This Memorial to Company A, Capitol Guards (also known as “Lest We Forget”) by Rudolph Schwarz was unveiled in 1911 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The eight foot tall bronze statue depicts a Confederate soldier in a defensive stance, holding his rifle with his hands on the trigger and barrel.
Inscribed on the front of the monument is “CSA. ‘Lest We Forget.’ To the Memory of Capital [sic] Guards, Company A, Sixth Arkansas Infantry. Cleburne’s Division. 1861-1865. ‘When his division defended, no odds could break it’s [sic] lines. When it attacked, no numbers resisted it’s [sic] onslaught.’ General Wm. J. Hardee.”
Also inscribed below is “Erected by Friends and Relatives of the Capital [sic] Guards and by the citizens of Little Rock under the auspices to the Robert C. Newton camp. United Sons of Confederate Veterans, May Fifteenth, Nineteen Hundred and Eleven.”
In June 2020, following a series of national protests against police brutality and racism in policing, the Little Rock government removed the monument vowing to find a more suitable place for it to be displayed with more appropriate historical context.
This photo and description of the Memorial to Company A, Capitol Guards in Little Rock, AR are part of materials from its nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places.
