Caddo Parish leaders are getting closer to moving the Confederate monument from in front of the Caddo Parish Courthouse. Responses to the request for proposals are due by April first. The parish is expected to award a contract by the end of April and sign that contract by mid-May and then the work can begin to relocate the monument.

It's being moved to the Pleasant Hill Battlefield Site in the Mansfield area. That is privately owned property located on State Highway 175 in south DeSoto Parish. The Caddo Parish Commission voted to spend $500,000 to move the monument.

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The Confederate monument has been at the Texas Street side of the Caddo Parish Courthouse for more than 100 years. It has been the subject of a lengthy legal battle between the Shreveport Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Caddo Commission for many years. The UDC claimed ownership of the monument and tried to fight the parishes efforts to move it. The group failed in that attempt.

The two sides did reach a settlement calling on the Commission to pay to relocate the monument. Last summer, the Commission built a wooden box around the monument so it would not be vandalized and it would not be as visible.

The Pleasant Hill Battlefield Site is about 18 miles south of the Mansfield State Historic Site which also has several other war monuments. The state park also has a museum.

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