By Taylor Boyd
The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc. is seeking donations to potentially move, restore and install Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s monument, with plans to relocate the statue and its pedestal at Laurel Hill Farm, Stuart’s birthplace in Ararat.
It has filed an application with the Richmond City Council to obtain the statue after it was taken down from Monument Avenue, according to Ronnie Haynes, president of the trust.
If the application is not approved, donations will be refunded, he added.
Currently, the trust has raised the funds needed to transport the statue and is now focused on funding to move the pedestal on which the statue has rested since its creation more than 100 years ago, Haynes said.
Funds also will be needed to restore the statue and pedestal to their former appearances, add security in the forms of cameras and gates, and lighting to showcase the monument in the night, Haynes said.
The bronze statue, he said, is more than 15-feet in height and weighs between seven and eight tons.
The granite pedestal, which he estimated is 7-feet in height, also is historically important, he said, and added that displaying the two together will ensure they are presented as a complete historical, artistic piece.
The plan to relocate them is, “about the biggest undertaking the board has done since buying the
site,” Haynes said of Laurel Hill, a private 75-acre park along the Virginia/North Carolina state line.
James Ewell Brown Stuart was born in Ararat on his parent’s 1,500-acre farm on February 6, 1833. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1854 and served seven years in the United States Army, rising to the rank of Captain, according to previous reports.
Stuart resigned in May 1861 and offered his sword to his home state of Virginia. He rose in rank to Major General commanding all the mounted arm, the Cavalry Division of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, until his death on May 12, 1864. He is buried in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, according to previous reports.
The Laurel Hill site is interpreted with history about the antebellum time when Stuart’s family lived there, including interpretation about the slaves that lived on the property.
Haynes said the trust began discussing the movement of the monument from Richmond to Laurel Hill following widespread vandalism of Confederate monuments. He hopes the plan is successful.
“I can’t think of a better place for it to be than his birthplace.”
If its application is not approved, Haynes said it is willing to cooperate with an approved organization.
The main goal, he said, is to save the monument as “historical, and a work of art.” It should be protected as any artistic piece would be, he added.
The trust should know the fate of the statue and pedestal soon, Haynes said, adding that Sept. 1 marks the end of the 60-day period in Richmond city officials are to reach a decision.
Haynes added that the trust, J. E. B. Stuart V, and their attorneys have done all they can do at this point.
“The ball is in their court and we’re waiting for them to decide,” Haynes said.
Donations may be mailed to the JEB Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc., P.O. Box 1210, Stuart, Va. 24171, or for more information, visit www.jebstuart.org. laurelhill@jebstuart.org, or call (276) 251-1833.
