[VAcourier] Fredericksburg flag article

Thu Sep 13 07:31:33 EDT 2007

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Confederate flag flap erupts

September 13, 2007 12:35 am

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Howell
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Confederate battle flag
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Second national flag
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BY CHELYEN DAVIS

RICHMOND--A Confederate-history group is angry at House Speaker Bill Howell
for not returning the Confederate battle flag to the restored old House of
Delegates chamber in the Capitol.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans took out an ad in The Free Lance-Star and
issued a press release this week denouncing the move and accusing Howell of
pandering to political correctness.

Howell, however, says the flag was removed from the Old Hall of the
House--which is not the chamber in which the House currently meets--as part
of the massive Capitol renovation project that just finished this year. The
Stafford County Republican said the House clerk, Bruce Jamerson, wanted to
restore the room to its mid-19th century appearance, and there were no flags
there at that time.

In the 1930s, the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that still stands in the Old
Hall was placed there, along with busts of other Confederates, and the
battle flag appears in photographs of the room from around that time. 

But the busts and the statue were put there by acts of the General Assembly,
and Howell and Jamerson didn't want to move those. They did remove the
battle flag, however, and will put a different Confederate flag--the "second
national flag," which flew over the Virginia Capitol when it was used as the
Confederate capitol when the Confederate congress adopted it in 1863--in a
display case in a museum area in the building's newly constructed annex,
along with several other historic flags.

The SCV thinks the other flags are a ruse to distract attention from the
removal of the battle flag from the Capitol, a move the group called
"despicable" in a press release.

Brag Bowling, of the SCV, said the battle flag was the soldier's flag. The
other flags used by the Confederacy--including the one that will now be on
display at the Capitol--were political flags, which don't represent the
sacrifices of individual soldiers.

"Many thousands of them died following that flag," Bowling said. "There
should be a Confederate battle flag in there to honor that individual
Virginian, and he hasn't done that. Our organization has no problem removing
that battle flag from the old House of Delegates as long as it finds a new
place in the Capitol But what the end game of his plan is to get rid of the
battle flag. That's the only flag that isn't being put back up. They can say
all they want about historical accuracy."

Bowling and the SCV say this is another example of Republican lawmakers
running away from Confederate heritage out of fear that it will hurt them
politically.

They hope to make Howell change his mind.

"I don't know why Delegate Howell is so hell-bent on removing it. But this
is typical of many in the Republican Party right now, who are trying to
curry favor with minority voters and soccer moms," Bowling said. "They think
by turning on the battle flag it's going to help them. George Allen tried
that and lost, and that's one of the issues that defeated him, because he
was badmouthing the flag."

Howell says he is not trying to rewrite history, but restore it. The other
Confederate flag that will be on display was made in Richmond and draped
over Stonewall Jackson's coffin, which gives it more of a connection to
Virginia, Howell said.

"I understand their frustration, I understand they think this is all being
done under the guise of political correctness," Howell said of the SCV,
adding that he has met with the group. "That is part of our history and it's
nothing we're hiding, nothing we're ashamed of. But it was just historically
more accurate to have items [in the Old Hall] that were in there either by
express direction of the General Assembly or would have been in there at the
time."

Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis at freelancestar.com 
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Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company. 
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