Council gets an earful on Confederate memorial

‘I’m so upset about you even putting this on the agenda that I’m going to start a petition to de-charter the town’

In response to two letters and a third “inquiry” received (according to Mayor Fred Catlin) about what the town was going to do about the 114-yearold Confederate memorial on the courthouse lawn, the Washington Town Council scheduled a “discussion” for its regular monthly meeting Monday at the town hall — even though what it could do, as Town Attorney John Bennett said at the start of the session, was exactly nothing.

Except to listen, that is. And the council got about an hour’s worth of practice at that Monday night.

“I have received three letters from people asking us to address the issue,” Catlin said, opening

the discussion. “One from town, two from the county, who asked why the town had this, considering the mood in the country right now.”

After asking whether the other four members attending the council’s first in-person meeting in three months had anything to say on the issue (they didn’t), Catlin opened it to the public.

Robert Yowell, who lives in Gid Brown Hollow, said he “loves that memorial, which is dedicated to, I’m sure, a lot of my family.”

“There were 115 people from Rappahannock killed in the War of Northern Aggression,” said Sperryville attorney Bill Fletcher, whose family ties to the county go back many generations. “I don’t believe the people of this county fought for slavery. I believe they fought because they were invaded.

“And I think it’s a sad thing for the town of Little Washington to even put this on their agenda,” Fletcher went on, obviously aggrieved, “because you have nothing to do with this. You don’t own the property, you don’t control the property, you never maintain the property, it wasn’t a grant to you. It’s simply for political purposes . . . I’m so upset about you even putting this on the agenda that I’m going to start a petition to de-charter the town.”

“I find it strange,” said Ron Frazier, the county supervisor from Amissville, “that the group of elected people who were just told they don’t have any business . . . any authority . . . to do anything. So what does this gain except pandering to three people, one of whom doesn’t live here?”

“That memorial is as close to a tombstone as many of those names have,” added Frazier, “The families don’t even know where they’re buried . . . and that happened to both North and South — soldiers on the field buried by farmers, and the families don’t even know where they’re buried.”

After Frazier spoke, Catlin said: “Part of the purpose to have this meeting tonight . . . I’ve heard very strongly that this is an important part of history for the community, I’ve heard this is an important part of history to the town, that this is an important memorial for people in the community, that people are still tied to this memorial.

“What I am finding tonight is this is a discussion to find out, we’ve received information from one side of the discussion, and this is an open forum to have a discussion to garner your thoughts, as members of this community, on this issue.”

The discussion continued, somewhat less heatedly.

“A few weeks ago, many of us were concerned about the safety of the memorial — whether we were a Yankee, or whether we were on the other side,” said Jock Nash, a veteran who has taken shifts to look after the memorial (and, he said, to thoroughly clean it).

He segued into his time in Vietnam, admitting that while there he was compelled to kill North Vietnamese Army soldiers. “Every one of those North Vietnamese men that I killed had a mother and a father and a sister and brother, and probably a child. They were fighting for what they believed, and I was fighting . . . in one of the most worthless wars that our country has ever had.

“But,” he added, almost shouting the word. “I still fought, and so did they. And I tell you, my wife and I, we’ve only been here a short time, but we will do anything and everything we can to stop anyone doing any harm to that memorial.”

“I think this memorial is different than the statues of General Lee and others,” said town resident Nancy Buntin, who said her family has ties to men who fought on both sides of the Civil War. “This kind of memorial is important to have.”

She suggested the county might even consider putting up a second memorial to Black residents of Rappahannock County who fought and died for the Union Army.

Catlin asked Frazier if the supervisors had discussed the memorial, which is on county property and more likely their responsibility.

“We’ve already had this discussion in the county,” Frazier said. “Recently?” Catlin asked. “1906,” said Frazier, who (like everyone in the hall) wore a mask that made it hard to tell if he was smiling.

“Well,” Catlin said, repeating a comment Frazier had made earlier, “for some people that’s recent.”

Before the meeting concluded and after the council heard one more time from Bennett that it had no actions to take in the matter (other than host a public discussion), council members Mary Ann Kuhn and Brad Schneider both expressed their support to keep the memorial as it is.

Council members Patrick O’Connell and Joe Whited made no remarks; council member Gail Swift was absent.