ARARAT, Va. — After months of indecision concerning the fate of Confederate statues taken down last year in Richmond, an answer could come soon for groups wanting to acquire them for placement in new homes.
This includes a large bronze likeness of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart sought for a location in his native Patrick County not far from Mount Airy.
“We know how to get it done and we think we have the finances to make it happen,” Tom Bishop of the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc. in Ararat, said of plans to move the statue there if allowed.
It is targeted for a spot on the sprawling grounds of Laurel Hill near the North Carolina line, where Stuart was born and lived his early years before serving in, and being mortally wounded during, the Civil War.
The only thing needed for that move to happen is a green light from Richmond city officials, who signaled during a meeting this week that they are ready to act on the matter that has languished on a back burner since last summer.
That’s when Richmond’s statue saga unfolded against a backdrop of racial tensions across the country, resulting in the statue of J.E.B. Stuart being removed in July from the spot it had occupied on Monument Avenue for more than a century.
Other statues also were ousted, including ones of Stonewall Jackson and Confederate naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury.
After this occurred, the door was left open for the statues to be erected in alternate locations such as museums, historical sites, localities or military battlefields wanting them.
More than 20 applicants have come forward to request the statues, representing not only organizations preserving Civil War history such as the local birthplace trust but artists and other private citizens.
Bishop believes one reason for Richmond officials’ delay in disposing of the statues was to allow any court challenges over the removal to run their course.
During a council meeting Monday, based on media reports, city leaders debated the process and decided that Mayor Levar Stoney’s office will spearhead the effort to decide who receives statues, pending final approval by council members.
The issue is scheduled to be revisited by the Richmond City Council during another meeting this coming Monday when a decision is expected on how the relocation procedure will be conducted.
Local group hopeful
Members of the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, who have been soliciting donations for the possible statue acquisition since shortly after its removal, are hopeful that things go their way.
“We do not have any sense at this point in time,” Bishop, who is a member of the trust’s board of directors, said Wednesday of what decision might transpire.
Yet he believes the local organization has multiple factors in its favor, including the Civil War hero’s birth site being involved.
“We do have the support of the Stuart family,” Bishop said of another.
The organization also has the financial and other resources to allow the transfer of the deposed statue to Patrick County.
Although he lacked an exact figure, Bishop said a “substantial” sum of funds has been raised, and indicated that other contributors likely will come forward to support the mission once they know the statue’s relocation is imminent.
If Richmond officials were to release it tomorrow, a local trucking company is standing by to handle transporting the statue weighing between 7 and 8 tons to Ararat using equipment such as cranes, according to the birthplace spokesman.
He estimates the actual move will cost somewhere under $10,000, but other funds possibly will be needed to clean graffiti from the Stuart statue that was moved to a waste-treatment plant in Richmond after its removal from public view.
In addition, birthplace officials have said they want to provide security measures such as cameras and gates for the potential resting spot of the statue along with lighting for the figure.
It is more than 15 feet tall and has a granite pedestal of about 7 feet which also is considered historically valuable.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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