Confederate Dead Monument, Winston-Salem
A Confederate soldier stands in uniform holding a rifle with its butt resting on the ground. The sculpture rests on a column that is decorated with two trumpets and a rosette containing the United Daughters of the Confederacy emblem. The sculpture itself is 6' tall by 2'6" wide, on a base 24' high by 6' wide.
Front: ERECTED BY THE JAMES B. GORDON CHAPTER / UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY / OCTOBER 1905 / WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. / OUR CONFEDERATE/ DEAD
Left: AS SOUTHERN SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF 1861-1865, THEY SHARE THE FAME THAT MANKIND AWARDS TO THE HEROES WHO SERVED IN THAT GREAT CONFLICT.
Right: IN CAMP ON FAME’S ETERNAL CAMPING GROUND.
Rear: SLEEPING, BUT GLORIOUS / DEAD IN FAME’S PORTAL / DEAD BUT VICTORIOUS / DEAD BUT IMMORTAL / THEY GAVE US GREAT GLORY /WHAT MORE COULD THEY GIVE? / THEY LEFT US A STORY, / A STORY TO LIVE!
City of Winston-Salem
October 3, 1905
36.098330 , -80.244960
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"Confederate Monument Unveiled," Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), October 4, 1905
"Confederate Soldier (Sculpture)," Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museum, SIRIS, sirismm.si.edu, (accessed May 22, 2016) Link
"Confederate monument on the lawn of the Forsyth County Courthouse," from "Digital Forsyth FCPL Buildings-B," Forsyth County Public Library, (accessed May 22, 2016) Link
"Our Confederate Dead," The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed May 22, 2016) Link
Butler, Douglas J. North Carolina Civil War Monuments, An Illustrated History, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013), 112-115
Domby, Adam H. "'Loyal to the Core from the First to the Last:' Remembering the Inner Civil War of Forsyth County, North Carolina, 1862-1876," Masters Thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011
Folder 13 in Alfred M. Waddell Papers, #743, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, see scans 14-21 Link
Foreman, Tom Jr. and Drew, Jonathan. “Confederate Statue Removed from Historic N Carolina Court, “ AP, apnews.com, March 12, 2019, (accessed December 4, 2019) Link
Hilliard, Tyler. “Winston-Salem Confederate Monument to Be Removed,” The Carolinian (Greensboro, NC), January 30, 2019, (accessed December 13, 2019) Link
Hinton, John. "Confederate soldier statue vandalized in downtown Winston-Salem," Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), journalnow.com, August 19, 2017, (accessed August 19, 2017) Link
Hinton, John. “Confederate Statue Won't Go Back up in Downtown Winston-Salem, Judge Rules,” Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem Journal), May 8, 2019, (accessed December 4, 2019) Link
Jasper, Simone. “North Carolina City Is Paying to Remove Confederate Statue. Where Will It Go Next?” The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), March 12, 2019, (accessed December 4, 2019) Link
Melrose, Justyn. “United Daughters of Confederacy Files New Argument After Dismissed by Judge in Fight to Restore Winston-Salem Confederate Monument,” myfox8.com, Nov 21, 2019, (accessed November 18, 2022) Link
Stapleton, Erica. “Going, Going, Gone. Winston-Salem Confederate Monument Removed, Will Head to Private Storage,” WRMY News, March 12, 2019, (accessed December 4, 2019) Link
United Daughters of the Confederacy, James B. Gordon Chapter #211, Forsyth County, NC. Chartered March 30, 1898, North Carolina Division, cindyhcasey.com, (accessed May 22, 2016) Link
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Third Annual Meeting of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division Held in Henderson, N.C., October 11-12, 1899 (Raleigh, N.C.: Capital Printing Company, Printers and Binders, 1900), 57, (accessed September 12, 2012) Link
Waddell, Alfred M. Speech given to “James B Gordon Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy,” in Folder 13 of Alfred M. Waddell Papers, #743, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, see scans 1-8 Link
Wahlers, Kasi. “North Carolina's Heritage Protection Act: Cementing Confederate Monuments in North Carolina's Landscape,” SSRN, (accessed December 13, 2019) Link
Young, Wesley. "What Becomes of the Statue?" http://www.journalnow.com/, February 1, 2012, (accessed May 22, 2016) Link
Yes
Granite
United Daughters of the Confederacy, James B. Gordon Chapter #211. Mrs. R. J. Reynolds and Mrs. J. K. Norfleet contributed $100 each. Fundraisers for the monument included the first motion picture ever shown in Winston-Salem.
$3,000
Alfred M. Waddell gave the dedication speech, which praised the loyalty of Forsyth County residents to the Confederacy.
In 1903 the James B. Gordon Chapter #211 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began a movement to place a Confederate monument in Court House Square in Winston-Salem. Dr. James Alfred Blum exhibited to the chapter a sketch of a soldier he proposed for the monument. It was approved and plans were begun to obtain a monument for no more than $3,000. The first motion picture ever shown in Winston-Salem was brought to the town as a fundraiser for the sculpture. Mrs. R. J. Reynolds and Mrs. J. K. Norfleet each donated $100 towards the monument. The sculpture was originally fenced. The fence was removed in the early 1920s.
On August 18, 2017, the statue was defaced with black paint on at least two sides. This monument was among several that was vandalized 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. In the aftermath of Charlottesville and prior to the Charleston (SC) Church Massacre in 2015 there were calls across the south for removal of public place Confederate statues and monuments. In response to the Charleston event, the South Carolina legislature had removed the Confederate battle flag that flew over the South Carolina State House. The North Carolina response just weeks after South Carolina lowered the battle flag was to pass the North Carolina Heritage Protection Act. This legislation pushed through quickly by the Republican majority House and Senate restricted the removal, relocation or alteration of any monument that was considered permanent in nature and located on public property. Although located on the grounds of the old Forsyth County Courthouse, the law did not prevent removal of this statue. The old courthouse had been sold to a private developer in 2014 and converted into upscale apartments. Seeing the statue as a liability the hotel owners sent a letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) which stated that in “order to protect the residents of the property, the owner cannot allow the statue to remain on the property.” Despite objections from the UDC the City of Winston-Salem had the statue dismantled on March 12, 2019. As of December 2019 and a failed lawsuit, the UDC was still attempting to find a legal remedy that would force the city to restore the monument to the old courthouse.
As of December 2019, the statue was in storage until a site could be prepared at the Salem Cemetery near the graves of 36 Confederate soldiers. Salem Cemetery is located at 301 Cemetery Street in Winston-Salem, NC.
Until March 12, 2019, the monument was located on the old Forsyth County Court House square, in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, surrounded by Main, Liberty and Fourth streets. The statue stood at the northwest corner of the building, at Fourth and Liberty. The memorial stood on the lawn, surrounded by shady trees and bushes. Geo coordinates: 36.098330 , -80.244960.
The effort to bring a Confederate monument to the Courthouse Square of Winston-Salem began in 1903. Dr. James Alfred Blum’s sketch for the monument design was approved shortly after. The UDC’s goal was to fund a monument costing no more than $3,000.
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