Alamance County Confederate Monument, Graham
The monument has a single column mounted on a square base with the entire structure standing approximately thirty feet high. At the top of the column is a stalwart Confederate soldier at parade rest looking north. He steps forward with his left foot while resting the butt of his rifle near his feet. The column is engraved with a pair of Confederate flags. At the bottom of the column is a pedestal on which four round orbs sit.
Inside the concrete base of the monument is a copper box containing the names of 1,100 Confederate soldiers in the Civil War from Alamance and the names of contributors to the monument’s fund. It also holds a number of confederate relics including Confederate money, papers of that day, several old coins and the names of the members of the Graham Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Images:
View of column and statue from side |
Front view of statue |
North and east inscriptions |
South and east inscriptions |
South inscription |
Vintage postcard image |
Vintage postcard image
North face: TO COMMEMORATE WITH GRATEFUL LOVE THE PATRIOTISM, VALOR, AND DEVOTION TO DUTY, OF THE BRAVE SOLDIERS OF ALAMANCE COUNTY, THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF THE GRAHAM CHAPTER, UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY / OUR CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
South face: ON FAME'S ETERNAL CAMPING GROUND, THEIR SILENT TENTS ARE SPREAD, AND GLORY GUARDS, WITH SOLEMN ROUND, THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD. /
1861. C. S. A. 1865.
East face: FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, THEY ARE CROWNED WITH IMMORTAL GLORY.
West face: CONQUERED THEY CAN NEVER BE, WHOSE SPIRITS AND WHOSE SOULS ARE FREE.
Alamance County
May 16, 1914
36.069540 , -79.400350
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"Alamance County Anti-Confederate Billboard Asks Residents to Choose Love Over Hate," SPLC (The Southern Poverty Law Center), splcenter.org, May 11, 2021, (accessed May 12, 2021) Link
"Alamance County Confederate Memorial," The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed February 6, 2011) Link
"Lawsuit Aims to Remove Confederate Statue in Graham," abc11.com, March 31, 2021, (accessed May 12, 2021) Link
"Major London’s Address," The Alamance Gleaner, (Alamance, NC), May 28, 1914. Link
"Programme for Unveiling Confederate Monument," The Alamance Gleaner (Alamance, NC), May 7, 1914 Link
"Street Scene Showing Confederate Monument, Graham, NC," in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed December 12, 2012) Link
Smith, Blanche Lucas. North Carolina's Confederate Monuments and Memorials, (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1941)
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Eighteenth Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy North Carolina Division, Held at Raleigh, North Carolina, October 14, 15, 16, 1914 (Goldsboro, N.C.: Nash Bros. Printers and Binders, 1914), 94, (accessed September 6, 2012) Link
Yes
The base and column are made of Winslow granite while the figure is carved out of Italian marble.
The Graham Chapter, The United Daughters of the Confederacy
$2,100
The statue was sold by the McNeel Marble Company from Marietta, Georgia, which produced many other Confederate statues and sold them all over the South, including Macon County Confederate Monument in Franklin, Pasquotank County Confederate Monument in Elizabeth City, Confederate Soldiers Monument in Hertford, Perquimans county, and Confederate Monument in Durham.
Following the massacre of nine African Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015 by white supremacist Dylann Roof, Americans, especially southerners, have reflected on and argued over the historical legacy of slavery, the Civil War, the Confederacy, and white supremacy. Monuments have been a particular focus of these debates and controversies, especially after the death of a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 and after President Donald Trump expressed his opposition to the removal of Confederate memorials. Despite laws in many southern states intended to prevent or impede the removal or relocation of historical monuments, protesters and local community leaders have removed or relocated controversial monuments associated with slavery, the Confederacy, and white supremacy. The pace of the removal of controversial monuments accelerated sharply in 2020, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Against the backdrop of protests against police brutality and white supremacy across the nation, local authorities in many communities in North Carolina removed and/or relocated monuments that were the focus of civil unrest.
It is located in Court Square, on the north side of the Alamance County Courthouse, Graham, NC. The Original Courthouse Bell is located in the Sesquicentennial Park across from the new Courthouse.
Monument lies across from the Sesquicentennial Garden and in close proximity to various old establishments of Graham, such as Wrike Drug and The Harden House.
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