Howard County Removes Confederate Memorial In Ellicott City

A marker shows the role of the Howard County Courthouse in hearing the trials of runaway slaves. Credit: Robert Lang

Part of the Civil War Exhibit in the Howard County Historical Society Museum Credit: Robert Lang

The space where the monument once stood Credit: Robert Lang

Another Confederate monument has been removed in the overnight hours in Maryland.

According to a release from Howard County Government, County Executive Allan Kittleman ordered the removal of a Confederate memorial located outside the Howard County Circuit Courthouse in Ellicott City.

Kittleman had filed a request with the Historic Preservation Commission to have the monument removed on Aug. 16, but the process required a five-day public notice period before a decision could be made. Immediately after receiving approval from the commission, Kittleman took steps to move the memorial.

LISTEN: Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman speaks with Bryan Nehman about the removal process:

“It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere,” said Kittleman. “Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property.”

Video posted on the Howard County Government Facebook page shows a number of men placing the monument on a dolly and wheeling the monument away.

The release from Howard County says that the monument will be donated to a local museum.

“We cannot and should not erase the past. We must learn from it,” said Kittleman. “A museum offers context for us and for future generations to better understand our shared history.”

VIDEO: Scott Wykoff Reports

By midday, just some bushes and soil marked the empty space where the monument once sat. The removal upsets Richard Clark of Clarksburg. His family helped establish that Howard County town.

“The wording of the monument, it simply showed or gave notice or a remembrance to the people from Howard County who served on the Confederate side,” Clark told WBAL NewsRadio 1090.

Howard County Councilman Calvin Ball, who called for the monument’s removal said he doesn’t object to acknowledging the history, but he felt a monument at the courthouse was not appropriate, since the Confederacy endorsed slavery.

“This (the courthouse) is a place that is built upon equality and they can get justice here, and having a monument that could very be easily seen in a museum is more appropriate,” Ball told WBAL NewsRadio 1090.

The monument is being vient to the Howard County Historical Society which operates a museum next door ot the courthouse.

The museum already has an exhibit which details Howard County’s role in the Civil War.

“The title of our exhibit is Fractured Howard County, and we think that is a great representation of what Howard County was,” said Shawn Gladden, executive director of the Howard County Historical Society.

Gladden notes there were 419 Union soldiers and 374 Confederate soldiers who lived in Howard County.

Gladden says when and where the monument will be displayed will depend on when or if it can be removed from its huge stone base.

“There are still some logistics involved,” Gladden told WBAL NewsRadio 1090, adding that there is not room in the museum to display the monument attached to the stone base.

Gladden says the Historical Society’s board will meet next month to decide what to do about the monument, but he said it will be on display.

“It would be in the best context if it were on display in the Civil War exhibit we already have,” Gladden told WBAL NewsRadio 1090.

There are also historical markers around the courthouse and the old jail to show their role in the trials and detention of runaway slaves.