Iredell County Confederate Memorial, Statesville
Carolina Marble and Granite Company, Statesville, NC, Builder
The monument is surmounted by a Confederate soldier, standing at rest with musket in hand. The monument consists of a triple base, die stone and cap, a tapered spire with cap and the statue on top. The total height is 27 feet including the statue at 6 feet 6 inches tall. Two cannons, originally loaned by the U.S. Government, mounted on steel casings and granite bases, flank the monument pointing northeast and southeast.
Images:
Front inscriptions |
Left side inscription |
Right side inscription |
Cannons |
Rededication plaque |
Far-off view |
The Iredell County Confederate Memorial and United Spanish War Veterans Memorial
Front: TO THE SOLDIERS OF / IREDELL COUNTY / 1861. - 1865. / 1905
Right side: THEY BORE THE FLAG OF A / NATION'S TRUST / AND FELL IN A CAUSE, / THOUGHT LOST, STILL JUST, / AND DIED FOR ME AND YOU
Left side: DEFENDERS OF / STATE SOVEREIGNTY
Rear: FROM BETHEL TO APPOMATOX, / THEIR COURAGE, PATIENCE, / FORTITUDE, ENDURANCE, AND / UNSELFISH DEVOTION TO / COUNTRY ARE UNPARALLELED / IN HISTORY.
Base: OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD
Rededication plaque: CENTENNIAL AND REDEDICATION OF / MONUMENT IN MEMORY OF THE / IREDELL CO. CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS / MAY 6, 2006 – DEO VINDICE
Iredell County
May 10, 1906. Rededication: May 6, 2006
35.783810 , -80.887920
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"Iredell County Confederate Memorial," The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed May 23, 2012) Link
"Iredell County Court House, Statesville, N.C." in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill Link
"Iredell County Court House, Statesville, N.C." in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill Link
"The Unveiling Next Thursday,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), May 4, 1906
Bruno, Joe. "Statesville Sees 50th Straight Night of Protests over Confederate Statue," August 14, 2020, wsoctv.com, (accessed August 20, 2020) Link
Butler, Douglas J. North Carolina Civil War Monuments, An Illustrated History (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013)
Dandron, Jennifer. “Iredell Officials: Confederate Monument in Downtown Statesville Preserves History,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), August 20, 2017, (accessed August 26, 2017) Link
Iredell County [North Carolina]. "Iredell County Board of Commissioners Regular Minutes March 14, 2006"
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Tenth Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division, Held at Durham, N.C., October 10th, 11th and 12th 1906, (Newton, NC: Enterprise Job Print., 1907), 71, (accessed May 23, 2012) 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), 63, (accessed September 12, 2012) Link
“Confederate Monument,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), December 29, 1905
“County Votes to Move Confederate Statue From Courthouse Lawn,” Statesville Record&Landmark (Statesville, NC), March 3, 2021 Link
“Gov. Glenn at Statesville,” The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC), May 15, 1906
“Our Confederate Dead Memorial – Statesville, NC,” Waymarking.com, (accessed February 8, 2013) Link
“The Confederate Monument,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), May 16, 1905
“The Guns Mounted,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), April 24, 1906
“The Unveiling Yesterday,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), May 11, 1906
Yes
Statue and shaft: Vermont Barre granite. Base: Rowan County granite. Cannon bases: Steel and granite
United Daughters of the Confederacy, Statesville Chapter
$1,850
The statue had been placed atop the base a few days before Christmas in 1905 but the dedication was deferred until Confederate Memorial Day, May 10, 1906. The ceremony was conducted inside a packed courthouse, moved inside due to a threat of poor weather. Rev. C.M. Richards opened with prayer before Judge W.D. Turner introduced Governor Robert B. Glenn, orator for the day. During Turner’s introduction, he “insisted the cause for which they [the South] fought was not lost,” while Governor Glenn noted that North Carolina was against secession at the beginning of the war but shots fired at Ft. Sumter left it no choice. At the conclusion of Glenn’s speech, the band played Dixie and the governor joined in as the Confederate veterans gave the “rebel yell.” After Glenn’s speech L.C. Caldwell accepted the monument on behalf of the county. Moving outside, eight children performed the unveiling: Essie Cowles, Annie Belle Walton, Sarah Adams, Mary Colvert, Beth Evans, Rachael Gill, Katie Reid Wycoff and Willie Jenkins. Music was provided by the Forest Hill Band of Concord. After the ceremony, a procession led by the speakers and Confederate Veterans marched to the Presbyterian cemetery to decorate Confederate graves and then to the opera house for a dinner honoring the veterans.
According to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, twenty-eight soldiers who died during the war were buried in Statesville. In 2006, a Mr. Stan Clardy approached the Iredell County Commissioners with a request to place a rededication marker at the base of the monument as part of the celebration of its 100th anniversary in May of that year. The planned wording would be "Centennial and Rededication of Monument - In memory of the Iredell County Confederate Soldiers, May 6, 2006, Deo Vindice." The cost would be covered by private donations and sales of advertisements and commemorative items. The board approved the request, 5 votes to 0.
The statue was carved in Vermont.
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.
In North Carolina the removal became unlawful after the legislature passed a law in 2015 protecting “objects of remembrance.” Despite Governor Roy Cooper's calling for a repeal of this law and the removal of all such memorials on public property, Iredell County officials seemed to oppose removal of their memorial.
In the summer 2020, protests intensified, as opposing groups have been protesting and counter-protesting over a Confederate statue in Statesville, which has stood since 1905.
News reports in March 2021 caused confusion about the possibility of this monument being removed. The reports stated that the Iredell County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution supporting removal of the statue with the resolution calling for three steps as officials planned the removal. The first was a request to the city of Statesville to assist in the removal to one of two city owned cemeteries, Fourth Creek Cemetery or Oakwood Cemetery. Second was to consult with The Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 387 and local Daughters of the Confederacy on the site selection and relocation. Third was for the cost of the relocation to be determined with the move taking places as the funds became available. These reports missed the key point of the resolution. What the commissioners actually voted to do was to pay for the relocation if the statue’s owners wanted it to be moved. The owners, United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans, did not want it to be moved.
The monument stands in front of the historic Iredell County Courthouse at Court Street and South Center Street in Statesville, NC. The United Spanish War Veterans Memorial stands on the south lawn. A flag pole with a granite and bronze marker to War Mothers of Iredell County stands near the sidewalk in front of the Confederate Monument.
The monument stands on the front lawn of the courthouse. It is flanked by two cannons facing away from the courthouse. Mature trees surround the site.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans hold Confederate Memorial Day services in May each year on the old courthouse grounds.
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