BENNINGTON – Several monuments commemorating civil war soldiers, including the Civil War Memorial outside of the Bennington museum, have been moved, stolen, or destroyed by vandals who are hoping to change the outcome of the American Civil War of the 19th century. Graves, headstones, and memorials have been taken from Old Bennington Cemetery and Bennington Park Lawn Cemetery. While there is camera footage of the crimes, none of the offenders has so far been identified.
Bennington police received a letter claiming responsibility for the destruction of both private and public property, and which police have made public in their efforts to track down these criminals. The letter reads:
“To the people of Bennington: no longer can we allow your northern monuments to stand. As our history is erased piece by piece,we have no choice but to begin erasing your history in a first-strike retaliation of aggressive self-defense. Once your civil war heroes are gone from history, the world will become as it should always have been, and we southerners can finally be free of you. Vermonters turned the tide of many battles, but not for much longer. You will not find us. You cannot stop us. By the time you even get close, this timeline will no longer exist. And we’re not just whistling Dixie.”
Many witnesses report that the vandals were indeed whistling Dixie as they pillaged the cemeteries. Bennington police are assuring residents that there have been no changes to the timeline since the incidents began, although they reluctantly admitted when pressed on the issue that it is possible that they would not realize that such a change had occurred. For now, security has increased around all Bennington County cemeteries, and all British nationals have been banned from the Bennington Battle Monument as a precaution.
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