Greetings folks - I found this article from the New Bern Sun Journal this morning. This is just tragic.
CIVIL WAR MONUMENT IN NEW BERN VANDALIZED TWICE
Memorial went up just days before Thanksgiving 2006
Francine Sawyer /
Sun Journal Staff
March 2, 2007 - 12:00AM A Civil War memorial marks the area where Confederate and Union soldiers fought during the Battle of New Bern in 1862. Now the fight is on to stop vandalism of the 11 1/2-ton granite monument.
The New Bern Historical Society has been working for the past seven years to make the monument, located near Taberna, a part of the New Bern Battlefield Park. Mark Magnum, chairman of the battlefield committee, said someone used a hammer to chip at the monument last week. Thursday, he found someone had written profane language on it. "It's awful," he said. Magnum said the $45,000 monument went up just days before Thanksgiving last year. He said the amount of monetary damage to the monument is still being assessed.
The North Carolina 26th Monument commemorates the Civil War Battle of New Bern. That battle will be marked at a 145th anniversary celebration beginning March 10.
Magnum reported the first vandalism to police and updated them with a phone call Thursday on the latest incident. Anyone with information about the vandalism can call the New Bern police at 672-4100 or Crime Stoppers, which offers a reward, at 633-5141.
I too think this is very sad. It is hard to believe that this kind of thing could have happened in the area where the monument sits. It is not a traditionally high crime neighborhood or anything like that, so someone has really gone out of their way to do this. This weekend (March 10-11) there will be a living history in New Bern to commemmorate the 145th anniversary of the battle. Maybe that will help raise awareness of this issue.
ReplyDelete