After having spent the morning in Libby Hill dismantling the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors monument workers arrived back on Monument Avenue at the Jefferson Davis memorial. The actual statue of Davis had already been removed the previous month by a vigilante in a sedan equipped with ropes however much still remained of the large confederate memorial. Standing high atop the solitary pillar of the monument stood the Vindicatrix aka Miss Confederacy statue.
Additionally the monument featured a set of confederate icons and decorations along the top of the stone semicircle around Davis's longtime pedestal. Also affixed to the columns were a set of plaques memorializing confederate armed services in the civil war.
Sheriffs office deputies and city workers closed off the intersection of Davis & Monument giving crews safe and flexible access to the monument grounds. Initially crews commenced work on removing the giant confederate plaques on the front base of the statue however despite crowbars and prying these massive metal blocks proved incredibly resistant to removal.
Meanwhile elevated workers ascended to the top of the stone pillar and secured the giant metal figure perched high above Monument Avenue. Once secured the crews used mechanical tools to grind down the corroded hundred year old bolts holding the statue in place.
After nearly an hour of work the elevated crews gave the signal and the Vindicatrix figure took flight from the pillar and was gently lowered to the ground where workers inspected it before laying it to rest along Monument Avenue. Shortly thereafter crane operators lifted the now horizontal figure onto a truck for hauling to temporary storage in southside Richmond.
For more than an hour workers continued dismantling the remaining confederate icons from the memorial with the battle flag covered metal figures coming down with the help of cranes. Not long afterwards the tricky and resistant metal plaques on the front of the monument also came down however it was clear the removal process left them dented and misshapen.
Read More