By: Isaac Noll

Talbot county council voters have decided to remove the statue of the Talbot Boys, a confederate symbol, from the front lawn of the Talbot County Courthouse. The statue features a soldier holding a confederate flag, and lists the names of Talbot citizens who fought for the confederacy. It has remained there since 1914, and will be moved in the near future. The statue will now be put in the hands of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, who plan to place it in the Cross Keys Battlefield in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Mt. Hebron Senior Jeremy Roberts Kleban, a participant in a county wide history trivia contest and an avid history researcher, was asked for his opinion on where the statue should be taken. 

He stated, “I think they should place it in the Cross Keys place like they planned, but if that doesn’t happen they can’t just get rid of it. It should go to a Maryland museum so people can look for it if they want to.” 

When asked if all confederacy symbols in Maryland should receive this treatment, he said, “I think most of it probably should be, but most of it isn’t as big or meaningful as the statue is, so it matters less.”

The removal of the statue will not be using taxpayer money. Council Vice President Pete Lesher said that moving this statue will give it, “a better place to live out its days”.

Senior Connor Croft, another history buff local to Mt. Hebron, was also asked for his take on the actions taken by Talbot County.

He stated, “Usually I could say it doesn’t matter if it stays there or not, because they are really just statues, but a confederate statue really shouldn’t be outside the entrance to a courthouse. It just seems wrong.” 

He was then asked how he would feel about removing confederate statues that currently reside in graveyards of Maryland, to which he responded, “They could probably stay, because those statues probably have a connection to the people in those cemetery graves. And those are completely alone and away from pretty much everything else, so it shouldn’t really do any harm.”

Senior Kyle Richards was asked as a citizen of Maryland what the confederate statues in the state provided. He responded, “The confederate statues don’t even do anything for anyone. They should really just be put in a museum or something somewhere.”

Photo from The New Yorker