HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) - Officials in Virginia are still investigating the theft of Confederate battle flags a month after they were taken from a cemetery.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that officials still have no idea who stole the approximately 200 flags in Harrisonburg. Many were dumped in a porta-potty across town.
The flags were taken from Woodbine Cemetery on Veterans Day. Earlier that day, the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ local chapter placed the flags at graves of soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
Virginia law prohibits “the willful or malicious destruction, mutilation, injury or removal of flowers, wreaths, vases or other ornaments in a church, on church property, on a grave or in a cemetery.”
A $1,500 reward is being offered for information that leads to a conviction of the person who stole the flags.
The Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg first reported the theft.
Philip Way, commander of the local Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter, told The Washington Post that the group honors “our Confederate veterans because we consider it part of our heritage. We’re not militant . . . but we will not be deterred.”
Harrisonburg was home to a Confederate hospital. Many of the soldiers who died there are buried at the cemetery.
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