Hidden Memorials

Yesterday, on the real Veterans Day (11^th hour, 11^th day and so on…), Mama Wordbones and went for a walk around the hills of Ellicott City. At the top of Court Avenue we stopped at the Circuit Court courthouse facing what was originally the main entrance when the building was built in 1843. It remained the front door until a major renovation and expansion in 1986 moved the “court house steps” to the rear of the building.

It occurred to me that I had never stood at the original entrance so I bounded up the old granite steps to take a look. It was there that we discovered this memorial to the veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean “Conflict.”

This wasn't the only memorial we found up there. To the left of the entrance we discovered this memorial to the “brave men who fought so courageously in the Confederate Army.”

I was intrigued by the listing of a General James R. Herbert since I hadn't heard of any HoCo citizen that served as a general in the Confederate Army. A little research revealed that General Herbert was a Colonel in the Confederate Army but after the war became a Brigadier General commanding the Maryland National Guard in 1874. 

Happy Veterans Day (observed).