23 feet (7.0 metres) "from the bottom of the pedestal", the bronze statue features an allegorical angel with outstretched wings dressed in robes with a laurel wreath on her head. In one hand she supports a dying soldier holding a battered rifle, while in her other hand—held high—she holds a second laurel wreath.[1][5]
On the pink granite base created from Balfour Quarry stone from nearby Granite Quarry,[1] an inscription says, "Deo Vindice," which can be translated "With God as our champion" or "With God as our vindicator."[6][7]
The dying soldier was modeled from an 1861 photograph of Confederate Lt. Henry Howe Cook of Franklin, Tennessee.[8]
History
Gloria Victis appeared first at an exhibition in Paris, and then at a studio in a New York City, where it was purchased by the UDC as a Confederate monument for Salisbury.[1] Raising the funds took about ten years.[9] $9,000 was raised for the statue itself and $1,500 for the base.[1]
Although no minutes have been found, in 1927 A.H. Boyden said that when he was mayor, he signed a resolution in August 1908 designating the site at West Innes and Church Streets.[10] The resolution was recorded after Boyden signed a document stating "that said site shall be used perpetually for said monument."[11] In 1990, the DAC raised funds to restore the statue, which had to be taken to Cincinnati.[9]
The statue in 2011
In 2015, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act, preventing any state owned art work or memorial from being moved without permission from the North Carolina Historical Commission. Exceptions included threat to public safety and agreement between a private owner and the government.[11] That same year the Charleston church shooting led to discussion of moving the statue.[12]
On August 18, 2018, the monument was covered in white paint, apparently in response to the distribution of KKK flyers in black neighborhoods.[13] On March 20, 2019 the statue was vandalized again, with yellow paint.[14] After the 2019 incident, a public hearing was requested to discuss the possibility of moving the statue. Despite the lack of official confirmation of Boyden's action in 1908, the city was given a legal opinion that it had no authority over the land where the statue is located.[10] City council heard from speakers in June 2019. The city attorney said the 2015 North Carolina law prevents permanently moving monuments and restricts how governments can move monuments for reasons other than safety.[15]
Catawba College professor Gary Freeze proposed a marker near the site and new art work in the current statue location.[11]
More discussion about moving the statue followed shots being fired near the statue during the 2020 George Floyd protests. One commenter pointed out that it interfered with watching for traffic.[16] Safety had been a concern in 1948, 1959 and 1964 as well.[17] An online petition with over 7,000 signatures as of June 12 said the statue appears to support "white supremacy and memorializes a treasonous government whose founding principle was the perpetuation and expansion of slavery."[18] Fame Preservation Group, on the other hand, claimed the statue represents those who fought "against a federal military force invading their land" and that "it’s been made part of Salisbury’s identity."[18] The group's petition opposing a move had 2,600 signatures as of June 12. Suggested sites were Salisbury Prison[18] and Old Lutheran Cemetery.[19] The city council voted June 16 to move the statue because of a threat to public safety.[20] On June 21, the UDC signed the agreement to have the statue moved to Old Lutheran Cemetery in the 500 block of North Lee Street, where 176 Confederate soldiers have had tombstones since 1996. This location was discussed with descendants of those who raised money for the statue.[21][22][23]
The statue was moved July 6, 2020[24] and transferred to its new location July 23, 2021.[25]
The Fame Preservation Group Inc., incorporated as a nonprofit organization on November 29, 2021, received 501(c)(3) organization status in 2023. The society worked to educate people about Confederate history and about the Fame monument, and to take care of the Old Lutheran Cemetery.[23] Group president Greg Lambeth said the group's name stands for "Faith, Ancestry, Monuments and Education".[26]
Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Charlotte and within its metropolitan area, the town has attracted a growing population. The 2020 census shows 35,580 residents.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, and the promotion of the pseudohistorical Lost Cause ideology and corresponding white supremacy.
The Salisbury Post is an American, English-language daily newspaper, founded in 1905, in Salisbury, North Carolina that serves the city and other municipalities in Rowan County, as well as the county itself. The publisher of the Post is John Carr and its editor is Chandler Inions. The paper was known as the Salisbury Evening Post (1905–1984).
Salisbury National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Salisbury, in Rowan County, North Carolina. It was established at the site of burials of Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War while held at a Confederate prisoner of war camp at the site.
The Confederate War Memorial was a 65 foot (20 m)-high monument that pays tribute to soldiers and sailors from Texas who served with the Confederate States of America (CSA) during the American Civil War. The monument was dedicated in 1897, following the laying of its cornerstone the previous year. Originally located in Sullivan Park near downtown Dallas, Texas, United States, the monument was relocated in 1961 to the nearby Pioneer Park Cemetery in the Convention Center District, next to the Dallas Convention Center and Pioneer Plaza.
WSTP is a radio station licensed to and serving the area of Salisbury, North Carolina, United States.
The Confederate Monument in Owensboro, Ky., was a 16-foot-tall, two-part object — a 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture atop a 9-foot-tall granite pedestal — located at the southwest corner of the Daviess County Courthouse lawn, at the intersection of Third and Frederica Streets, in Owensboro, Kentucky. Nearly 122 years after the monument was dedicated in September 1900, the monument was dismantled in 2022, beginning with the removal of the sculpture in May 2022; the sculpture was placed in storage, pending a decision on what to do with it.
The George Davis Monument is a monument to attorney and Confederate politician George Davis that was erected in Wilmington, North Carolina by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was removed by the City of Wilmington in August 2021.
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. In August 2021, the City of Wilmington removed it from public land and stored it, awaiting the UDC chapter to take possession.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
Appomattox is a bronze statue commemorating soldiers from Alexandria, Virginia, who had died while fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The memorial was located in the center of the intersection of South Washington Street and Prince Street in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria.
There are more than 160 Confederate monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures that have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five of which have been since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
The Rowan Public Library is a public library system in Rowan County, North Carolina. It was founded in 1911.
The Confederate Monument is a shaft of granite topped by a marble statue of a soldier—the oldest public sculpture in Greenville—that memorializes the Confederate dead of the American Civil War from Greenville County, South Carolina. The monument is flanked by two period Parrott rifles manufactured at the West Point Foundry.
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