CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (NewsNation Now) — Charlottesville county officials removed a Confederate soldier statue Saturday near the site of a violent rally in 2017 that left one counterprotester dead.
A crowd of on lookers cheered as workers took down the statue called, “At Ready,” along with cannons and cannonballs from Charlottesville’s Court Square.
The statue has been outside the Albermarle County courthouse for 111 years.
During the “Unite The Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017, one woman was killed and dozens were injured when a 20-year-old Ohio man drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist gathering.
Historic preservation group Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation is helping relocate the statue and its associated memorials to a battlefield park site, the county said. It’ll be rededicated as “The Virginia Monument,” marking the place where Virginia troops fought during that particular battle.
The county’s Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to give the statue, two cannons and stacked cannonballs over to the foundation.
“Albemarle County has placed great trust in us to steward these historic items and repurpose them in a respectful manner,” Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation CEO Keven Walker said. “We do not take that lightly.”
