Confederate Memorial (Wilmington, North Carolina)

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Confederate Memorial
Confederate Memorial in Wilmington, NC.jpg
The memorial, before its dismantling and covering in June 2020. Note the missing bayonet.
Confederate Memorial (Wilmington, North Carolina)
34°14′03.44″N77°56′45.2″W / 34.2342889°N 77.945889°W / 34.2342889; -77.945889
Location Wilmington, North Carolina
Designer Henry Bacon and Francis Herman Packer
MaterialBronze and granite
Completion date1924
Dedicated toThe Soldiers of the Confederacy
Dismantled date2020

The Confederate Memorial was erected in 1924 by the estate of veteran Gabriel James Boney, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and a Confederate veterans association in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. [1] In August 2021, the City of Wilmington removed it from public land and stored it, awaiting the UDC chapter to take possession.

Contents

The memorial is a 40-foot, 11-ton stele of white granite and a granite pedestal. Upon the pedestal was placed a bronze sculpture of two soldiers. One soldier, standing with a rifle, protects a wounded soldier holding a broken sword.

It was sited on the median of a busy street near Wilmington's downtown nightlife district. The memorial has a history of being struck by vehicles and as a target for vandals. Motor vehicles have so damaged the memorial that its granite stele and pedestal have been completely replaced with new stone twice—in 1954 and in 1999.

On the pedestal is an inscription in verse. The lines are a rewriting in Confederate terms of an unrelated Canadian poem from the 1870s, "'Tis Christmas". [2]

In 2020, the memorial became a flashpoint of demonstrations against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd.

In the early morning hours of June 25, 2020, the City of Wilmington removed the statue, citing public safety and protection of historical relics. [3] By June 30, the city government had covered the stele and pedestal with a black shroud, obscuring the inscriptions. [4] The removal of the statue was coincident with the announcement by the city government that three police officers had been fired for "brutally racist" conversations recorded on official police equipment. [5]

A few weeks later, the black canvas was covered with khaki-colored canvas, a more neutral color that a city official said was less distracting to drivers. [6]

The city government did not reveal the storage location. [7] On August 2, 2021, the City Council approved an agreement with Cape Fear 3, United Daughters of the Confederacy to permanently remove the monument from public land.

Donor

Gabriel James Boney had been a soldier in Company H, 40th North Carolina Regiment during the American Civil War. He returned to Wilmington after the war and became a wealthy mill owner. He was elected a city alderman and later to the state General Assembly. He was active in a Confederate veteran's association in Wilmington. He never married and had no children. [8] Upon his death in 1915, he left $25,000 ($753,000 in 2023 dollars) to be used "for a suitable memorial to the Confederate soldier." [9]

Artists

Henry Bacon

The monument was designed by Henry Bacon, who had been the principal designer of the Lincoln Memorial.

He spent much of his youth in Wilmington and is buried there. [10]

Francis Herman Packer

The statue was sculpted by Francis Herman Packer, a native of Germany who lived on Long Island, New York, and was a student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

A decade earlier, Packer had been hired by a United Daughters of Confederacy chapter in Wilmington to sculpt the Confederate George Davis Monument (removed, August 2021), located one block to the north and dedicated in 1911. [11]

Lost cause inscriptions

On the stele

Obverse

1861–1865
To the Soldiers of the Confederacy

Reverse

Erected by a Committee under the
testator's Will representing the
Daughters of the Confederacy, the
Confederate Veterans Association
and his Executor

MCMXXIV

On the pedestal

Confederates blend your recollections
Let memory weave its bright reflections
Let love revive life's ashen embers
For love is life since love remembers
PRO ARIS ET FOCIS
This monument is a legacy of Gabriel James Boney
Born Wallace, NC 1846 – Died Wilmington, NC 1915 [12]

The reverse of the memorial, before its covering with a black shroud in June 2020 Back of Confederate Memorial in Wilmington, NC.jpg
The reverse of the memorial, before its covering with a black shroud in June 2020

"Confederates blend your recollections"

The inscription is a rewriting of a poem about Christmas to suit Confederate memorial needs.

