BY MILES LAYTON
EDENTON — In a contentious but civil meeting Monday evening (July 28) at Nixon’s Catering, members of the Edenton Bell Battery, Sons of Confederate Veterans, voted 7-6 in favor of endorsing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that could determine the future of Edenton’s Confederate Memorial Monument.
The MOU, agreed upon earlier this summer by the Edenton Town Council and the Chowan County Board of Commissioners, outlines the relocation of the Confederate monument from its current location at the end of South Broad Street (near the municipal building) to Veterans Park, behind the Chowan County Courthouse. While many SCV chapter members expressed deep concern about any relocation, the narrow majority ultimately supported the compromise to ensure the monument remains publicly displayed and preserved.
More about Monday’s meeting will appear in a future story.
The Edenton Bell Battery’s vote is not legally binding but could influence public sentiment and decision-making by local officials and judges. The upcoming court case in August will likely decide whether the Town of Edenton can proceed with the monument’s relocation under North Carolina’s monument protection laws.
The motion to endorse the MOU was introduced by longtime member Joe Hollowell, who said that the decision reflected an effort to work with local leaders and protect the monument amid increasing legal and political pressure.
“These people have been trying to find a way to make sure that we abide by a law that exists, created by our legislature, concerning the saving of Confederate monuments,” Hollowell said. “The Edenton Town Council and the Chowan County Commission came together. And I would like to read a motion to be acted on by this group — that the Edenton Bell Battery, Sons of the Confederacy endorse the memorandum of understanding between the town and county concerning the Confederate memorial.”
Hollowell acknowledged that relocating the monument is not the group’s preferred option but argued that endorsing the MOU is a practical step to ensure its long-term survival.
“The Town Council has already voted to move it,” Hollowell said. “The only thing keeping them from moving it is a restraining order from a district judge. That court case will be heard in August. We’ve got to protect this monument from being destroyed, vandalized, or hidden away.”
He added that under the MOU, Chowan County would take over responsibility for the monument and re-install it at Veterans Park “exactly as it is now,” including the surrounding ground features.
“It’s a strategy to keep the monument in public view and under the protection of a local government that is willing to stand up for it,” he said.
But not everyone in the room agreed.
Millard Bond gave a forceful speech opposing the MOU, citing a 1961 promise made by the Edenton Woman’s Club, who helped pay for the monument’s placement.
“When the (Edenton) Woman’s Club put that memorial where it’s at now, there was a letter written to the town council and the county commissioners that said that monument was to be taken care of and would stay in that position for eternity,” Bond said. “Now y’all are backing off what was said in 1961.”
Bond added that the effort to move the monument felt like a betrayal of tradition and family history.
“Every time a generation comes along and doesn’t like something, they go and start changing it — just like Broad Street being reduced to three lanes,” he said. “I like even less that they want to move the memorial my mama helped pay for. I don’t want it moved. I want it to stay right where the hell it is — and that’s as nice as I can be.”
Bond’s passionate remarks drew murmurs of agreement from several attendees, some of whom also voiced concern about what they saw as a slow erosion of Southern heritage.
However, Hollowell countered that doing nothing could leave the monument vulnerable to a court decision or future legislation that might result in it being removed entirely from public view or even destroyed.
“We don’t want what happened in Enfield to happen here,” Hollowell said, referencing a recent case in North Carolina where a Confederate monument was removed and allegedly discarded in a body of water. “Let’s try to work with our leaders and save this monument for the future, so somebody can still see it.”
4 responses to “Edenton Bell Battery Votes 7-6 in Favor of Confederate Monument MOU”
Accepting the MOU is the BEST logical path forward. N.C.G.S. 100-2.1 specifically states that Monuments can be relocated if the location they are currently on is to be redeveloped and this is the case with the Edenton Monument to Confederate War Dead.
No one in the SCV wants the Monument to be moved and literally thousands of people through donations, signatures, and other forms of support have clearly said so. And God bless Millard, Ron, Chuck, George, Mike, and others that are out there every Saturday regardless of weather, to protect this sacred statue, but the reality is that the VERY LAW protecting the Monument can be used for it’s relocation as well, and the Town has opted to do so.
Once it is recognized that relocation IS GOING to happen, the energies these protectors of heritage and history should be focused on ensuring the location is the best possible location as law requires; the MOU does offer the best available option. I don’t like the MOU, but frankly, there is no better alternative. It needs to be carried out safely and engineered for the Monument’s long term survival.
For the Town’s part, the Town should recognized the historical significance of the Monument, the rights of the heritage groups to protect the Monument now and in the future, and the Town should act in good faith and NOT erect some other Monument or artwork in the current location of the Monument to Confederate War Dead as this would make their current relocation efforts illegal. N.C.G.S. 100-2.1 allows relocation for redevelopment, BUT if that redevelopment could be completed and then re-accomodate the Monument, then replacement of Monument in original location is required within 90 days of completed renovation. Town should be mindful of this provision of N.C.G.S. 100-2.1which states: “An object of remembrance that is temporarily relocated shall be returned to its original location within 90 days of completion of the project that required its temporary removal.”. Since the Town is moving to on the legal basis to redevelop the land, if the Town put another like sized statue in it’s place, it would be obvious to all that the move was only needed to be temporary and the 90 day clause should be automatic.
Thank You Mr. Layton for another fine bit of honest journalism. (I would love to obtain your direct e-mail so I can communicate with you without going through any filters.)
Compatriots and Southern Patriots,
This is the latest chapter in the multi-year battle to protect and preserve the Confederate Memorial in Edenton. May God Bless every person who has through voiced opposition, participation in demonstrations (weekly), shared donations, etc. to support this important memorial to the men of Chowan County who gave their last full measure for the cause of Southern Independence and resisted the invasion of northern troops.
I can say one thing for Chowan County and the Town of Edenton . . . they have attempted to follow North Carolina law in regards to relocating Confederate Memorials. Conversely, in Pitt County, our Board of Commissioners in June of 2020 VIOLATED North Carolina law and REMOVED our beloved Confederate Memorial which had been in place at the Pitt County Courthouse for over a century. In April of last year, they added insult to injury and GAVE AWAY our monument to a non-profit organization in Lexington County, North Carolina. Since that time, that organization “loaned” our Pitt County Memorial to another organization in Virginia. At this time, our Pitt County Memorial lies on the ground (horizontally) near Lexington, Virginia. Our rogue county commissioners have NEVER BEEN CALLED INTO ACCOUNT!
One phrase in the article summed up today’s cultural and political environment in the South . . . “slow erosion of Southern heritage.”
As proud Southerners, it falls to our generation to do all we can to protect the legacy of our ancestors, who recognized that our heritage and our Southern way of life was worth fighting for. The cemeteries, the monuments, the streets, buildings, parks, plaques, and signs that bear witness to the struggle of the Confederate States of America, deserve their place in today’s world. God Bless their memory.
DEO VINDICE
J. McRoy
Pitt County
[…] Edenton Bell Battery narrowly voted 7–6 in favor of endorsing the MOU Monday night, but Rader urged caution, saying the group was not fully informed before the […]
[…] week, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Edenton Bell Battery, endorsed the MOU that could determine the future of Edenton’s Confederate Memorial to 47 souls from Chowan […]