the website Ironbrigader.com, a site in Madison, Wis. is the northernmost Confederate cemetery in the U.S.
Madison was the home to the Union Army's Camp Randall during the Civil War. According to Wisconsinhistory.org, between April and May 1862, 1,400 Confederate prisoners of war were housed at Camp Randall's garrison. Many of the prisoners sent to Wisconsin were from the 1st Alabama Infantry.
According to media accounts of the day, "While the first group was in relatively good physical condition, the second group was in much worse shape, with many suffering from pneumonia, mumps, measles, and chronic diarrhea. These prisoners were taken off the train on stretchers."
19th-Century medical care was not prepared for the sick and wounded transported to Camp Randall, and additionally,conditions at the camp were initially so poor that, "Madison’s civilian population had been shocked at the condition of the ill prisoners and townspeople helped out by bringing food and other supplies to Camp Randall."
About 140 of those housed at Camp Randall ended up dying of various maladies and were buried at what is known today as the Confederate Rest Cemetery.
That cemetery and monument to those who died at the camp were laid to rest at Madison's Forest Hill Cemetery.
This IS the Crux of the matter-MOB RULE we need LEGAL COMMENTATORS at this point.
The Monuments at least should be handed over to Americans willing to care for them and placed in friendly traditional towns free from large amounts of ferals.
The plot where the Confederate graves are located is land that the city of Madison owns.
No Wisnonsinite has answered my question but I have serious doubts that he has anywhere near the authority to order this action.
I hope the Ghost’s of the Civil War visit tonight
“It’s against the law to desecrate the graves of veterans.”
What is this “law” think you speak of?
L
It doesn't say, but that is probably one plaque and one stone for all 140 deceased Confederate soldiers. I wonder if there are individual grave markers with names?
But, whatever, this clown of a mayor has been turned into a fool by his slavish desire to be PC and acceptable to his fellow leftist haters and fools.
Former SDS. He's been mayor on and off for over 40 years.
Can’t even have a memorial to poor deceased soldiers who agonized in a prison camp? What’s the rationale for this? What were they bad people? Just because they were in the Confederate Army means they can’t even have a slab of acknowledgement.
They can’t even let the dead rest.
The Left will just keep pushing until there is an explosion and they want the violence and destruction.
Madison is also one of the gay meccas of the USA, so I predict rainbow monuments and statues....perhaps include one of Obammy on his way to a bath house!/S
I think you are right.
This mayor has to be opposed to this—the marker celebrates American veterans who died.
I actually would prefer streets to remain named after Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. that way I know where the bad part of town is in every state I go.
He’s removing a small bronze plaque and the stone it is attached to. Each of the 140 Confederate graves is marked with a VA provided Confederate grave head stone. These will not be disturbed. He is not breaking any law.
George Orwell missed it by 33 years...
“He’s removing a small bronze plaque and the stone it is attached to.....He is not breaking any law”
Someone prove me wrong but I seriously doubt that he has the legal authority to unilaterally do even that.
Veterans groups should actually come out against this kind of thing. I don’t even know if he has right or power to do this sort of thing on his own? This mayor is a nothing he will be gone and forgotten this is a memorial that has been around for over a century and he’s trying to take it away this pissant nobody. The Democratic party has become a marginalized radicalized party of a handful of heavily populated Urban enclaves and the rest of the country can’t stand their crazy asses. The majority of Americans are against the removal of these statues and monuments but that’s not going to stop their pandering to a bunch of radical anti white nuts in their party.
That is true. But it up to the citizens of Madison to make an issue of this in the next election. He may have consulted with city council on the issue.
That is an issue for the Madison city council and the voters of Madison to decide.
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