Dover, Tenn.–The Confederate Monument at Fort Donelson National Battlefield was vandalized overnight and a conservation crew from the federal parks will be removing the graffiti.
Park Superintendent Brian McCutchen told RadioNWTN that the vandalism occurred during the night, “leaving graffiti across its base and surrounding pavement. The historic structure has been wrapped and a conservation crew is being put together to remove the graffiti.”
Photos of the vandalism show messages in black paint which read “Racism lives here”, “Racism Lives Stewart County”, “Take Me Down”, and other slogans.
Dover Police Chief Dennis Honholt addressed the vandalism in a Facebook message Thursday afternoon. The following is his post: “Good afternoon everyone. I try very hard to only post positive information, however, from time to time, as a law enforcement agency, the NOT positive needs to be posted as well. I am sure most people are aware that a statue at Fort Donelson was recently vandalized. Just for clarification, that is on federal property under the authority of the National Park Service (D.O.I.) and is in their venue/jurisdiction. I have offered our assistance in this matter, at their discretion. I would like to caution everyone NOT to jump to conclusions. Hopefully we can all think of examples in the past where emotion has pushed people to make an assumption that was incorrect. True investigation operates on the collection of facts, which is why opinion, hearsay, or conjecture are not used or admissible as evidence. This act has clearly sparked emotion and was without a doubt, a cowardly thing to do but it is not cause for people to turn on each other or make baseless accusations. We are in a wonderful community where people truly care about one another, please don’t let this act start dividing us. We ARE stronger than that.”
The statue was erected by the Tennessee Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933, according to the National Park Service.
Fort Donelson preserves Fort Donelson and Fort Heiman, two sites of the Civil War in which Union General Ulysses S. Grant captured three Confederate forts and opened two rivers (Tennessee and Cumberland) to control by the Union Navy.
Photos by David Glitsch.
