In one of the most disturbing tales to come from Richmond, Virginia’s moves to erase history, they are now planning to dig up the grave of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, according to a new report.
To make the matter even more ghoulish, the city has not actually come up with a plan yet on what to do with his remains that have been in the location since 1892.
General Hill had requested he be buried under the memorial in his will, ABC 8 reports.
“He had left in his will that he wanted to be buried in Richmond. I’m not sure why Richmond because he wasn’t from Richmond and didnt have any particularly strong Richmond roots that I’m aware of,” Bob Balster, president of the Hermitage Road Historic District Association told 8 News.
To ensure his wishes were carried out, Confederate veterans who served under Hill raised money for the monument and the land was donated by Lewis Ginter.
The National File reportsthat an effort by Mayor Levar Stoney and backed by Governor Ralph Northam, anti-history Democrats in Richmond, Virginia are finalizing plans to dig up the remains of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, who lies beneath a towering statue dedicated in his honor and now marked for removal amidst efforts to erase all traces of the Confederacy from its former capital.
Though the city removed nearly all of their Confederate statues during the terroristic Black Lives Matter riots last year, the general’s statue and grave had remained
To circumvent laws against desecrating graves, the Democrats are reportedly designating the grave a threat to traffic safety, giving them the power to remove it.
According to the National File, under the removal plans, workers will remove the bronze statue of the General before destroying its stone pedestal and removing the sarcophagus containing his remains. Details of what the city plans to do with Hill’s remains are unclear, and the project is estimated to carry a taxpayer-funded price tag of over $33,000.
Empty Crypts of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Mary Ann Forrest
As you may know, the city of Memphis, Tennessee deemed that one of their long-time historical figures had to be removed. This figure is General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who actually saved the city during the Civil War. Although he has always been a controversial figure, he has been considered to be a strategical genius in the art of warfare. He lived most of his life in the Memphis area, and died there as well. Prior to his death, his ex-slaves revered him; so much so that they even fought for the Confederacy under his command. Forrest did much in his later years to reunite racial relations in the city.
General Forrest requested that he be buried in Elmwood Cemetery near his four brothers, who all served in the Confederate cavalry. As per his instructions, he was buried in Elmwood in 1877. However, his son, William, gave the consent for his father and mother’s remains to be moved about one and a half miles to Forrest Park in 1904. This was during a saner time when Memphis actually acknowledged Forrest for his acheivements and revered him by building a park named after him and placing a beautiful statue of him over the tombs of him and his wife.
Fast forward to 2021. The name of the park has been changed to Health Sciences Park. The statue was removed a few years prior and placed in storage. And last week, the bodies of Forrest and his wife, Mary Ann, were exhumed. Here is a letter from SCV Commander Larry McCluney, Jr., explaining upcoming events.
Announcement: Forrest Remains Recovered!
June 11, 2021
Compatriots, It gives me great pleasure to announce that recovery of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest’s remains have been recovered from their former gravesite in Memphis. I want to congratulate Lee Millar, the men on the Recovery Crew, and the members of the Nathan Bedford Forrest Camp #215 in Memphis, TN and the legal team of H. Edward Phillips III, Chuck Blackard, III, W. J. “Bo” Ladner, III, and Jonathan J. Pledger, on a job well done. We also thank the Forrest Family for allowing us to take part in this momentous occasion. The remains are held in an undisclosed location and later will be transported to an undisclosed location in Middle Tennessee. These sites will be kept in secrecy for security reasons.
Now we enter the next phase, the planning for the funeral. Fundraising still continues as we raise money for the reinternment of General Forrest and his beloved wife. Please give to make this event happen as we bring one of our heroes home to be buried on land less than 30 minutes from where he was born. Let us always keep in mind that we are honored by the Forrest Family to participate in this solemn occasion. NO we do not have a date set yet, once the committee has finish all the details, then we will be making an announcement so you can make plans to attend.
Once the funeral is complete, then phase three; restoring the plaza and remounting the equestrian statue on the grave will occur. This will not be easy nor quick. Once complete we will rededicate this plaza to honor the General.
Please be patient with us as you and the entire membership will be informed once the date is secured. For now, let us “walk a little prouder and hold our heads higher” in this great victory! God has truly vindicated us in this effort. Let us remember the charge given to us by General Stephen Dill Lee as we continue to press forward.
