Baton Rouge Confederate Statue Back on Display

Baton Confederate Statue
on the base it rested before
it was put into storage. The statue
is now on display in the Old
State Capitol Rotunda.
(Phot by Mike Jones)

          MANSFIELD, La. -- The Baton Rouge Confederate Monument, which dates back to 1886, was put in storage several years ago to reconfigure the street it was on, has been put back on public display in the Rotunda of  the Old State Capitol building, according to Chip Landry of  Brig. Gen. Henry Watkins Allen Camp 133.
         Compatriot Landry gave an update on the  monument October 27  at Mansfield State Historic Site where the annual Fall Assembly of the  Louisiana Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, was held. State Commander Ted Brode presided.
         The monument is unique because the face of the Confederate soldier statue was modeled on that of local Confederate veteran Adrew S. Herron, Landry said.
         The statue was originally on an ornate marble pedestal until that original base was replaced with a cheap brick one on which it stood until removed due to the street project. Landry said the statue will eventually be put  on permanent display on a new, and hopefully better, base somewhere on the grounds of the Old State Capitol.
         He said at one point there was a threat that the statue would be discarded, but the Louisiana Secretary of State's office, which is in charge of the historic relic, had it moved to a more secure place until it could  be put back on public display.
        Landry said the statue is now on display in the Rotunda as part of its Sesquicentennial display that includes a Confederate First National flag that originally flew over the State Capitol until in 1862 when it was removed by a Yankee soldier who then sent the flag home to Massachusetts.
        A descendant of that Yankee soldier recently returned it to the state and it was refurbished and framed for the  display by the Foundation for Historic Louisiana. He said after the flag will be returned to the Foundation at the end of November, at the Old Governor's  Mansion in Baton Rouge.