The recent fight over the Talbot Boys memorial in front of the Talbot County Courthouse inspired the Spy to ask regional historian Kevin Hemstock about our own Civil War monument in Chestertown.
The 25-ton granite monument in Memorial Park commemorates Kent soldiers who held allegiance to both sides in the Civil War, and that’s a point Hemstock notes as an important difference from the Talbot Boys statue which honors only the names of Talbot Confederate soldiers.
Also, The Talbot Boys is a statue of a lone CSA soldier standing high on a plinth and holding the Confederate battle flag. Chestertown’s monument aspires to simply name the many losses from Kent County both sides of the war.
Hemstock does not feel that the 1917 Chestertown monument encourages controversy like the Talbot Boys, but he does ask interesting historical questions about the memorial’s inception and that man who orchestrated and paid for it: Judge James Alfred Pearce.
Why did the monument lack any notice of the 400 Black soldiers who fought and died for Union during the war?
The Spy reached out to talk with G. Kevin Hemstock, former Editor of The Kent County News and a lifelong history sleuth, archivist, and author. His books include “Injustice on the Eastern Shore,” “The Thirteen Most Sensational Murders of Kent County, MD,” “Freaks, Fables and Fires of Kent County, MD,” and “The History of Millington: Vol 1 and 2.”
This video is approximately nine minutes long.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.