This Hallowed Ground

Historian Ted Ehmann has delved into the people, places, and events that resulted in nothing less than a war against the very existence of the monuments and memorials created to honor the heroes and soldiers who fought for the Confederacy in the War for Southern Independence. Ehmann chronicles the earliest targeting and removal of these gracious and silent remembrances after the election of a Republican and populist president, Donald Trump, in 2016, beginning with a handful of monuments by the mayor of New Orleans. When the death of George Floyd in May of 2020 sparked riots nationwide, it then brought all Southern monuments into the much larger war. Over the succeeding three months, the hard won peace between the states and the much-needed reconciliation achieved between North and South came once again to blows in what the author refers to as the summer of hate. When the smoke had cleared, attacks on monuments to the South resulted in the removal of 113 additional monuments.

Nowhere was this more visible than in the former capital of the Confederacy. There, in a city that had risen from the ashes and made famous for its monuments, Richmond would suffer the new war’s greatest losses. Sadly, it was only twenty-three years prior to their being attacked by angry mobs and their statues and stones carted away that their monuments and neighborhoods had finally earned designation as National Historic Landmarks.

Besides a timeline of the destruction of Richmond’s monuments, the author illustrates in text and image (80+ photos and illustrations) all that went into the making of each of these significant monuments, further underscoring the profound loss to future generations. Years after that summer, the South continues to bleed monuments, and their history recon textualized. Only time will tell if what remains of our memorials will survive those agents dedicated to their destruction.

Readers interested in understanding these issues and their relevance to national heritage will find valuable insights in this work. A review is available here.