The poem was printed in The Canadian Monthly's January 1876 issue, more than 40 years before planning on the monument began. [13] The author was Anglo-Irish diplomat Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. Dufferin had no involvement with the American Civil War. Between 1860 and 1864, he was assigned to a diplomatic posting in Syria, and through the remainder of the 1860s served as Britain's Under-Secretary of State for India. At the time the poem was written, Dufferin was Governor-General of Canada.

CHRISTMAS

by the Earl of Dufferin

'Tis Christmas Day!

To one another

I hear men say—

Alas! my brother!

Its wind blows bitter,

Our Christmas suns

No longer glitter

As former ones!—

If this be so,

Then let us borrow

From long ago

Surcease of sorrow;—

Let dead Yules lend

Their bright reflections,

Let fond friends blend

Their recollections;—

Let Love revive

Joy's ashen embers,

For Love is Life

Since love remembers.

Pro Aris Et Focis

The motto Pro Aris Et Focis translates from Latin as "For Altars and Hearths". [14]

The motto has been used for centuries mostly by military organizations, and is often transliterated in myth as "for God and Country". (Pro Deo et Patria is an equally ancient and more common Latin motto directly translated as "For God and Country".)

In the context of Lost Cause mythology, "For Altars and Hearths" is intended to place within the public memory the falsehood that the Confederacy did not fight in the American Civil War principally for the preservation of chattel slavery. [15]

Historians suggest that similar monuments erected by the UDC are pieces of a far wider national effort by the UDC and others, decades after the surrender of the confederacy, to insert the false Lost Cause Narrative into the public memory, announce to nonwhites the final defeat of Reconstruction, and to support white supremacy. [16] [17]

Siting and context

The monument was erected in 1924 at the northmost end of the grassy median within the 100 block of South Third Street, at its intersection with Dock Street. [18] The intersection is one block south of the historic crossroads of the city at Third Street and Market Street.

For decades, the monument marked the northern entrance to an elite neighborhood—one built, beginning in the mid-18th century, by the city's wealthiest and most powerful whites.

The nearest home, at 100 South Third Street, was the Elizabeth Bridgers House, [19] a 15,000 square foot mansion constructed in 1905 for the widowed daughter-in-law of Confederate politician Robert Rufus Bridgers. [20]

Damage, dismantling and removal

1954

A motor vehicle knocked the memorial down, cracking the stele and requiring replacement. Ramsey, a supplier from Salisbury provided new granite. [21] The new granite was erected and the Packer sculpture placed upon it at its original location.

1980s

On an unknown date during the latter half of decade, the bayonet was damaged and replaced. [22]

1999–2000

In late 1999, a motor vehicle knocked the entire monument from its foundation and onto South Third Street. Two people were hospitalized. [23]

The foundation was cracked and the backdrop tablet was knocked over. The statue was removed for repair and new granite was ordered to replace the broken stone.

Architect Charles Boney told the Wilmington Star-News soon after the collision that he was committed to ensuring the memorial would be repaired and then restored at its original site: "It's a part of my heritage and it's a part of the city's history, so I just want to make sure it's fixed right." [24]

Repairs and new stone were completed. While re-erecting the tablet at the original location, the crane fell. It damaged overhead power lines, parked motor vehicles and a nearby stone wall. The statue and granite pieces were again removed for repair and replacement. [25]

In 2000, after an absence of almost a year and a half, the monument was repaired and restored. They were damaged again as they were being put back into place. That mishap was quickly fixed and the memorial finally erected at its original site. [26]

2003

On an unknown date during that year, an unknown person broke off the bayonet from the rifle held by the Confederate soldier in Packer's statue, and the piece of bronze went missing. The damage went unrepaired for at least 10 years.

In 2013, a descendant relative named Gabriel James Boney said of the damage, "My father [aged 89] would love to see it put back on. It's a priority for him." [27]

2019

In the early hours of July 4, an unknown person threw orange paint on the memorial. [28]

2020

In March, an unknown vandal placed a white flag of surrender in the statue's hands.

