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Rioters Destroy Statue Of Union Colonel Who Died Fighting Slavery, Confederacy. Also Destroy The ‘Forward’ Statue.

   DailyWire.com
MADISON, WI - MARCH 10: A sign to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker hangs on a statue in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 10, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. Thousands of demonstrators continue to protest at the Wisconsin State Capitol as the Wisconsin House voted to pass the state's controversial budget bill one day after Wisconsin Republican Senators voted to curb collective bargaining rights for public union workers in a surprise vote with no Democrats present.
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Violent rioters in Wisconsin destroyed two statues on Tuesday night, including a statue of a Union colonel who died fighting against slavery and to bring an end to the Confederacy.

The destruction of property happened outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, where rioters destroyed the statues of Wisconsin’s motto “Forward” and of Col. Hans Christian Heg, “an abolitionist who died trying to end slavery during the Civil War,” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“Heg was an anti-slavery activist who fought and died for the Union during the U.S. Civil War,” the outlet notes. “His nearly 100-year-old sculpture was decapitated and thrown into a Madison lake by protesters.”

While the original Forward statue was erected in 1895, the protesters tore down the replica commissioned in the 1990s. The Wisconsin Historical Society describes the “Forward” statue as an “allegory of devotion and progress.” The fact that the statue was given a prominent position at the Wisconsin State Capitol was considered “an unusual honor for a woman” of Jean Pond Miner’s day, who created the statue.

The continued destruction of American statues happened around the same time that the violent rioters attacked an openly gay Democrat state senator.

The National Parks Service highlighted Heg’s military service fighting for the Union and noted his final battle:

Wisconsin Governor Randall appointed Heg a colonel on October 1, 1861, and assigned him the task of raising a Scandinavian Brigade in response to the pending war that faced their adopted country. Recent immigration from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark provided more than 75,000 able bodied citizens in 1861. Heg’s recruiting efforts included an editorial in the Emigranten, Oct. 5, 1861. In this call, Heg asked for a thousand men—Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes. He said, “The officers of the regiment will be men who speak the Scandinavian languages. Thus an opportunity to enter the service is afforded those Scandinavians who do not yet speak English.” From this call, Norwegian volunteers from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois formed the Fifteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Heg was a gifted volunteer officer in the Union Army, his first military command being the Fifteenth. Notable engagements of the Fifteenth Wisconsin included Island No. 10, the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, the Tullahoma Campaign, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Siege of Chattanooga (Missionary Ridge), the relief of Knoxville, Rocky Face Ridge and Dalton, the Battle of Resaca, and the Atlanta Campaign.

Colonel Heg’s final battle was at Chickamauga on September 19, 1863. The Fifteenth Wisconsin was fully exposed to enemy fire during repeated attacks and counter attacks throughout the day. While actively rallying his brigade from one of these repulses, Heg received a mortal wound, of which he succumbed to in a nearby field hospital. A triangular pyramid monument of eight inch shells, ten feet in height, marks the spot where Colonel Heg was mortally wounded (seven more of these pyramids can be located throughout Chickamauga Battlefield).

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