Nearly 320,000 soldiers from Ohio fought for the Union during the Civil War, according to the Ohio Historical Society, but monuments, statues, and other symbols of their enemies can be found throughout the Buckeye State, including northwest Ohio.

Markers dedicated to the Confederacy have become the focus of debate and protests. Several across the country have been vandalized, including a statue in Columbus.

Discussions intensified last month when 20-year-old Toledo resident James A. Fields, Jr., crashed his car into a crowd of people in Charlottesville, Va., killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Throngs had gathered to counter white nationalists who were protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Many Americans say statues and monuments celebrating the Confederacy should be taken down because they represent an era of slavery. Descendants of key Confederate General Lee, President Jefferson Davis, and Gen. Thomas “Stonewall Jackson” called for the removal of statues after the Charlottesville incident.

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Many others, including President Trump, say these monuments are part of the nation’s history and should not be destroyed.

Certain tributes to the southern states are more subtle, such as Bowsher High School’s nickname — the Rebels. Miami Township in Milford, Ohio, — about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati — is home to streets named after Confederate generals Jackson, P.G.T. Beauregard, and J.E.B. Stuart.

Michigan has no Confederate statues or monuments.

Franklin

A plaque honoring General Lee in Franklin, Ohio, was removed just days after the Charlottesville attack, but its new owners say it may not be gone for long.

Franklin City Manager Sonny Lewis said the decision had nothing to do with what transpired in Charlottesville, and the stone marker along Dixie Highway was taken out because it was in the right of way. He said no construction projects are in the area.

“It wasn’t taken down because it was offensive to anyone,” Mr. Lewis said. “It wasn’t taken down for any political reasons. It could have been Ronald Reagan or a high school statue, and it would have been taken down.”

The plaque was placed in 1926 and originally belonged to Franklin Township before the city — about 20 miles southwest of Dayton — annexed the road in the 1990s. Franklin’s public works department removed the marker in the middle of the night Aug. 16 and gave it to the township.

A homemade sign was placed at the site before it was swiped by a passer-by. Now, a small Confederate flag stands in its place. Supporters armed with guns held a rally where the marker stood for nearly a century, and large crowds have attended public meetings on the subject in the city and township.

A Change.org petition to remove the plaque has nearly 700 signatures.

Township officials are keeping the plaque in a secret location. They are working with the city and the owners of the property along the highway to determine the next course of action, which Township Administrator Traci Stivers said will likely result in the plaque put up for display again.

“Our residents overwhelmingly let us know they wanted it put back up,” she said. “I work for the residents. I would say for every 200 residents who support it, you might have two protesters. And the protesters aren’t even from this area; they’re from Dayton and Columbus.”

Mr. Lewis said he doesn’t get paid to give personal opinions, but he added he supports preservation of all historical artifacts.

Dayton NAACP President Derrick Foward said it’s important for people to understand why massive protests to remove Confederate statues and other markers are common today: They bring back memories of slavery.

He also questioned those who believe General Lee was a model citizen.

“If he was such a great person, why was he trying to destroy America,” Mr. Foward said. “So when I saw the city leadership of Franklin was not taking [the plaque] down because of what it had been known for, that brings their integrity and who they really are into question.”

Columbus

Camp Chase is 6 miles west of downtown Columbus and became a prisoner-of-war camp after it at first served as a Union army training site. It was named after Salmon P. Chase, President Abraham Lincoln’s treasury secretary and a former Ohio governor.

Confederate prisoners arrived in droves after Union victories at Fort Donaldson, Tenn., and Mississippi River Island in 1862. Camp Chase held as many as 8,000 prisoners by 1863 before most officers were transferred to what is now the Confederate Stockade Cemetery on Johnson Island near Sandusky.

Many prisoners at Camp Chase died during a smallpox outbreak in 1864. Remains of about 2,100 soldiers rest at the central-Ohio cemetery.

A bronze statue of a Confederate soldier at the cemetery was vandalized Aug. 22 when unknown persons removed and ran off with the head. The statue stood atop a 17-foot tall stone archway.

“Destruction and defacement of federal property is a serious crime, and V.A. is working with law enforcement officials to identify those responsible,” said U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs spokesman Jessica Schiefer in an emailed statement to The Blade. “V.A. is committed to maintaining our cemeteries as national shrines, and that includes repairing this statue, which was erected in 1902 as part of a peace and reconciliation effort led by wounded Union solider William Knauss.”

Ms. Schiefer did not answer questions regarding cost of the damage or how vandals could reach the statue. Cemetery representatives are not permitted to the speak to the media, and all correspondence was to be through email with Ms. Schiefer.

Confederate flags are not allowed to fly from fixed poles in Confederate cemeteries. Small flags are allowed at gravesites on Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day on April 26, according to Ms. Schiefer.

“Monuments to Confederate soldiers stand only in cemeteries where Confederate soldiers are buried or memorialized, and we have no plans to disturb those gravesites or monuments,” she said.

Sandusky

The Confederate Stockade Cemetery on Johnson Island, located on the Sandusky Bay between Sandusky and Port Clinton, held more than 10,000 southern soldiers as prisoners during the Civil War.

The 300-acre island proved to be a prime site for a POW camp because of its central location in the northern states and its proximity to rail lines. Union Lt. Col. William Hoffman worked out a deal with the owner of the land, which was leased to the U.S. government for $500 a year.

It was the only facility built by the North for the sole purpose of housing prisoners. Most of the 267 Confederate inmates buried at the cemetery died from disease.

The oldest of the four memorials inside the cemetery’s iron fencing is a bronze statue erected in 1910 of a Confederate soldier looking out over the headstones. The United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated a pair of granite memorials to Confederate POWs at a 2003 re-dedication ceremony.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy purchased the cemetery and donated it to the U.S. government in 1931.

NAACP response

Derrick Foward, president of the Dayton NAACP, said he was confronted with racism the first day he set foot in Greenville, Ohio.

“I was at a crosswalk, and a truck came by with a big Confederate flag on the back. They rode by slowly,” he said, and they swore at him and used a racial epithet. 

“So I have first-hand experience with that flag and its meaning to intimidate people.”

Mr. Foward also serves as vice president for the Ohio Conference NAACP. 

He said the organization doesn’t typically intervene in conflicts over statues or monuments unless a complaint is filed by someone in the community.

Mr. Foward wasn’t involved in any protests in Franklin, but said it’s “wonderful” to see diversity in marches and protests today promoting tolerance and unity.

“I have spoken with a lot of younger Caucasians who do not share the same values as some of their parents or grandparents. That’s why you see this movement today because the younger generation of white Americans understand we are all in this thing together.”

Contact Jay Skebba at jskebba@theblade.com, 419-376-9414 or on Twitter @JaySkebbaBlade.

First Published September 3, 2017, 4:00 a.m.