The Cheeky Confederate Keeper: The Capitol Guards Statue of Little Rock,

Drop by MacArthur Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, and you'll probably spot an unusual memorial: the Memorial to Company A, Capitol Guards, or the Capitol Guards Statue. At first glance, it seems like just another bronze soldier perched on a 16-foot granite pillar. But there's more to this monument than meets the eye. This monument was unveiled on July 11, 1911. The company it honors, the Capitol Guards, were no ordinary Civil War veterans. These lads nabbed Union uniforms from a little raid they pulled off at the Little Rock Arsenal on April 6, 1861.

They held the arsenal for 11 days before Union forces gave them the boot. The victorious Confederate crew, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, commissioned sculptor Rudolph Schwarz to create the statue – a fellow on a pedestal, but one with a defensive stance, rifle ready, prepared to ward off any new attempts to have a peek at the arsenal. In 1996, this monument made the National Register of Historic Places, but in June 2020, it disappeared – maybe the Black Lives Matter movement, which saw Italy demand the removal of Confederate memorials across the nation, played a part. The monument was eventually de-listed in 2021.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons