Updated at 5 p.m. with new information.
Visitors looking to learn about our nation’s history got an eyeful this Independence Day.
A monument for Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was found vandalized today.
Thanks to a PLN reader for sending us photos of the vandalism you see in this post.
Vandals used red and yellow paint to tag the statue, writing “no glory for racists” on the statue’s base. Crews from the National Park Service cordoned off the area as tourists look on.
Park rangers suspect the monument was vandalized sometime in the overnight hours of July 4. The park is managed by the National Park Service.
Prince William police are now investigating, a park spokeswoman says. Preservationists have begun the process of removing the graffiti from the statue, she adds.
The park is located about five miles north of downtown Manassas in Prince William County, at 12521 Lee Highway.
Today’s vandalism markers the third time since Summer 2020 that the statue has been the target of vandals. There are security cameras near the statue, but, so far, no one was charged in connection with any of the vandalism incidents, we’re told.
Vandals targeted the statue in 2017 and spraypainted “dead” on the base of the statue. That same year, Manassas City leaders canceled its annual Civil War Weekend event in Charlottesville’s wake of race riots.
The statue was erected in 1940 at the site where Jackson first received the nickname “Stonewall” at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861.
