Confederate memorials being removed at Wisconsin cemetery

By IVAN MORENO / ASSOCIATED PRESS |
PUBLISHED: August 17, 2017 at 8:12 pm | UPDATED: August 17, 2017 at 9:35 pm

MILWAUKEE — The mayor of a traditionally liberal Wisconsin city has ordered the removal of a cemetery’s monuments to Confederate soldiers, saying the Civil War was “a defense of the deplorable practice of slavery” and “an act of insurrection and treason.”

One of the monuments in the state capital of Madison was taken down Wednesday. The plaque, called “Confederate Rest,” lauded the Confederate soldiers buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery as “valiant.” The other, a large stone monument that lists the names of the soldiers, will require heavy machinery to be removed, Mayor Paul Soglin told The Associated Press on Thursday ...

The stone monument has been in the cemetery for more than a century, Soglin said. A woman with Confederate ancestors would visit the cemetery to tend to the soldiers’ graves, and her friends installed the monument, he said.

The plaque that already was removed was installed in 1981 by a donor with relatives who fought in the Civil War ...

http://www.twincities.com/2017/08/17/wisconsin-mayor-orders-removal-of-confederate-memorials/