ATLANTA (AP) – While Confederate statues and monuments around the nation get removed, defaced, covered up or toppled, some new memorials are being erected, by people who insist their only purpose is to honor Civil War soldiers who died for the South.
Supporters of these new monuments describe a determination to hold onto their understanding of history.
“What I want to get across is how much the South suffered, not only through the war but after the war, during the Reconstruction years,” said David Coggins, who owns the Confederate Veterans Memorial Park in Brantley, Alabama, which dedicated a memorial to “Unknown Alabama Confederate Soldiers” in September.
Others say race has nothing to do with these new monuments, unlike those erected in the years after the war.
“The problem was with some of the other statues that were put up, that were basically intended to intimidate people,” said Danny Francis, commander of a Sons of Confederate Veterans unit in South Carolina. His group is dedicating a $5,000, 7-foot (2.1-meter) monument Saturday on private land where Civil War enthusiasts from North and South re-enact the Battle of Aiken each year.