great...remove the plaque that describes who is buried here and history about it...so much for not removing history.
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.
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/157/III/70
157.70 Burial sites preservation . . .
Technically, I believe what this leftist thug wants to do is a crime under his state’s law. Morally, it’s reprehensible. Liberals disgust me.
It was more of a rhetorical question, but it is quite obvious what you posted is true. This is the method and motivation of the activists. And they are very good at manipulating people who think of themselves as decent, compassionate, and fair-minded. Plenty of evil has been accomplished through those types.
There are individual markers for each grave.
What does the city charter say vis a vis the authority of the mayor? He may have that authority, he may not. Their issue to resolve.
These soldiers were Americans, too. What’s with this guy?
I’m not sure I’m understanding you but bottom line, he either has the power or he does not.
I suspect not. Now if the City Council voted to take this action that would be a different story but unless I missed it, there is nothing in the article stating that the City Council had taken any such vote.
You’re probably right. I do genealogical research and have visited lots of cemeteries. Even when I go to where more recent relatives, such as my wife’s parents, are buried, I wander around to see if I can find anything historical. I would notice something like Confederate graves right away. Most people wouldn’t have the interest in the first place and would just go on by. The ones in Madison are probably aghast to find out about this because, if they had known about it before, they could have been outraged in a more timely manner.
Legally. But not morally. The descendants who come to the visit the site should have a say. After all some of the descendants of Lee don't want (and say Lee didn't want) the statues. Lee will remain in history. But when a dead prisoner of war has his plaque removed that's pretty much it, except the gravestone which doesn't explain anything.
I really hope someone is keeping a list of all these retards.
Since when does morality have anything to do with politics.
Authority is to some extent based on moral authority. A mayor can hide behind legal technicalities but that probably won’t help him polically.
Up to the citizens of Madison whose ancestors erected that city on stolen Indian land? Who was that land stolen from, the Chippewas?
If we're going to be PC, then let's be PC. The POS mayor seems to have a huge blind spot in his half-witted desire to decide which aspects of history should be reassessed and which should not.
Amazing how prescient that book was.
I though it was fiction when I read it, I never dreamed I would be living it.
ISIS did this stuff
It’s as much a memorial of Alice Whiting Waterman as anything.
Truly disgusting to remove it.
Speaking of Democrat political dynasties, remembering Mayor Daley in 68, maybe we could use him now.
Anyone doing a Wisconsin ping list anymore to notify.
Good point. How come the VFW has not weighed in on this?
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