Even as City Council starts to move ahead on disposing of most of the city’s collection of Confederate statues, another Confederate monument remains undisturbed at the South Richmond courthouse.

City resident Michael Sarahan is raising concern about the continued presence of a massive, 5-foot-tall stone marker that was put in place May 9, 1935, to salute a Confederate unit known as the Manchester Elliott Grays.

Mr. Sarahan said the marker stands in what he describes as the backyard of the Manchester Courthouse at 920 Hull St. that dates to 1871 and is named for Richmond’s first Black mayor, Henry L. Marsh III, and his late brother, Harold M. Marsh Sr.

A gift from the Elliott Grays Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the marker stands on the 10th Street side of the courthouse. It goes largely unnoticed as the courthouse’s main entrance faces Commerce Road.

The front of the marker facing Hull Street prominently features the Elliott Grays name and includes engraving recalling the formation of the unit, which was created for the treasonous purpose of destroying the Union in defense of slavery.

The back of the marker ironically faces Decatur Street, which was named for American Revolutionary War Navy hero Stephen Decatur Jr. The rear includes a smaller engraving recalling another Confederate unit, the Manchester Artillery, which had a similar mission during the Civil War.

According to the engraving, the Elliott Grays formed on May 9, 1861, two days after Virginia became an official Confederate state and three weeks after the state seceded from the Union on April 17. The Manchester Artillery unit was organized a day later on the spot where the marker is installed.

Mr. Sarahan has written a letter to Judge David M. Hicks, chief judge of the Richmond General District Court for which this courts building is a main center, to raise the question of removal. Mr. Sarahan said he has yet to receive a response.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney pushed to remove virtually all of the city-owned Confederate statues and artifacts last summer after racial justice protesters began pulling them down.

Despite a continuing State Police probe into whether the mayor violated state procurement law by awarding an emergency contract for $1.8 million for the statues’ removal, Mayor Stoney’s emergency action in taking them down was widely praised and appeared to have the support of a large majority of city residents.

However, the Elliott Grays marker suggests the city’s inventory of Confederate items to be removed might not be complete. Until Mr. Sarahan began asking questions, the marker had not received any public attention, including from elected city representatives.

The Free Press contacted city officials about the marker but has not received a response.

City Council is holding a public hearing during its meeting Monday, May 10, to listen to residents’ views on the Confederate statues that are up for disposal.

The council also expects to pass a resolution to put a process in place for selling or donating Confederate statues removed last summer from Monument Avenue and other sites.