Time capsule found while dismantling Confederate monument

July 1 (UPI) -- Workers removing a Confederate soldier monument in St. Louis discovered a time capsule buried more than 102 years ago, the Missouri Civil War Museum said.

Mark Trout, director of the museum, said the capsule was found Thursday in a pit covered by a concrete tablet under the Confederate Monument in the city's Forest Park.

"We knew it was in there somewhere, so we were careful as we chipped away at something like 40 tons of concrete until we got to the very bottom," he told KTVI-St. Louis.

The museum says the time capsule should contain documents from the Daughters of the Confederacy, which funded the memorial. There could also be war medals and a magazine.

"We know the last thing put in the box was a magazine place in there by one of the soldiers of General Pickett's [Confederate] division at Gettysburg; the famous 'Pickett's Charge'," Trout said. "He held it up at the ceremony saying, 'Hey look, we're in the magazine. Put this in the box.' When we open that box the first thing laying on top should be the 'Star' magazine that the soldier placed there."

Workers began disassembling the massive monument in June after it had become a target for vandals angry over what they view as its racist symbolism.

A spokesman for St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said the decision was made to remove the monument after residents petitioned to have it taken down. The massive granite structure weighs more than 40 tons.

A work crew removed the top portion of the monument in early June using cranes. They loaded the hunk of stone onto a large flatbed truck and drove it away.

Vandals spray painted the base of the structure with messages including "Black Lives Matter" and the acronym "FTP," a shorthand for vulgarity aimed at police.

The decision in St. Louis mirrors ones being made in cities across the South, where controversy has surrounded vestiges of Confederate memorialization on public land. Supporters have argued the monuments are a part of U.S. and local history and are a show of civic and regional pride. Detractors said they point to the ugly history of slavery the Confederate states fought to protect during the Civil War and institutional racism that followed for generations before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation.

The Missouri Civil War Museum will store the monument until a new permanent location can be found for it. According to an agreement with the city, the monument must be re-erected in a Civil War museum, battlefield or cemetery outside of St. Louis.

Eric DuVall contributed to this report.