Confederate Soldier Memorial (Huntsville, Alabama)

The monument consists of a life-sized granite statue of a Confederate soldier holding a rifle.[1] The statue is located a granite base, which contains engraved text praising Confederate soldiers and John Hunt Morgan, a Confederate general born in Huntsville.[1] The statue is located near the Madison County Courthouse.[3]

The memorial was erected in 1905 by the Daughters of the Confederacy.[2]

In 1966, the courthouse next the Confederate Soldier Memorial was demolished to make room for a new courthouse.[3] The memorial was moved across the street and laid on its side near a row of pre-Civil War structures that were also being demolished.[3] The Confederate soldier statue was accidently crushed by a falling wall; the base was unharmed.[3] The Daughters of the Confederacy successfully sued the demolition company and used their winning to construct a new statue on the surviving base.[3] In 1968, the partially reconstructed statue was re-dedicated back in its original position.[3]

In early June 2020, the monument was protested against in the aftermath of the May 2020 Killing of George Floyd.[2] On 10 June 2020, the seven person Madison County Commission voted unanimously to seek approval from a state committee to remove the monument.[2] Under the 2017 Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, the county must seek permission to remove historical markers that have been in place for twenty to forty years; it contains no process for the removal of markers that have been in place for over forty years such as the Confederate Soldier Memorial.[2] If the memorial is removed without state permission, the county would be fined $25,000.[2]

• List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests