At Ready (statue)

Last updated
At Ready
Confederate Memorial, Court Square, Charlottesville, Virginia.jpg
The statue in 2008

At Ready (1909) is a memorial of a Confederate soldier originally located in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. The statue, popularly known as "Johnny Reb," [1] and accompanying objects were removed on September 12, 2020. [2] The statue and nearby cannon, and cannonballs were removed to be placed on display at the Third Winchester Battlefield, [1] part of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District. [2]

Contents

History

The statue was unveiled on May 5, 1909, the anniversary of the 1857 creation of the Monticello Guard, [3] a militia company in Charlottesville that formed in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse when Virginia seceded from the union in 1861, and became part of the 19th Virginia Infantry.

Relocation

On August 6, 2020, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove the statue. [4] While several Virginia communities removed monuments in 2020 due to safety concerns amidst widespread protests, Albemarle was the first locality to remove a war memorial under the procedures of a recently passed statues bill that went into effect on July 1, 2020. [5] The statue was gone in September 2020. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Virginia</span>

Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in Virginia listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate Monument (Murray, Kentucky)</span> United States historic place

The Confederate Monument in Murray is a statue located in the northeast corner of the Calloway County Courthouse in Murray, Kentucky. It commemorates the 800 citizens of the county who served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and is one of several Confederate monuments in Kentucky featuring Robert E. Lee. There is another one in Bardstown KY. Despite recent controversy, the Calloway County Fiscal Court voted to keep the statue on its grounds in July 2020.

Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate Monument (Portsmouth, Virginia)</span> United States historic place

The Confederate Monument in Portsmouth, Virginia, was built between 1876 and 1881. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1997.

<i>Appomattox</i> (statue) Bronze statue in Virginia, United States

Appomattox is a bronze statue commemorating soldiers from Alexandria, Virginia, who had died while fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The memorial was located in the center of the intersection of South Washington Street and Prince Street in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of Stonewall Jackson (Charlottesville, Virginia)</span> United States historic place

Thomas Jonathan Jackson is a historic bronze equestrian statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson which was formerly located at Courthouse Historic District of Charlottesville, Virginia and installed in 1921. The statue was sculpted by Charles Keck and was the third of four works commissioned from members of the National Sculpture Society by philanthropist Paul Goodloe McIntire. It was the second of three statues McIntire donated to the city of Charlottesville, which he did over a period of five years from 1919 to 1924. The statue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert E. Lee Monument (Charlottesville, Virginia)</span> Destroyed equestrian statue

The Robert E. Lee Monument was an outdoor bronze equestrian statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his horse Traveller located in Charlottesville, Virginia's Market Street Park in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District. The statue was commissioned in 1917 and dedicated in 1924, and in 1997 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was removed on July 10, 2021, and melted down in 2023.

<i>Denton Confederate Soldier Monument</i> Confederate memorial in Denton, Texas, U.S.

The Denton Confederate Soldier Monument was an outdoor Confederate memorial installed in downtown Denton, Texas, in the United States.

<i>Confederate Soldiers Monument</i> (Durham, North Carolina)

The Confederate Soldiers Monument was a memorial to the soldiers from Durham County who fought for the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. The statue was seriously damaged by protestors and removed from public view on August 14, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials</span> Ongoing controversy in the United States

More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.

<i>Tuskegee Confederate Monument</i>

The Tuskegee Confederate Monument, also known as the Macon County Confederate Memorial and Tuskegee Confederate Memorial, is an outdoor Confederate memorial in Tuskegee, Alabama, in the United States. It was erected in 1906 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to commemorate the Confederate soldiers from Macon County, Alabama.

The Charlottesville historic monument controversy is the public discussion on how Charlottesville should respond to protesters who complain that various local monuments are racist. The controversy began before 2016 when protest groups in the community asked the city council for the local removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. Other monuments became part of the controversy, including those of Thomas Jefferson because of his ownership of slaves and those of Lewis and Clark for their advocacy of white colonists over Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norfolk Confederate Monument</span> Confederate memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.

The Norfolk Confederate Monument was a Confederate memorial in front of the Norfolk Southern Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. The monument was removed in June 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 "Here are the (mostly Confederate) mementos in Johnny Reb's time capsule". www.cvilletomorrow.org. 11 September 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  2. 1 2 Taylor, Derrick Bryson (12 September 2020). "Confederate Statue Near Site of White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville Is Removed". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  3. "May Fifth Date Selected". Daily Progress. Charlottesville, VA: 1, 8. March 15, 1909.
  4. Marcilla, Max (7 August 2020). "Albemarle County to remove "At Ready" confederate statue following public hearing". nbc29.com. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  5. Schneider, Gregory S. "Confederate statue taken down in Charlottesville near the site of violent 2017 rally". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  6. Higgins, Jessie (September 15, 2020). "'Johnny Reb' is gone — Here's the status of the 5 other Charlottesville-area statues activists want removed". www.cvilletomorrow.org.

38°1′53.3″N78°28′39.7″W / 38.031472°N 78.477694°W / 38.031472; -78.477694