Rebel flag opposed for Camp Butler
During dedication of memorial to Confederates
By JOHN REYNOLDS
STAFF WRITER, The State-Journal Register, IL
Debate over the Confederate flag, usually associated with Southern states, has reached the heart of the Land of Lincoln.
Ken Page, president of the Springfield branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says the group opposes display of the Confederate flag when the time comes to dedicate a proposed memorial to honor Confederate war dead.
The memorial is to be built at Camp Butler National Cemetery near Riverton, the site of a prison camp for Confederate soldiers.
"The Confederate flag represents the same thing to blacks as the Nazi flag represents to Jews," Page said.
Both of Illinois' U.S. senators, Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, have signed a letter asking federal officials to bar display of the Confederate flag during the dedication.
"We, along with the NAACP and many Americans, believe that the Confederate flag has become more than an historic battle standard; for millions of Americans it is a symbol of slavery and segregation," the Democratic senators said in a letter to the director of the National Cemetery Administration.
Camp Butler is the final resting place of 866 Confederate soldiers.
Ron Casteel of Jefferson City, Mo., national chief of staff for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the groups behind the memorial, said the NAACP "has officially declared war against all Confederate symbols." The two senators are pandering to the NAACP, he said.
"The NAACP, as a matter of policy, has been against any recognition of Southern heritage. This is just noise on their part that amounts to nothing. ... They can call it a racist symbol, but that doesn't mean it is," Casteel said.
"This all involves political correctness and the hateful agenda of the NAACP," he said.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Order of the Southern Cross have raised $6,000 for the memorial.
Bill Rhoades, director of Camp Butler, said the memorial is an obelisk that will stand about 71/2 feet tall. It will be inscribed with the words, "In memory of the Confederate veterans who died at the Camp Butler Confederate prison camp, may they never be forgotten."
The monument will not have any Confederate insignia, nor will a Confederate flag be permanently flown over the memorial.
The only flags that can be permanently flown at Camp Butler are the American flag and the POW/MIA flag. Federal rules do allow Confederate flags to be carried into national cemeteries on Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day. If a state does not have an official Confederate Memorial Day, that date can be determined by local historical re-enactors.
Illinois does not have an official Confederate Memorial Day, but on June 4 of this year, re-enactors did hold a ceremony at Camp Butler. A Confederate flag was part of that ceremony.
Rhoades said he received "absolutely no" comments from the public on that ceremony.
The Confederate memorial could be completed in April.
"The thing of it is, these guys died in a prison camp a long way from home and a long way from their people," Casteel said. "We settled this issue. Peace came. And I see nothing wrong with honoring the Confederate dead."
Page said his group is not opposed to the memorial. The Confederate flag is the only issue, he said.
"The only flag that should be waving out there, that big and everything, is Old Glory," Page said.
John Reynolds can be reached at 788-1524 or john.reynolds@sj-r.com.
© The State Journal-Register