| Sam Davis Statue | |
|---|---|
 The Sam Davis Statue in 2006 | |
  Sam Davis Statue  Sam Davis Statue | |
| Artist | George Julian Zolnay |
| Year | 1909 |
| Location | Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
| 36°9′54.35″N86°47′3.25″W / 36.1650972°N 86.7842361°W Coordinates: 36°9′54.35″N86°47′3.25″W / 36.1650972°N 86.7842361°W | |
The Sam Davis Statue is a historic bronze statue of Sam Davis, the "Boy Hero of the Confederacy," outside the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee.
Its commission was first suggested by Sumner Archibald Cunningham, the founding editor of Confederate Veteran . [1] It was designed by sculptor George Julian Zolnay. [1] Built with bronze, it is nine feet tall on top of a marble pedestal. [1] The western plaque includes lines from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. [1] The monument cost almost $8,000 to build. [2] The bronze sculpture cost $4,000 and the marble pedestal $3,000. [1]
The dedication was held on April 29, 1909. [1] [3] It was attended by thousands (between 3,000 and 5,000), including members of the Davis family, Confederate veterans in uniform, and members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. [1] Major Eugene C. Lewis introduced Governor Malcolm R. Patterson, who gave a speech praising Davis. [1] Lewis then read a letter by Colonel Hume R. Field. [1] It was followed by a prayer by Reverend James Hugh McNeilly of Glen Leven Presbyterian Church. [1] Finally, Davis's grandniece, Elizabeth Ewing Davis, unveiled the statue by taking off the Confederate flags covering it. [1]
On August 28, 2017, in the wake of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, protesters covered the statue, but the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Nashville Fire Department uncovered it half an hour later. [4]
Sam Davis was a Confederate soldier executed by Union forces in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. He is popularly known as the Boy Hero of the Confederacy, although he was 21 when he died. He became a celebrated instance of Confederate memorialization in the late 1890s and early 1900s, eulogized by Middle Tennesseeans for his valor and sacrifice. Davis' story was popularized by editor J. B. Killebrew and later by Sumner Archibald Cunningham. Due in part to the story's themes of piety and masculinity, Cunningham's portrayal of Davis fit into mythology of the "Lost Cause" in the postwar South.
Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond, Virginia, originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Between 1900 and 1925, Monument Avenue greatly expanded with architecturally significant houses, churches, and apartment buildings. Four of the bronze statues representing J. E. B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and Matthew Fontaine Maury were removed from their memorial pedestals amidst civil unrest in July 2020. Two others still retain their bronze statues: the Robert E. Lee monument dedicated in 1890 and the Arthur Ashe Monument, memorializing the African American tennis champion, dedicated in 1996.
Edward Ward Carmack was an attorney, newspaperman, and political figure who served as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1901 to 1907.
The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee, serving as home of the Tennessee General Assembly and the location of the governor's office. Designed by architect William Strickland (1788–1854) of Philadelphia and Nashville, it was built between 1845 and 1859 and is one of Nashville's most prominent examples of Greek Revival architecture. The building, one of 12 state capitols that does not have a dome, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1971. James K. Polk's tomb is also in this area.
Douglas Selph Henry Jr. was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the longest-serving member of the Tennessee legislature. He was a member of the Tennessee Senate, representing the 21st district. He served as a state senator beginning with his election to the 87th General Assembly, prior to which he was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives during the 79th General Assembly.
The Western Military Institute was a preparatory school and college located first in Kentucky, then in Tennessee. It was founded in 1847 in Georgetown, Kentucky, and it later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where it merged with Montgomery Bell Academy in 1867. The former campus is now Vanderbilt University's Peabody College. Alumni include prominent Confederate veterans and Southern politicians.
George Julian Zolnay was a Romanian, Hungarian, and American sculptor called the "sculptor of the Confederacy".
Sumner Archibald Cunningham was an American Confederate soldier and journalist. He was the editor of a short lived Confederate magazine called "Our Day" (1883-1884) published in New York. In 1893 he established the Confederate Veteran, a bimonthly magazine about veterans of the Confederate States Army until his death in 1913.
The removal of Confederate monuments and memorials is an ongoing process in the United States since the 1960s. Many municipalities in the United States have removed monuments and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate States of America, and some, such as Silent Sam in North Carolina, have been torn down by protestors. The momentum to remove Confederate memorials increased dramatically following high-profile incidents including the Charleston church shooting (2015), the Unite the Right rally (2017), and the murder of George Floyd (2020). The removals have been driven by the belief that the monuments glorify white supremacy; memorialize an unrecognized, treasonous government, the Confederacy, whose founding principle was the perpetuation and expansion of slavery; and that the presence of these Confederate memorials over a hundred years after the defeat of the Confederacy continues to disenfranchise and alienate African Americans.
Spirit of the Confederacy, also known as the Confederacy Monument, is an outdoor bronze sculpture depicting an angel holding a sword and palm branch by Louis Amateis, installed in Houston's Sam Houston Park, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was erected in 1908 by a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The statue was removed from the park in 2020 and relocated to the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
The Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue is a 25 feet (7.6 m) tall statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest on a horse in Nashville, Tennessee, located near Interstate 65 at 701D Hogan Road. The statue depicts Forrest shooting behind himself and is flanked by Confederate battle flags. It is generally considered aesthetically unappealing due to its abnormal facial features, which bear little resemblance to Forrest himself, and more resemble a screaming deformed man.
For the statue in Nashville, see Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue.For the statue in Memphis, see Nathan Bedford Forrest Monument.
Major Eugene Castner Lewis was an American engineer and businessman. He served as the chairman of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway from 1900 to 1917. As a civic leader, he helped develop Shelby Park and Centennial Park, including the Parthenon, as well as Union Station.
The Confederate Private Monument is a bronze sculpture of a private of the Confederate States Army in Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Designed by George Julian Zolnay, it was commissioned by the Frank Cheatham Bivouac of the United Confederate Veterans in 1903, laid with Masonic honors in 1907, and dedicated in 1909. It was vandalized in June 2019.
The Tennessee Confederate Women's Monument, also known as the Tennessee Monument to the Women of the Confederacy or the Monument to Southern Women in War Times, is a bronze statue on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
A bronze statue of the Confederate agent Sam Davis was installed in 1999 at Nashville, Tennessee's Montgomery Bell Academy, in the United States. The sculpture was designed by the local artist Alan LeQuire. Davis had been an student at the Western Military Institute, a predecessor of the Montgomery Bell Academy.
A statue of Edward W. Carmack was installed in Nashville, Tennessee, United States in 1924. The statue was the work of American sculptor Nancy Cox-McCormack. Carmack was an opponent of Ida B. Wells and encouraged retaliation for her support of the civil rights movement.
The equestrian statue of John Brown Gordon is a monument on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The monument, an equestrian statue, honors John Brown Gordon, a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War who later become a politician in post-Reconstruction era Georgia. Designed by Solon Borglum, the statue was dedicated in 1907 to large fanfare. The statue has recently become a figure of controversy over Gordon's racist views and associations with the Confederacy, with some calling for its removal.
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