Deo Vindicie,
Larry McCluney, Jr.
Commander-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Forrest Park in Happier Times
Here is another letter written by H.K. Edgerton, who was previously the president of the NAACP and now advocates for the Confederacy by dressing in uniform and traveling around the country giving speeches to explain the Southern cause and the existence of black Confederates.
Dateline: June 16, 2021 Subject: Open Report – Monument Protection by HK Edgerton
When the Honorable Gary Johnson and I attended the Young Republican Party meeting in Pell City, AL several months ago, I was elated to hear Alabama State Rep. Mike Holmes talk about strengthening monument protection laws from just a one time fine of $25,000 to a daily fine until any and all damages are repaired and the monument has been replaced in its original position. Punishment for vandalization or illegal removal was now front and center. This is something that is lacking in the monument protection laws in my home state of North Carolina where criminals are scourging our treasured relics without fear of real punishment from the law; even the elected demigods are placing themselves above the law…Silent Sam at the University of NC – Chapel Hill and the Vance Monument in the City of Asheville, NC
Fast forwarding to the Great State of Florida which is grappling with a monument protection law; a lobbyist and former lt. governor Jeff Kottkamp in a conference call did one better than Alabama: (a) proposing to make it a second degree felony for damage or unlawful removal, (b) the withholding of federal or state funds from municipalities of those elected demigods who place themselves above the law with no expectations of retribution for their unlawful actions. The only part of his presentation that I did not understand was tacking on a proposed education component to his bill. I was thrilled when he made it clear that this protection law would include all things Confederate.
However, my concern has and will continue to be the changing of the nations attitude towards those of us born in the states of the Confederacy who are continually treated as the scum of America. Our children are forced fed the lie that the war made against the Southern people was to end the economic institution of slavery. The Southern white man made a grand stand against so many unlawful acts of tyranny and a stand for the lawful act of secession. Daily our children are forced fed the false narrative that this illegal invader from the North came to our homeland to end slavery; with his hand still firmly around the African’s neck, never presenting the love, caring, and continuous acts to move the Africans towards social and vertical mobility as the Southern white man tried to do and was stopped to this very day, the one and only man on God’s earth who ever truly loved the African people.
God bless my dear brother and friend, the Honorable Fred C. Morse III of Austin, TX (1946 – 2021) who went to his celestial home to be with the Almighty God whose face carries a big smile to see a man of this world who He can look at and say, “Well done, my son!”
Your brother, HK Edgerton
I have mixed feelings about removing the general and his wife. I feel it is an atrocity that the city of Memphis pushed to have the bodies removed in the first place. Talk about disrespectful! Their claim is because of racism, but is it really? Or is it Marxism? It’s my understanding that it is a Federal offense to tamper with a grave, especially that of a military officer. I’m not sure about moving the bodies to the new SCV facility in Tennessee. Personally, I think the bodies should have been returned to Elmwood Cemetery. I understand the controversy, because I’m sure vandals would have attacked there as well. What is your take on all of this? I’d be happy to read your comments. Thanks so much.
IN THE OLD DOMINION At the urging of NAACP Vice President Robert Ashton Jr., King George County Board of Supervisors met behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss removing a Confederate memorial from the lawn of the county’s Courthouse. When they returned to public session, Chairwoman Annie Cupka directed staff “to determine the cost of relocation and to work with community groups to raise the necessary funding.”
ALSO IN VIRGINIA
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit to protect the Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond on Tuesday, June 8, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
Jesse Binnall, the attorney who filed an amicus brief on behalf of the MOS&B in the Taylor case, gave the following links that you will need if you wish to hear the oral arguments.
There are two cases to be reviewed. The Taylor case was filed by the heirs of the donors of the property upon which the Lee Monument now stands. The Gregory case was filed by residents of the neighborhood. The defendant in both cases is the governor of Virginia.
IN THE VOLUNTEER STATE On Tuesday, black activist-turned-“elected”-official Tami Sawyer gloated to media as City workers desecrated the grave of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, digging up his remains from a Memphis park.
(Courtesy of Dixie Heritage Newsletter, June 4, 2021 ed.)
