Caswell County Confederate Monument, Yanceyville
This monument, located in front of the Caswell County Courthouse as a memorial to the county's Confederate veterans, displays a Confederate soldier standing atop a pedestal. The bronze soldier looks northward and defiantly grasps his gun in both hands while he steps forward with his left foot. He wears the Confederate uniform complete with hat and is depicted as a man with high cheekbones, a full mustache, and a goatee.
Confederate monuments in North Carolina erected in the years prior to World War One frequently reflected bitterness and praised the rectitude of the “lost cause.”
The inscription on this later monument was written by Reverend James Preston Burke of Reidsville and described as “deeply thoughtful.” That it focuses on the sincerity and steadfastness of the soldiers more than the division caused by the Civil War, reflects a more moderate view, perhaps brought on by the unifying effects of the United States participation in World War One.
Images (courtesy of Rusty Long):
Contemporary view of the monument |
Side view of the monument
TO / THE SONS OF CASWELL COUNTY / WHO SERVED IN THE WAR OF 1861-1865 / IN ANSWER TO THE CALL OF THEIR COUNTRY
IN WHATEVER EVENT THAT MAY FACE / OUR NATIONAL EXISTENCE MAY GOD / GIVE US THE WILL TO DO WHAT IS / RIGHT, THAT, LIKE OUR FOREFATHERS, / WE MAY IMPRESS OUR TIME WITH THE / SINCERITY AND STEADFASTNESS / OF OUR LIVES
ERECTED BY THE CASWELL COUNTY / CHAPTER / UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY / 1921
Caswell County
September 10, 1921
36.403000 , -79.336550
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"Caswell County Court House and Confederate Monument, Yanceyville, N.C.," in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, (accessed March 13, 2012) Link
"Caswell Courthouse," The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed August 29, 2016) Link
"Confederate Monument," Caswell County Historical Association, Inc., hosted by RootsWeb, rootsweb.ancestry.com, (accessed March 13, 2012) Link
"Program of the Unveiling of the Confederate Monument" in Caswell County in the World War, 1917-1918; Service Records of Caswell County Men, (Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1921), (accessed May 16, 2012) Link
Broaphy, Alfred. "The Confederate Monument on the Courthouse Square," The Faculty Lounge, thefacultylounge.org, July 01, 2014. Link
Butler, Douglas J. North Carolina Civil War Monuments, An Illustrated History, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013), 138, 161, 196, 222
Powell, W.S. When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina 1777-1977 (Durham, NC: Moore Publishing Company, 1977)
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy North Carolina Division, Held at New Bern, N.C., October 13, 14, 15, 1920 (Charlotte, N.C.: Queen City Printing Company, 1920), 143, (accessed September 10, 2012) Link
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Twenty-Third Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy North Carolina Division, Held at High Point, North Carolina, October 8, 9, 10, 1919 (Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co.), 100, (accessed September 10, 2012) Link
“Caswell County Is Coming to Front,” The Reidsville Review (Reidsville, NC), September 12, 1921
Yes
Bronze statue, with base made of Surry County granite.
The Caswell Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy
$3,500. The cost of the Confederate monument was met with funds raised by the U.D.C. Monument Committee composed of Mrs. B. S. Graves, Mrs. T. J. Florance, and Mrs. G. A. Anderson, by gifts from various individuals, and by an appropriation of one thousand dollars by the county.
The first portion of the unveiling ceremony was held in front of the monument and was continued within the Caswell County courthouse. The audience proudly sang "America," "The Old North State," and "Dixie" throughout the unveiling program. Mary Kerr Spencer, then Chief Executive of the North Carolina Daughters of the Confederacy, spoke at the event, praising the Confederate veterans in attendance and challenging the youth of Caswell County to fight with equal dignity to better the county in which they live.
Described as "the finest work of art that exists in the entire Confederacy," due to its historical accuracy by W. L. Shadix, former director of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.
The monument is located in front of the Caswell County courthouse, at 144 Courthouse Square, Yanceyville NC 27379. Caswell County World War I Memorial and Caswell County Veterans Monument stand a few feet away.
The memorial stands in the middle of a large city square, on a well-maintained lawn, surrounded by seasonal plants, bushes, and trees.
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