Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Benton County officials look into cannonball theft
Saturday event
BENTONVILLE — County officials were on their guard Tuesday after the overnight theft of a cannonball from the Confederate monument on the downtown square.
“I’ve been told the Bentonville Police Department is working it as a theft case,” County Judge Barry Moehring said. “It’s a law enforcement matter right now.”
Sheriff Shawn Holloway said he had no information on the theft, but said there was likely video from surveillance cameras that cover the area around the courthouse and include the square. A Sheriff’s A Soldier in Our Midst: Pride for Some, Pain for Others, a public forum about the Confederate statue on the Bentonville square, is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Walmart Auditorium in the Shewmaker Center for Workforce Technologies at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
The event is free and open to the public.
Office spokesman confirmed a copy of the video had been given to the Police Department. Gene Page, Police Department spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to three messages seeking more information.
The stolen cannonball was itself a replacement for one stolen several years ago, according to information from county officials. The stolen cannonball is smaller and lighter than the remaining three and was not secured to the monument.
“It’s about one-third the size of the others,” John Sudduth, the county’s general services administrator said. Sudduth is in charge of building maintenance for the county.
He checked the remaining cannonballs after learning of the theft.
“On the others there’s a threaded rod in the cannonball and a threaded insert in the monument itself,” Sudduth said. “So they are attached directly to the monument. This other one apparently was not attached in the same way.”
What to do with Confederate statues and monuments has been a hot topic across the country since a brawl broke out between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in August.
Baltimore quietly removed four statues overnight only a few days after the violence in Charlottesville. Other cities are discussing what to do with their monuments and San Antonio removed one from a park last week.
Bentonville government officials said since Charlottesville they have fielded questions and comments about the statue on the square.
The statue memorializes Confederate soldiers and was placed on the square by agreement between the county and the James H. Berry chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908, according to
county records.
The group was given the right to “control and occupy” the park for the purpose of maintaining the monument. The chapter was “no longer active,” and the county transferred the authority to beautify and maintain the square to the city in 1996, according to a county court order. The county retained ownership of the square under both arrangements.
The cannonball stolen Monday night was a replacement for one that was stolen around 2005 and never found, county officials said. That incident was viewed more as a prank since the fountain on the square was filled with soap around the same time. Then-County Judge Gary Black helped raise money for the replacement so no county money was used.
Moehring said the cannonballs were apparently added to the monument after it was placed on the square and might be county property. Moehring has said the statue itself remains the property of the Daughters of the Confederacy. He said he hadn’t considered whether the missing cannonball will be replaced.
“We’re going to let the investigation take its course and we will proceed accordingly,” Moehring said.