Source: Confederate Monument, Raleigh NC
Confederate Monument, State Capitol, Raleigh
The 75-foot-tall monument is dedicated to fallen Confederate soldiers. At the top of the column is a statue depicting a Confederate artillery soldier holding a gun. Near the bottom of the column stood two statues, one representing the Confederate infantry and the other a Confederate cavalryman. Two 32 pounder naval cannons were on each side of the monument.
In 1892, state legislators endorsed the goal of building a Confederate monument in Capital Square. Secretary of State Octavius Coke held a meeting of members of both the Ladies Memorial Association and the North Carolina Monumental Association in June 1892 to launch a campaign to erect a memorial to deceased Confederate soldiers from North Carolina.
Images:
Contemporary view |
Rear view |
Front inscription |
Back inscription |
Cavalryman |
Infantryman |
Right cannon |
Left cannon |
Plaques on naval cannons
Front, on shaft: TO OUR / CONFEDERATE / DEAD
Rear, on base: FIRST AT / BETHEL / LAST AT / APPOMATTOX / 1861. 1865.
Plaques on naval cannons: 32 Pounder Naval Cannon / TAKEN IN JUNE 1861 WHEN THE NAVY YARD AT / NORFOLK WAS ABANDONED BY THE UNITED STATES / BANDED AND CONVERTED / AT RICHMOND INTO A 6 INCH RIFLE / MOUNTED AT FORT CASWELL, NORTH CAROLINA / DISMOUNTED BY EXPLODING MAGAZINES / WHEN THE CONFEDERATES EVACUATED THAT FORT / IN JANUARY 1865 / PRESENTED BY US WAR DEPARTMENT / 1902
State of North Carolina
May 20, 1895
35.780430 , -78.640050
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"75-foot North Carolina Confederate Monument to Be Removed from Capitol Grounds Following Gov. Cooper's Order," ABC11 Eyewitness News, abc11.com, June 21, 2020, (accessed July 14, 2020) Link
"A Historical Day," The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), May 22, 1894
"A Memorial Day," The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), May 23, 1894
"An Interview with Col. Kenan and Col. Tate," The News and Observer Chronicle (Raleigh, NC), February 3, 1894, 1-2 Link
"Confederate Monument and Olivia Raney Library, Raleigh, N.C.," in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed March 15, 2012) Link
"Confederate Monument and State Capitol, Raleigh, N.C.," in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed December 29, 2011) Link
"Confederate Monument in Raleigh, N.C.,” in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed December 29, 2011) Link
"Confederate Monument, Capital Grounds, Raleigh, N.C.," in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed December 29, 2011) Link
"Final Arrangement," The News and Observer Chronicle (Raleigh, NC), May 20, 1894, 1-2 Link
"North Carolina State Confederate Monument," Waymarking.com, (accessed December 29, 2011) Link
"North Carolina's Soldier and the Banquet to the Men Who Put Him There," The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), April 10, 1895, 5 Link
"Official Programme," The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), May 19, 1895, 2 Link
"State House and Confederate Monument," in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed December 29, 2011) Link
Confederate Veteran, 6 (1898), 229 Link
History of the Ladies Memorial Association, (Raleigh, NC: 1938), (accessed May 16, 2012) Link
Berent, Irwin M. The Monuments and Statues on the Capitol Square of North Carolina, (Greenville, NC: East Carolina University Press, 1985)
Bishir, Catherine W. "Landmarks of Power," in Where these Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity, edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage, (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 150-151
Bishir, Catherine W. "North Carolina’s Union Square," from “Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina”, http://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/, (accessed May 15, 2012) Link
Carlisle, Linda A. "North Carolina State Capitol Memorial Study Committee Report," North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, May 2010, (accessed October 3, 2017) Link
Chapin, Josh. "Demonstrators Topple 2 Statues from Confederate Monument outside NC Capitol Building," ABC11 Eyewitness News, abc11.com, Saturday, June 20, 2020, (accessed July 14, 2020) Link
Clark, Walter. "How Can Interest Be Aroused in the Study of the History of North Carolina?" (Wrightsville, NC: Teachers' Assembly, 1901), (accessed May 29, 2012) Link
Grimes, J. Bryan. "Why North Carolina Should Erect and Preserve Memorials and Mark Historic Places: Address Before the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, Raleigh, N.C., November 4, 1909," ([Raleigh, NC: The News and Observer, 1909]), (accessed May 18, 2012) Link
Mason, Thomas W. Address of Hon. T.W. Mason Before the Ladies' Memorial Association at the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the Confederate Monument, Raleigh, NC, May 20, 1895, (Raleigh: E.M. Uzzell, 1898), (accessed February 8, 2012) Link
Waddell, Alfred M. Address at the Unveiling of the Confederate Monument, at Raleigh, N.C., May 20th, 1895, (Wilmington, NC: LeGwin Bros., 1895), (accessed February 8, 2012) Link
“Capitol Building,” in the North Carolina County Photographic Collection #P0001, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Link
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Yes
Mt. Airy Granite, bronze statues
State of North Carolina
$22,000
Dedicated on May 20, 1895. Unveiled by Julia Jackson Christian, Granddaughter of Stonewall Jackson. Speakers included Captain Samuel Ashe, Thomas W. Mason, and Alfred Waddell.
