Colonel Heg descendants re-dedicate Civil War hero statue to the people of Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Colonel Hans Christian Heg statue was formally re-dedicated to the folks of Wisconsin throughout a particular ceremony on Sunday on the Capitol.

The statue was torn down after a social justice protest turned damaging exterior of the state capitol constructing in June of 2020. It was re-attached in September of 2021.

Colonel Heg’s third nice granddaughter Lori Coffey was certainly one of 25 descendants that re-dedicated the colonel’s reminiscence to the folks of Wisconsin.

The Florida resident remembers listening to the information in regards to the statue’s demolishment from her sister.

”I went, ‘Oh my gosh!’ And my coronary heart sank. I believed, ‘Why?’’’ Coffey stated. “After which I believed, ‘What would Colonel Heg do?’ I do know I need to be offended however that’s not what he would’ve completed.”

She hopes the ceremony teaches those who Col. Heg stood for equality for all.

He lead the fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment to combat towards slavery in the course of the Civil Battle and died from a battlefield damage in the course of the battle of Chickamauga.

”He was a rabid abolitionist,” Coffey stated. “He needed rights of all women and men and for that I believe he’s nonetheless very particular in the present day.”

Spectator Keith Bakken got here from Mount Horeb to look at the ceremony and stated he admires Col. Heg’s legacy as a result of he died for the liberty of others.

”In in the present day’s massive push for social justice he was forward of his time,” Bakken stated. ”I believe now we have to respect our historical past, study from it, the nice, unhealthy, ugly, errors and the nice issues that happened it.”

Coffey stated solely two Heg descendants participated within the preliminary dedication ceremony in 1926.

She stated Sunday’s ceremony was the most important gathering of Heg descendants of all time.

The Col. Heg Statue Rededication Committee placed on the ceremony and include the next teams: Madison Veterans Council, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil Battle Dept. of WI, College of Wisconsin Stout, Wisconsin Veterans Museum and Sons of Norway Idun Lodge, amongst different re-enactment and historic teams.

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