| Southern Cross of Honor | |
|---|---|
 Obverse and reverse of the medal | |
| Awarded for | Honorable service in the Confederate States army, navy, or marine corps |
| Date | 1899 |
| Presented by | United Daughters of the Confederacy |
The Southern Cross of Honor was a commemorative medal established in 1899 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor Confederate veterans. [1]
The Cross of Honor is in the form of a cross pattée suspended from a metal bar with space for engraving. It has no cloth ribbon. The obverse displays the Confederate battle flag placed on the center thereof surrounded by a wreath, with the inscription UNITED DAUGHTERS [of the] CONFEDERACY TO THE U. C. V. (the UCV is the United Confederate Veterans) on the four arms of the cross. The reverse of the Cross of Honor is the motto of the Confederate States, DEO VINDICE ([With] God [as] our Vindicator) and the dates 1861 1865 also surrounded by a laurel wreath. The arms of the cross bear the inscription SOUTHERN CROSS OF HONOR. [1]
In 1898, Mary Ann Cobb Erwin was the originator of the idea of a Cross of Honor; her father was the Confederate politician Howell Cobb. [2] [3] The suggestion was received by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) with enthusiasm and approval. At a meeting of the UDC at Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1898, it took the assemblage by storm, and a committee was appointed by the President to develop designs. Mrs. Erwin preferred to remain in the background. She was placed on the committee, but withdrew. At the next annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia, the emblem proposed by Sarah E. Gabbett, of Atlanta, was adopted; while at the same time, the office of Custodian of the Cross of Honor was bestowed upon Gabbett. Miss Rutherford, of Athens, served in place of Mrs. Erwin on the committee. The other members were: Mrs. Sarah E. Gabbett and Mrs. Helen Plane, both of Atlanta. The committee was afterwards enlarged and given authority to formulate rules. When the idea was finally perfected, it was made to include not only veterans but also descendants of deceased Confederate soldiers and sailors. [4] [a] In compliment to Mrs. Erwin, the first Cross of Honor bestowed by the UDC was awarded to her husband, Judge Alexander S. Erwin, of Athens, [4] on April 26, 1900, by the Athens (Georgia) Chapter. [5]
Charles W. Crankshaw of Atlanta, Georgia, was chosen as the contractor to produce the medal. [3] Its first manufacturer was Schwaab Stamp & Seal Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1904 the contract was shifted to Whitehead & Hoag of Newark, New Jersey. [2]
Anna Davenport Raines was the Custodian of Crosses of Honor until her death in 1913. [3] Though intended to end in 1913, after the issuance of 78,761 medals, in 1912 it was extended indefinitely. [6] The program finally ended in 1959. [2]
The Cross of Honor could only be bestowed through the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It could not be purchased; it was given in recognition of loyal, honorable service to the South and only a Confederate veteran could wear it. [5] It was available to any branch of the Confederate military. [2] Only living veterans were eligible. However the final award was given posthumously, in 1951 to Rear Adm. Raphael Semmes. [2] At least 78,761 were awarded. [2]
Although no Civil War veterans are still living, the last verified Confederate veteran dying in 1951, Virginia Code section 18.2-176(b) remains in effect and makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than US$500, to "wear any Southern Cross of Honor when not entitled to do so by the regulations under which such Crosses of Honor are given." [7] An unofficial analog of the Union's GAR Medal, its wearing was never authorized on U.S. military uniforms. [8]
The Cross of Honor is also used as an emblem or marker on the graves of Confederate veterans. It will only be issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs to be placed on graves of Confederate veterans. [9]
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 United Confederate Veterans was an American Civil War veterans' organization headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was organized on June 10, 1889, by ex-soldiers and sailors of the Confederate States of America as a merger between the Louisiana Division of the Veteran Confederate States Cavalry Association; N. B. Forrest Camp of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Tennessee Division of the Veteran Confederate States Cavalry Association; Tennessee Division of Association of Confederate Soldiers; Benevolent Association of Confederate Veterans of Shreveport, Louisiana; Confederate Association of Iberville Parish, Louisiana; Eighteenth Louisiana; Adams County (Mississippi) Veterans' Association; Louisiana Division of the Army of Tennessee; and Louisiana Division of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Howell Cobb was an American and later Confederate political figure. A southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives and the speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the 40th governor of Georgia (1851–1853) and as a secretary of the treasury under President James Buchanan (1857–1860).
Neo-Confederates are groups and individuals who portray the Confederate States of America and its actions during the American Civil War in a positive light. The League of the South, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other neo-Confederate organizations continue to defend the secession of the former Confederate States.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohistorical Lost Cause ideology and corresponding white supremacy.
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is an American pseudohistorical and historical negationist myth that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. First enunciated in 1866, it has continued to influence racism, gender roles, and religious attitudes in the Southern United States into the 21st century. Historians have dismantled many parts of the Lost Cause mythos.
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.
Mildred Lewis Rutherford was a prominent white supremacist speaker, educator, and author from Athens, Georgia. She served the Lucy Cobb Institute, as its head and in other capacities, for over forty years, and oversaw the addition of the Seney-Stovall Chapel to the school. Heavily involved in many organizations, she became the historian general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), and a speech given for the UDC was the first by a woman to be recorded in the Congressional Record. She was a prolific writer in historical subjects and an advocate of the Lost Cause narrative. Rutherford was distinctive in dressing as a southern belle for her speeches. She held strong pro-Confederacy, proslavery views and opposed women's suffrage.
A Ladies' Memorial Association (LMA) is a type of organization for women that sprang up all over the American South in the years after the American Civil War. Typically, these were organizations by and for women, whose goal was to raise monuments in Confederate soldiers honor. Their immediate goal, of providing decent burial for soldiers, was joined with the desire to commemorate the sacrifices of Southerners and to propagate the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. Between 1865 and 1900, these associations were a formidable force in Southern culture, establishing cemeteries and raising large monuments often in very conspicuous places, and helped unite white Southerners in an ideology at once therapeutic and political.
The Confederate Memorial was a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States, that commemorated members of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America who died during the American Civil War. Authorized in March 1906, former Confederate soldier and sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in November 1910 to design the memorial. It was unveiled by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914, the 106th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America.
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. He was a critic of Reconstruction, "scalawags", "carpetbaggers", and "Negro" legislators.
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 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.
Laura Martin Rose, known professionally as Mrs. S. E. F. Rose, was a historian and propagandist for the Ku Klux Klan employed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Anna Mitchell Davenport Raines was an American philanthropist and founding Vice President of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She later served as the organization's Honorary President General and as the Custodian of the Southern Cross of Honor.
Margaret O'Connor Wilson was an American civic leader and philanthropist. Prominent in civic and patriotic organizations in Atlanta for many years, she was also known also for her religious and philanthropic work. Among the many positions that she held, Wilson served as President General of the Confederated Southern Memorial Association (CSMA).
Sarah E. Gabbett was an American medal designer. She was the first Custodian of the Southern Cross of Honor, and later, she became the honorary custodian for life. Because of her zeal in designing the Cross of Honor, she became one of the most conspicuous women in the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Wrapped in an atmosphere of a by-gone day, cherishing an abiding love for her husband, an Irish emigrant and Confederate States Army veteran, she was all but a recluse. She only mingled with the outside world for causes associated with betterment of the Confederate veteran.
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