The Confederate Soldier in El Dorado's Union County Courthouse

You'll spot El Dorado's Confederate Army soldier on the Union County Courthouse grounds, snug against the corner of North Main and South Washington Streets. The statue, which measures 76 inches by 28 inches, is made of gray/blue striated marble and sits atop a temple-like structure supported by four cannon-shaped Ionic columns. The temple structure is 15 feet high and 10 feet square, featuring a tiered roof with cannonballs at the corners.

The monument was built in 1910 at a cost of over $2,800 and was paid for by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The front side is inscribed with the dates 1861 - 1865 and the name of the erecting chapter. The north side is inscribed with the phrases "TRUTH CRUSHED TO EARTH SHALL RISE AGAIN" and "EVEN DEATH CANNOT SEVER THE CORDS OF MEMORY." The western lintel reads "IN HONOR OF THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS OF UNION COUNTY, ARK."

The monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 and was included in the El Dorado Commercial Historic District in 2003. The statue was one of several monuments that became the center of controversy during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. It remains a significant part of the local landscape, standing as a piece of the past in the present.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons