EASTON, Md. (AP) - The Talbot County Council has announced that the Talbot Boys monument will remain on the county courthouse lawn despite protest and debate.
The council made the announcement Tuesday night during a packed meeting.
The monument is the only Civil War memorial on the grounds. It lists the names of Confederate war dead and also bears a statue of a Confederate color bearer holding a Confederate flag.
The council says the federal government considers Confederate soldiers to be veterans of the United States and are entitled to the same benefits.
Council President Corey Pack says the council will permit the erection of a monument commemorating Union soldiers.
In July the NAACP recommended the removal of the statue and discussed the erection of a new statue depicting both Union and Confederate soldiers.
WBOC reports that Reverend Joel Johnson with the the Talbot Association of Clergy and Leity said that he wanted the statue relocated but hopes that at least both sides would now be represented.
He said he believed the statue was erected in 1916 and some note that the slave market was located where the statue now stands.