In early June, two unknown vandals painted the words "Black Lives Matter" on the base of the statue.

That same month, during a period of declaration of a state of emergency, the city government blocked public access to the monument with traffic cones and crime scene tape.

In the early hours of June 25, the City of Wilmington removed the statue and covered the remaining tablet and pedestal, along with their inscriptions, with a black shroud.

In September, Wilmington's mayor said that the threat to public safety that conditioned the memorial's dismantling continued. A majority of the Wilmington City Council told a journalist that the disposition of the city's Confederate monuments was not a high priority. [29]

2021

In June, a year after the statue's partial dismantling and covering with a shroud, the city government told The Star-News of Wilmington that there were no plans as to the final disposition of the memorial.

During 2021, the city attorney had been assigned to research ownership and other issues. During that process, Cape Fear 3, United Daughters of the Confederacy approached the city and asserted a claim on the statue. The claim was based on the facts that, at the time, the UDC chapter had commissioned the statue and had sought city permission to erect it on public property using private funds.

The city attorney concurred. In a July 5 letter to the city, Cape Fear 3 requested that the city hold the monument in storage until Cape Fear 3 had made arrangements to take possession. With the statue already in storage, the city agreed to move the pedestal into storage as well.

In August, the City Council approved the agreement. In a statement, the government said the effects of the vote were to permanently remove the monument from public land and avoid litigation. [30]