The initial model for the statue was to be the Confederate hero Henry L. Wyatt, but the sculptor Von Miller used W. R. Dicks (who was a living Confederate veteran) as inspiration for the statue.
During the dismantling of this monument in late June 2020, workmen discovered a time capsule buried beneath the monument base. When opened, they found in the metal capsule historic documents and artifacts including a wooden box, a stone presumably from the Gettysburg battlefield, two buttons and what is believed to be a strand of horse hair. If news reports from 1894 are correct the strand of hair came from Robert E. Lee’s horse named Traveler and the buttons from Lee’s dress coat.
When the monument was first proposed, Populist and Republican legislators objected to any public funding of the monument on the grounds that public education, rather than sectional pride, was a pressing need. In addition, monument opponents protested against the special tax fund that would be used to subsidize the monument’s costs.
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.
The statue atop the Confederate Monument located on the grounds of the North Carolina Capitol grounds was removed on Saturday morning June 20, 2020 along with the Monument to North Carolina Women of the Confederacy and the Henry Lawson Wyatt Monument. Equipment brought to the site was insufficient to remove the main column of the 75-foot tall Confederate memorial. That task was completed on June 23. Governor Roy Cooper had ordered all three monuments removed after demonstrators on June 19 had pulled down two statues at the base of the Confederate Memorial and dragged them down W. Hargett Street. One was left hanging from a light pole and the other left on the steps of Wake County Courthouse. "I have ordered the Confederate monuments on the Capitol grounds be moved to protect public safety. I am concerned about the dangerous efforts to pull down and carry off large, heavy statues and the strong potential for violent clashes at the site. If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal we could have avoided the dangerous incidents of last night," Cooper said. "Monuments to white supremacy don't belong in places of allegiance, and its past time that these painful memorials be moved in a legal, safe way."
The statue atop the memorial was removed on June 20, 2020. The main column of the Confederate Monument was not removed until the afternoon of June 23 after two previous attempts had failed. The monument base was removed on June 28. Two Civil War era cannon that had been next to the monument were removed and placed at the Fort Fisher historical site in Wilmington on June 29, 2020. The statue and column have been stored at an undisclosed location.
The monument stood at the end of Hillsborough Street on the west side of the capitol grounds in Raleigh, NC., right in front of the State Capitol building. It faced Hillsborough Street and was parallel to South Salisbury Street. The monument was surrounded by trees and a paved pathway.
The Civil Works Authority made plans to move the monument from Capital Square to Nash Square in 1934 as part of renovations to Capital Square, but the Board of Public Buildings and Grounds decided on February 5th to prevent the CWA from moving the monument. The move was prevented because of public outcry in regards to moving such a historically significant monument from a highly visible location.
In 1893 the legislature appropriated $10,000 to build the monument in honor of deceased Confederate soldiers in Capital Square. An alliance of Republican and Populist legislators stalled approval of subsequent funding until March 7, 1895, when both chambers of the legislature voted in favor of an additional appropriation of $10,000.
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