AP

Confederate general’s remains moved to Virginia hometown

Jan 23, 2023, 1:13 AM | Updated: 4:15 pm

A boy stands during the ceremony as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairvie...

A boy stands during the ceremony as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)

(Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)


              A boy stands during the ceremony as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              A cannon is fired as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              People attend the ceremony as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              People attend the ceremony as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              A person speaks during a ceremony as the remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              The remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              The remains of Civil War Gen. A.P. Hill are interred at Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Va., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Peter Cihelka/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
            
              The statue of Lieutenant General A.P. Hill stands before being taken off its pedestal on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. The statue was erected in 1891. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney speaks to the press about the removal of the statue of Confederate Lieutenant General A.P. Hill on Monday Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              Workers remove the bronze statue of Confederate Lieutenant General A.P. Hill on Monday Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              The bronze statue of Lieutenant General A.P. Hill is removed from its pedestal on Monday Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              Workers begin to lay the bronze statue of Confederate General A.P. Hill onto a flatbed truck on Monday Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. The city of Richmond — the capital of the Confederacy for most of the Civil War — removed the statue,  its last city-owned Confederate statue Monday, more than two years after it began to purge itself of what many saw as painful symbols of racial oppression. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              The statue of Confederate Lieutenant Genera A. P. Hill stands at the intersection of W. Laburnum Ave. and Hermitage Road in Richmond, Va. on Monday Dec. 12, 2022. The city of Richmond plans to begin the removal of the statue starting at 8:30 am Monday morning. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              Morning rush hour passes at the intersection of W. Laburnum Ave. and Hermitage Road by the statue of Confederate Lieutenant General A.P. Hill, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              The statue of Confederate Lieutenant General A.P. Hill stands as dawn begins to break on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022 in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
            
              FILE - The monument of confederate General A.P. Hill, which contains his remains, is in the middle of a traffic circle on Arthur Ashe Blvd. Thursday Jan. 6, 2022, in Richmond, Va. Work to relocate Richmond’s final city-owned Confederate monument should start this week after a judge refused a request to delay the removal of the statue of Gen. A.P. Hill from its prominent spot in Virginia's capital, an official said. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
            
              FILE - The monument of confederate General A.P. Hill, which contains his remains, is in the middle of a traffic circle on Arthur Ashe Blvd. Thursday Jan. 6, 2022, in Richmond, Va. Work to relocate Richmond’s final city-owned Confederate monument should start this week after a judge refused a request to delay the removal of the statue of Gen. A.P. Hill from its prominent spot in Virginia's capital, an official said. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
            FILE - Traffic drives in the circle at the monument of confederate General A.P. Hill, which contains his remains, is in the middle of a traffic circle on Arthur Ashe Blvd. Jan. 6, 2022, in Richmond, Va. Work to relocate Richmond's final city-owned Confederate monument should start this week after a judge refused a request to delay the removal of the statue of Gen. A.P. Hill from its prominent spot in Virginia's capital, an official said. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

CULPEPER, Va. (AP) — The remains of a Confederate general unearthed from beneath a monument at the center of a Virginia intersection have been reinterred at a cemetery in his hometown.

Last month, Richmond, which served as the Confederacy’s capital for most of the Civil War, removed the statue of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill and the general’s remains buried beneath after a court battle. On Saturday, hundreds of people, including Confederate reenactors, gathered to pay their respects to the general at a ceremony in Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper, Hill’s hometown, The Free Lance-Star reported.

The coffin draped in an old Virginia flag was brought into the cemetery on a mule-drawn wagon followed by a riderless horse. After a eulogy, song and prayers, there was a 21-gun salute and three rounds were fired from a cannon.

Richmond removed other Confederate monuments amid the racial justice protests that followed George Floyd’s killing in 2020. But efforts to remove the Hill statue, which sat in the middle of a busy intersection, were more complicated because the general’s remains were interred beneath it about 25 years after his death at the end of the Civil War.

In October, a judge ruled that city officials — not the descendants — would get to decide where the Hill statue went next. City officials have said the removed statue will be stored in an undisclosed location and later given to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. Attorneys for Hill’s indirect descendants agreed his remains would be moved to a cemetery in Culpeper, near where Hill was born.

Many Confederate statues in Virginia were erected decades after the Civil War, during the Jim Crow era, when states imposed new segregation laws, and during the “Lost Cause” movement, when historians and others tried to depict the South’s rebellion as a fight to defend states’ rights, not slavery. Some Confederate tributes remain in Richmond, but they’re on state land, including on Capitol Square surrounding the Virginia State Capitol building.

Ambrose Powell Hill died days before the war’s end in 1865, according to a timeline provided in court documents during a legal battle over the removal of the statue. His remains were interred in a family cemetery in Chesterfield County, according to a city petition to move the remains. The remains were moved in 1867 to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, where they remained until 1891, when they were moved to the spot where the monument was unveiled the following year.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

Image: A cargo ship is stuck under the part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after ...

Associated Press

Authorities identify 2 bodies recovered at site of Baltimore bridge collapse

A major bridge in Baltimore snapped and collapsed after a container ship rammed into it early Tuesday, and several vehicles fell into the river below.

1 day ago

Photo: Mountaineer Jim Whittaker has died at 95....

Gene Johnson, The Associated Press

Lou Whittaker, among the most famous American mountaineers, has died at age 95

Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, has died at age 95.

1 day ago

File photo: Former Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks in Washington on Jan. 18, 2024....

Associated Press

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP pick in 2000, dead at 82

Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who nearly won the vice presidency on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in 2000, has died.

1 day ago

islamic state attack...

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

What we know after the Islamic State group claims responsibility for Moscow massacre

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133 people.

5 days ago

Moscow shooting...

The Associated Press

Russia: 60 dead, 145 injured in concert hall raid; Islamic State group claims responsibility

Assailants burst into a concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing over 60 people, injuring more than 100.

6 days ago

Photo: Britain's Kate, Duchess of Cambridge visits 282 (East Ham) Squadron, RAF Air Cadets, Cornwel...

Associated Press

Kate Middleton announces she has cancer, is undergoing chemotherapy

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, says she is undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer. She has been out of view since Christmas.

6 days ago

Confederate general’s remains moved to Virginia hometown