{"id":8805,"date":"2017-05-30T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=8805"},"modified":"2017-05-30T01:22:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T06:22:18","slug":"what-confederate-monuments-in-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/05\/what-confederate-monuments-in-iowa\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT Confederate monuments in Iowa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nOctober 4, 2015:<\/strong>\u00a0In this view of the\u00a0Civil War<\/em> soldier at top of the monument at Keokuk National Cemetery, it doesn’t look like he has a specific insignia. But that’s likely intentional, at least in part because he represents unknown soldiers buried there.<\/em><\/p>\n

In an article published online a week ago but in print (at least the section in the Des Moines Register<\/em>) Sunday, USA Today<\/em> went after the existence of Confederate monuments<\/a> across the country.<\/p>\n

Although most of these monuments are in former Confederate states, they are also in border states that fought alongside the Union, such as Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia and Maryland; in Union states, including Massachusetts, Iowa<\/strong> and Pennsylvania; and in states that were mere territories\u00a0in 1861, such as Montana, Arizona and Oklahoma.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hold it. HOOOOOLLLDD IT. I am not going to say I’ve never seen a Confederate flag flying in Iowa, because I have. But to say Iowa has monuments sympathetic to the South is, as they might say in the 1860s, a scurrilous accusation.<\/p>\n

A list of Confederate monuments on Wikipedia<\/a> lists none in Iowa. In a comprehensive listing of Civil War monuments across Iowa<\/a>, a majority are “Civil War Soldier” or “Veterans Monument\/Memorial”. The word “Confederate” appears four times, two of which are captured cannons. A third is for POWs who died in transit<\/a> to Rock Island. The fourth is for “Iowa’s Confederate General”, Sul Ross, who was born in Bentonsport the year before his family left for Texas. It is a rock with a plaque on it.<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a site in Davis County, three<\/em> rocks with plaques on them<\/a>, marking “the northernmost point of incursion into Iowa by Confederate forces.” That’s a historical fact, not a glorification of anything.<\/p>\n

So what monument, let alone monuments plural, could the article be referencing? One possibility is the monument at the veterans cemetery in Keokuk<\/a>. A handful of Confederates are buried there, but there is nothing for them except the grave markers (and flags on Memorial Day<\/a>). The “Find a Grave” website says<\/a>, “The monument is a large granite obelisk topped with the figure of a Confederate soldier standing at parade rest.” However, multiple other sources indicate this has to be false.<\/p>\n