Confederate Memorial, June 9, 2022
The crew with Energy Services and Products Corp., the Tampa, Fla., company hired to remove the Confederate monument at the Caddo Parish Courthouse, are making quick work of the removal. Today (Thursday, June 9), they removed and wrapped the unknown Confederate soldier statue that had been at the top of the monument for transit. The busts of four Confederate generals – Robert E. Lee, P. G. T. Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson and Henry Watkins Allen- have already been removed, leaving only the stone base. The company’s contract gives until December to remove the monument, but at this rate, it will be much faster.
Original story from May 12, 2022
Time is drawing nigh for the removal of the Confederate Monument at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. Equipment has been positioned for the removal of the monument to its new resting place on highway 173 in Desoto Parish, near where the Battle of Mansfield was fought in 1864.
Energy Services and Products Corp. of Tampa, Fla., will be handling the removal and move, which everyone believes will be exceedingly tricky. The monument is old- placed on the current site in 1905- and heavy, with grand century-old oak trees that will prove problematic if cranes are needed.
The boxed monument, awaiting removal.
Removal is supposed to start in mid-May with an estimated duration of 8 weeks. During the work, most of the sidewalk along the Texas Street side of the Courthouse will be blocked to pedestrians. There is no plan as yet for another monument, memorial or artwork to take the space of the Confederate Monument.
Original story posted September 2020
Description from the National Register of Historic Places-The Caddo Parish Confederate Monument is of statewide significance under Criterion A as one of four major Louisiana monuments representing what is known by historians as “the Cult of the Lost Cause.” More specifically, these monuments are Louisiana’s most important representations of the Memorial Period, or second phase (1883 to 1907), of the Civil War Commemorative Sculpture Movement. These monuments represent a significant physical reminder of the period: reflecting the introduction and presence of Civil War monument construction in Louisiana and the role women played in the memorial period. This is an example of Art as History. The Cult of the Lost Cause continued to dominate Southern cultural history in the early twentieth century, and is still alive and well today.
The Confederate Memorial will soon be moving to a new home near the site where the Battle of Mansfield was fought in 1864. The United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter 237 are the statute’s owners and told local media outlets recently they are delighted with the agreement reached with Caddo Parish that recognizes their ownership of the structure. They go on to say “… it will be going to a place of honor and along side graves of Confederate heroes to fulfill its purpose as a tombstone for soldiers from Caddo Parish who died on distant battlefields.”
The Caddo Parish Commission has voted to pay for the move and will solicit bids for the process. There is no set timeline for removal. In July the Caddo Commission approved building a box around the memorial until it could be relocated.
