Wichita Confederate war memorial defaced in latest skirmish over Civil War remembrance
In the latest cultural skirmish over how America remembers its Civil War, someone with apparent Union sympathies did a spray paint edit on a monument honoring Confederate soldiers at Wichita’s Veterans Memorial Park.
Whoever did it painted over the word “Confederate” in the phrase “In honor of all Confederate veterans of the War Between the States 1861-1865.
On the same granite panel, they painted over the words “courage,” “devotion” and “military duty” in regard to the troops of the Confederacy.
On another panel, they altered a sentence honoring Confederate dead copied from a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
The carved inscription reads, “Not for fame or reward, not for place or rank, not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity, but in simple obedience to duty as they understood it, these men suffered all — sacrificed all — dared all — and died.”
With the spray paint covering key words, the end of that sentence now says, “. . . in simple obedience to duty as they understood it, these men all dared all — and died.”
Mayor Brandon Whipple said Sunday night he was unaware of the alterations, but not surprised, given the increased national controversy surrounding that monuments to the Confederacy and its war heroes.
“I think it’s almost really expected in a big city like Wichita,” Whipple said. “There are discussions happening all over the country when it comes to Confederate monuments. We are seeing monuments that glorify Confederates being repeatedly taken out of the public square.”
Since the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd ignited new debates over Black slavery and its role in U.S. history last year, dozens of monuments to Confederate heroes, most of them in the South, have been removed by government action or heavily damaged by protesters.
Late last month, the U.S. Congress joined the battle, with the House or Representatives passing a bill to remove all historical statues in the Capitol honoring Confederates and white supremacists. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate last week.
The Wichita memorial that was defaced is part of a collection of city monuments that honor troops from each service branch and six wars and military actions.
The Civil War monument is officially called the “Reconciliation Memorial.” It is a four-sided granite obelisk, derivative of the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital.
Two sides of the obelisk honor Confederate troops.
The other two sides honor Union soldiers and display a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Speech, where he talked of binding up the nation’s wounds “with malice toward none, with charity toward all.”
The monument was dedicated in 2016, a year after the removal of a Confederate battle flag from the John S. Stevens Pavilion, which is part of the veterans park.
The flag display, built in observance of the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, flies historical and foreign banners representing the steps to the formation of the current United States.
Mayor Jeff Longwell ordered the removal of the Confederate banner in 2015 after a Charleston, S.C. church shooting, where a young white supremacist named Dylan Roof infiltrated and then gunned down nine Black members of a Bible study group.
The Park Board followed up on Longwell’s order with a vote to permanently ban the flag from the pavilion.
At that same meeting, the board commissioned the Reconciliation Memorial as a compromise designed to tamp down the bitter controversy between Confederate flag supporters and opponents.
Contributing: Chance Swaim of The Eagle
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Wichita Confederate war memorial defaced in latest skirmish over Civil War remembrance."
