{"id":1295,"date":"2015-04-28T17:26:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T17:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/?p=1295"},"modified":"2021-01-03T21:51:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T21:51:01","slug":"confederate-monument-in-mechanicsburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/2015\/04\/28\/confederate-monument-in-mechanicsburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Confederate Monument in Mechanicsburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE:\u00a0 <\/strong>The Jenkins monument was removed during the summer of 2020.\u00a0 Read about the details from the Harrisburg Patriot-News<\/em> coverage (July 3, 2020):\u00a0 “Another Confederate Monument Falls, This Time on the West Shore.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Monument\"<\/a>

Before & after photographs of the Jenkins monument in Mechanicsburg (courtesy of John Quist)<\/p><\/div>\n

Original post from 2015:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Courtesy<\/a>

Courtesy of Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a monument honoring Confederate general Albert Jenkins in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania –paid for by donations from local residents and organized by the Camp Curtin Historical Society. It is the northernmost memorial for any Confederate officer and probably the only one paid for by northerners. \u00a0Yet Jenkins was one of the most controversial Confederate officers, one who destroyed northern civilian property and whose men conducted what they called a “slave hunt,” kidnapping black people during the Gettysburg campaign and hauling them into slavery in the South.<\/p>\n

The text of the obelisk reads:<\/p>\n

“BRIG. GEN. ALBERT G. JENKINS, C.S.A. Born November 10, 1830 in Greenbottom, Virginia. He was a graduate of Jefferson College and studied law at Harvard University. Albert Jenkins served as U.S. Congressman from 1857 to 1861 and then resigned to serve the Confederacy. Thereafter, he served as a Congressman for in the First Congress of the Confederate States prior to receiving his Brigadier General\u2019s commission. Gen. Jenkins and his command occupied this property June 28-30, 1863 as he probed the defenses of Harrisburg, but was recalled by Gen. Lee to join the main army at Gettysburg. Gen. Jenkins suffered severe wounds from artillery fire during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 but recovered. In 1864, he was appointed commander of the Department of Western Virginia by the Confederacy. The General was again seriously wounded and captured at the Battle of Cloyd\u2019s Mountain and died of those wounds on May 21, 1864.”<\/p>\n

You can read more about Albert Jenkins at the House Divided Project research engine<\/a> and more about the planning for the memorial at Camp Curtin Historical Society<\/a>. \u00a0To learn more about the “slave hunt” conducted by Jenkins’s cavalry, see these articles from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a> and the New York Times Disunion series<\/a>. \u00a0On the question of whether or not this monument stands as a helpful symbol of national reconciliation or as a disgraceful obliteration of the past, that is for readers to decide but we would welcome your comments below.<\/p>\n

However, before you venture a judgment about the monument in Mechanicsburg, it is worth putting this issue into national context. \u00a0There has been a recent movement to remove Confederate flags and monuments across the South. \u00a0This happened in the aftermath of the June 2015 mass shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Here are some helpful articles on the impact of that tragedy and the subsequent political battles that have been erupting over Confederate heritage and history:<\/p>\n