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References

  1. ↑ Hutteman, Hewlett Ann. Postcard History Series: Wilmington, North Carolina. Arcadia Publishing 2000. 58.
  2. ↑ Dufferin, Earl of (1894). Maple Leaves: Canadian History, Literature, Ornithology. Quebec: L.J. Demers & Frére. p. 249. Retrieved 26 April 2021. 'Tis Christmas Day!/ To one another/ I hear men say—/ Alas! my Brother/ Its winds blow better,/ Our Christmas suns/ No longer glitter/ As former ones!/ If this be so,/ Then let us borrow/ For long ago/ Surcease of sorrow;/ Let Dead Yules lend/ Their bright reflections—/ Let fond friends blend/ Their recollections—/ Let Love revive/ Joy's ashen embers,/ For Love is Life/ Since Love remembers.
  3. ↑ "Wilmington Temporarily Removes 2 Confederate Monuments". Spectrum News. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "Photo of George Davis and Confederate Soldier Memorials in Wilmington, NC USA". starnewsonline.com. 30 June 2020. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  5. ↑ The Washington Post. "Wilmington Police Officers Fired for Racist Talk".
  6. ↑ Staton, John. "One year after partial removal, could Wilmington's Confederate monuments rise again?". starnewsonline.com. StarNews. Retrieved 26 July 2021. Initially after the statues were removed, the pedestals of the monuments were shrouded in black canvas. A few weeks later, the black canvas was covered with khaki-colored canvas, a more neutral color that city communications director Jerod Patterson said was less distracting to drivers.
  7. ↑ Staton, John (June 25, 2021). "One year after partial removal, could Wilmington's Confederate monuments rise again?". starnewsonline.com. StarNews. Retrieved 26 July 2021. The city attorney's office continues to evaluate the situation in the context of the evolving legal landscape surrounding objects of remembrance and is working to provide recommendations for a permanent resolution to the matter," city communications director Jerod Patterson said in an emailed statement. "Mayor (Bill Saffo) and (Wilmington City) Council will have a conversation about the future of the statues once the attorney's office provides a recommendation.
  8. ↑ "Obituary Notice-Gabriel James Boney". newspapers.com. The Wilmington Morning Star. 7 January 1915. p. 5. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  9. ↑ Louis T. Moore (4 March 1944). "The Boney Monument". digital.ncdcr.gov. North Carolina Digital Collections: The State: A Weekly Survey of North Carolina. p. 1. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  10. ↑ North Carolina Architects-Henry Bacon. https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000028
  11. ↑ NCpedia. "Packer, Francis Herman". https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/packer-francis-herman
  12. ↑ Hutteman, Hewlett Ann. Postcard History Series: Wilmington, North Carolina. Arcadia Publishing 2000.
  13. ↑ Earl of Dufferin (January 1876). "Christmas". The Canadian Monthly and National Review. 9 (1): 43. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  14. ↑ Merriam-Webster "English Translation of 'Pro Aris et Focis'" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pro%20aris%20et%20focis
  15. ↑ Foner, Eric (2007). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1. Perennial classics ed., [Nachdr.]. ed.). New York [u.a.]: Perennial Classics. ISBN   978-0060937164.
  16. ↑ Brundage, W. Fitzhugh (29 October 2000). White Women and the Politics of Historical Memory in the New South. Princeton University Press. pp. 115–116. ISBN   0691001936. These women architects of whites' historical memory, by both explaining and mystifying the historical roots of white supremacy and elite power in the South, performed a conspicuous civic function at a time of heightened concern about the perpetuation of social and political hierarchies. Although denied the franchise, organized white women nevertheless played a dominant role in crafting the historical memory that would inform and undergird southern politics and public life.
  17. ↑ Rudisill, Lisa C. (March 2020). I Am Going Home to Die No More. Paul's Hope, Inc. pp. Foreword. ISBN   9780989719421. We, children of the South, can all share a certain degree of responsibility for the deaths of so many who defended our South. For this reason, especially, the current move to destroy memorials to those who sacrificed seems truly heinous. Would our needs to honor those who gave so much be taken away from us? Why?
  18. ↑ Google Maps. "South Third Street and Dock Street, Wilmington, North Carolina" https://www.google.com/maps/place/3rd+St+(NB)+%26+Dock+St/@34.2342911,-77.9463685,209m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89aa1fc6730748cd:0x61a2f8422650ce09!8m2!3d34.23429!4d-77.94582
  19. ↑ "Article: 'Elizabeth Bridgers House'". North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary. North Carolina State University Libraries. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  20. ↑ "Turn of the Century Elegance." Graystone Inn. http://www.graystoneinn.com
  21. ↑ "Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina". docsouth.unc.edu. UNC University Library. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  22. ↑ "Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina". docsouth.unc.edu. UNC University Library. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  23. ↑ "Fallen Warrior: Car Topples Confederate Memorial at Third and Dock Streets". starnewsonline.com. StarNews Media. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  24. ↑ "Caption in 'Photos: Confederate Statues in Downtown Wilmington'". starnewsonline.com. StarNews Media. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  25. ↑ Reiss, Cory (4 November 1999). "Monumental Repairs". Wilmington Star-News. Wilmington, NC. p. 1A.
  26. ↑ von Kolnitz, Cece (14 August 2000). "A Troubled History". Wilmington Star-News. Wilmington, NC.
  27. ↑ March, Julian. "Wilmington to Review Ways to Secure Statue's Bayonet". starnewsonline.com. StarNews Media. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  28. ↑ "Downtown Wilmington Confederate Statues Vandalized". abc11.com. Wilmington, North Carolina: WTVD-TV. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  29. ↑ Hunter Ingram (23 September 2020). "Wilmington removed two Confederate statues in June. Three months later, law says city must decide what happens next". Wilmington, North Carolina: StarNews Media. Retrieved 1 December 2020. Councilman Neil Anderson said it hasn't been at the top of his mind, nor has he spoken with any of his fellow council members about it. Instead, he would prefer to hold off on those discussions right now. "Putting them back up right at this moment, anywhere, is not a priority," Anderson said. "More of a cooling-off period is probably wise. And you have to remember that to place them anywhere, someone has to accept them." Councilman Clifford Barnett Sr. also said he would prefer to wait on those discussions and focus on other things affecting the city. But Councilman Charlie Rivenbark said the council's lack of action already speaks volumes. "Our silence on this is deafening," Rivenbark said. "It's the 800-pound gorilla in the room and no one wants to touch it."
  30. ↑ WWAY News (2 August 2021). "Wilmington City Council Votes to Permanently Remove Downtown Confederate Statues". wwaytv3.com. WWAY-TV. Retrieved 3 August 2021.


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