Confederate in a box: Maryland officials hide 102-year-old statue in box to keep vandals at bay

Despite increasing lighting around a 102-year-old statue honoring Confederate soldiers, Rockville, Maryland officials no longer believe they can protect it from vandals and have constructed a plywood fortress around it until a decision can be made to move it, reports the Washington Post.

The statue of a confederate soldier -- erected in 1913 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor locals who fought for the South in the Civil War -- was vandalized in late June by activists who spray-painted "Black Lives Matter" in red and black on its granite base.

African-American Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has launched an effort to remove the statue that sits on county property next to the historic Red Brick Courthouse and has been granted historic status by the city of Rockville.

Moving the statue with the inscription reading "That we through life may not forget to love the thin gray line” hasn't been as easy as expected.

Due to the statue’s historic designation, it can be moved only with the permission of the Rockville Historic District Commission.

With the commission not scheduled to consider the application for removal until Sept. 17 -- as locals haggle over where it will be moved to should permission be granted -- authorities felt the only way they could protect the statue in the meantime was by shielding from public view.

Last Friday constructions crews built a wooden structure around the statue, leaving the Confederate soldier who has stood guard for 102 years peeking comically over the edges of his plywood fort.

Picture of hidden statue below from Brian Karem on Twitter: