For the second time this year, a person immortalized by a statue in Congress’s Statuary Hall because of his exploits during the Civil War has been replaced by a statue of a renowned American woman. But this time the person replaced was NOT a Confederate, but rather a stalwart Unionist.
Earlier this month, a statue of Civil Rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune of Florida replaced that of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith. Last week, a statue of renowned aviator Amelia Earhart of Kansas replaced that of John James Ingalls. The latter was a staunch Unionist who served during the Civil War as a Judge Advocate in the Kansas militia and editor of a pro-Unionist Atchison newspaper.
The Kansas legislature had voted to make this change in 2010, but it took 12 years for it to happen. Interestingly, in 2003 Kansas replaced another Unionist, George Washington Glick, that time with a statue of President Eisenhower.
Read about these changes and the evolving situation in Statuary Hall in my updated book, “The Civil War in Statuary Hall.,” at: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HV4SSWK
Below are images of the new statue and my updated book:
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 