Visually impaired author and current flavour of the Indian literary scene, Dev Arya, has not just triumphed against the odds in his life, he’s annihilated them. He’s got fame, fortune and floozies in abundance. And yet, he’s lonely.
Cafe owner and only child to her differently abled father, Avni Desai is broke, heartbroken and a true survivor. But no matter how hard she hustles, she’s still struggling to stay afloat.
And then, one day, Dev walks into her cafe… and everything changes for both of them. From excellent tiramisu to earshattering singing, from dramatic friends to accident prone sexcapades, they embark on the ride of a lifetime.
Will it all be worth it though? Will two broken souls find a way to heal each other? Or do the fractures go so deep that there is no way for either of them to find the love they so deeply crave and yet can’t seem to have?
The bell tinkled again and a pretty young girl in a peach salwar kameez walked in. She went straight to the hottie by the window.
“Dev?” she asked.
“Nisha, I presume?” He smiled up at her.
My breath caught. My God, the man was lethal. Peach salwar looked similarly dazzled. She fumbled for the chair in front of her and sat down like her legs had given out. I didn’t blame her. That smile must have leveled everyone in the vicinity.
Checking that Diana and Sehar had things under control with the drink on the floor fiasco, I walked up to the hottie’s table and held out a menu to the girl.
“Would you both care to order?”
She took the menu and held it out to him. “Would you like to choose first?”
Hottie just looked back at her, his hands folded in front of him. “I’m afraid you’ll have to read it out to me. Unless,” he tilted his perfect profile in my direction. “You have a Braille menu?”
“I’m sorry.” I flushed. “We don’t but I can read the menu out to you if you require?”
“A Braille menu?” Peach Salwar frowned. “Why do we need that?”
My pen froze over my order pad. I darted a cautious look between the two. Hotties lips tightened.
“Your family didn’t tell you?” he asked.
“Tell me what?”
Okay. Peach Salwar was a little dumb. I started to slowly back away.
Hottie pulled his dark glasses off and looked at her. “That I’m blind.”
He had ink dark eyes framed by the most gorgeous thicket of eyelashes. This man’s looks would have made angels weep in heaven.
I wanted to weep. I wasn’t entirely sure why but the tears were filling quite rapidly in my own normal, average looking eyes.
“Blind?” Peach Salwar breathed. “You’re blind.”
If his lips tightened anymore, they would disappear from view completely. All around us, the café was silent. It seemed even the air held its breath.
He slipped the dark glasses on and held up his very snazzy looking cane. “Even if your family didn’t tell you, surely you didn’t miss my accessories?” The bitter note had something twinging in my heart.
“I can’t,” she quavered. “I can’t do this.”
What was this exactly?
“I can’t marry a handicapped person.”
Oh. It was that.
The man didn’t move. All around us, people stared, nobody dared make a noise.
Finally, he nodded. “I understand.”
Wordlessly, Peach Salwar stood up, shoved her chair aside and ran from the café like he was going to keep her there by force.
“Wow,” Diana breathed from behind me. “That was crazier than one of my scripts.”
It had been a really long day. My feet hurt. My head hurt. My heart hurt.
And yet…
I walked up to where he sat all alone staring at the table in front of him. He either heard my footsteps or sensed my presence because without looking up, he said, “I don’t think I’ll be ordering anything. I’m sorry.”
“My tiramisu is exceptional.” I righted the chair Peach Salwar had toppled in her hurry to leave and sat down in it. “Would you like to share one with me? On the house?”
“Feeling sorry for me, are you?” His smile was bitter and seemed to echo the pain in my heart.
“You and me both,” I said, frankly. “I’ve had a bad day too.”
“I doubt whatever happened to you is half as humiliating as this just was.”
“My boyfriend of five years and partner in this café just got engaged to someone else. I found out on Instagram.”
His head whipped up. I knew he couldn’t see and yet, that gaze seemed to look right through me.
“Okay. You win. But I want my own tiramisu. I don’t like to share.”
About the Author:
Shilpa Suraj wears many hats – corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author.
An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Shilpa has weaved stories in her head since she was a child. Her previous stints at Google, in an ad agency and as an entrepreneur provide colour to her present day stories, both fiction and non-fiction.
Announcement: Forrest Remains Recovered! 
J.D.R. Hawkins 