Members of the Col. Joseph T. McConnell Camp Sons of Confederate Veterans and representatives of the Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans were on hand at the Catoosa County Courthouse Friday, April 25, as the Southern Legal Resource Center filed suit against the Ringgold City Council.

Roger McCreddie, SLRC executive director, and attorney Kirk Lyons, along with Georgia counsel Daniel A. Coleman filed the suit with the Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans and the local camp as plaintiffs. McCreddie and Lyons spoke to the media on the courthouse steps following the filing in Catoosa County Superior Court.

“Our question to the legal system is, does this law mean anything?” McCredie said, referring to state law OCGA 50-3-1, which protects monuments honoring military personnel. “We are asking the court to make them put (the flag) back.”

The plaintiffs contend that the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag is a violation of that state law.

“This is a political correctness that has swept through the South,” one of them said.

The suit is requesting that the city return the Confederate Battle Flag to the Confederate soldier’s memorial in front of the Ringgold Depot, according to Lyons.

“The only sad part is the taxpayers of Ringgold are the ones that are going to have to pay for this,” Lyons said

History

During the restoration phases of the historic Ringgold Depot, Ringgold City Council voted July 14, 2003, to include both a Confederate flag and a Union flag at the Ringgold Depot. When the restoration was complete, those flags were added to the Confederate veterans display in front of the Depot.

Beginning in early February 2005, several Ringgold residents led by the African American community urged city council members to remove the Confederate Battle Flag flying in front of the Ringgold Depot, stating that it has become a sign of hate.

Ringgold City Council members voted 3-2, March 28, 2005 to remove the battle flag from the Depot’s Civil War monument honoring soldiers who fought in or were from Catoosa County.

As part of that vote, in place of the Battle Flag, the city raised the Hardee/Cleburne flag — the regimental flag of General Patrick Cleburne, who defended Ringgold Gap against Northern forces in 1863.

But Ringgold City Council voted 3-2 April 11, 2005 to re-hoist the Battle Flag for the rest of Confederate History Month in April at the request of Roy Neal, then commander of the Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1859. The city has not flown the flag since that time even after requests that it flay on Confederate Memorial Day, a state holiday.

In its January 2008 letter, the SLRC cited primary source material proving that other types of Confederate flags other than the Hardee/Cleburne flag were present at the Battle of Ringgold Gap action.

McCredie’s Jan. 15 letter also said that the battle argument was moot because the Depot monument was erected to honor Confederates who departed from Ringgold to serve throughout the Confederacy, and the battle flag, as a soldiers’ and later a veterans’ flag, was therefore the appropriate flag to display.

The SLRC is suing because, according to McCredie, the city is in violation of Georgia law by violating the integrity of the monument.

Everything at that Depot, the cannon, the stones engraved, the flag poles constitute a monument, he said earlier.

The suit

According to Lyons, the Hardee flag currently flying is not the appropriate flag to fly at the Confederate Memorial

“By all means fly the Hardee flag, it has a place,” he said. “Put it on a pole or fly it under the Confederate flag.”

Tom Poteet, commander of the local SCV camp, commented following the press conference, “Nothing else needs to be said.”

Dan Wright, Ringgold City Manager said April 25 at 11:25 a.m. no one with the City has received a copy of any such suit at this time

"If a suit is filed the City will review and seek legal council and I’m sure will act accordingly," he said.