Massachusetts Confederate Monument To Get A New Home

BOSTON, MA — The state has one Confederate memorial. It commemorates 13 soldiers who died while in prison during the Civil War. And it will be removed after sometime after the weekend, according to a Globe report.

The removal comes after protests regarding the removal of a confederate memorial in Charlottesville, VA set off a firestorm of protest that turned deadly this summer. Communities across the US have been having discussions about what to do with such memorials in the face of racism and protest. Baltimore took its memorials down over night, Patch reported earlier.

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A Baker spokeswoman told WGBH, that the state “should refrain from the display of symbols, especially in our public parks, that do not support liberty and equality for the people of Massachusetts.”

From June until mid August the marker was covered and ready to go - somewhere. Though the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns Georges Island where the monument sits, was working with the Massachusetts Historical Society to figure out relocation options since the marker, however controversial, sits in a National Historic Landmark, Curbed reported.

Read More: How the Civil War was almost Lost in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe reported that the Massachusetts memorial will be placed in the Massachusetts Archives until the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation can return it to the the Boston chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy who placed it there in 1963.

Georges Island is a part of the Boston Harbor Islands, and is home to the historic Fort Warren, a Civil War-era fort known for its granite archways. It's open to visitors from May to Columbus Day each year via ferry.

According to a Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation website Fort Warren served as a prison for Confederate officers and government officials during the Civil War. Among those held at the fort were James M. Mason and John Slidell, the Confederate diplomats seized in the Trent Affair. High ranking civilians including the Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens and Confederate Postmaster General John Reagan were also held there.

Fun fact: Georges Island and the Confederate marker are owned by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the relocation of the marker is being facilitated by that state agency, not by the National Park Service.

READ MORE:

Catch up on the monument story here: How the Civil War was almost Lost in Massachusetts

Read the full Globe Story here.

Read the Curbed story here.

Read the WGBH story here.

Photo of the Tall Ships in Boston Harbor by Jenna Fisher/ Patch