Stonewall Jackson Monument

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Stonewall Jackson Monument
Monument Ave Stonewall Jackson.jpg
Statue of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson in 2009
Stonewall Jackson Monument
Artist Frederick William Sievers
Year1919 (1919)
Medium
Subject Stonewall Jackson
ConditionWhole monument removed
Location Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Coordinates 37°33′38″N77°28′16″W / 37.56063°N 77.47111°W / 37.56063; -77.47111

The Stonewall Jackson Monument in Richmond, Virginia, was erected in honor of Thomas Jonathon "Stonewall" Jackson, a Confederate general. The monument was located at the centre of the crossing of Monument Avenue and North Arthur Ashe Boulevard, in Richmond, Virginia. [1] The bronze equestrian statue was unveiled in 1919. Along this avenue are other statues including Robert E. Lee, J. E. B. Stewart, Jefferson Davis, Matthew Maury and more recently Arthur Ashe. [2] Thomas Jackson is best known as one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted commanders throughout the early period of the American Civil War between Southern Confederate states and Northern Union states. [3] He rose to prominence after his vital role in the Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, continuing to command troops until his untimely death on May 10, 1863, after falling fatally ill following the amputation of his wounded arm. [4]

Contents

Several memorials were commissioned in his honor including the statue in Richmond, with perhaps the most well-known the Confederate Memorial Carving at Stone Mountain, commemorating Thomas Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. In Southern states, generals were often revered with statues erected for notable Confederate men at times satisfying a need of the Confederate states to extract virtues from past "heroes" and self-identify with them for the future, perpetuating the Lost Cause mythology. [5] Many of these statues, including the Jackson monument in Richmond, have recently come into controversy in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the renewed attention to Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement that seeks to more accurately represent history and the racial inequalities black people continue to endure. [6] Jackson's statue along with several others commemorating generals were either torn down by protesters supporting BLM or were removed on the mayor's orders during June and July 2020. [6] This was in spite of a vast majority of Virginians not supporting removal. [7]

Commissioning

Picture of the monument with the First Baptist Church in the background, circa 1990 LOOKING SOUTHEAST AT JACKSON MONUMENT AND SOUTH SIDE OF BLOCK. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN BACKGROUND. - 2700 Block Monument Avenue, Richmond, Independent City, VA HABS VA,44-RICH,132-4.tif
Picture of the monument with the First Baptist Church in the background, circa 1990

Under the supervision of local civic groups from 1890 till 1919 several statues were erected at successive street intersections along Monument Avenue in Richmond, commemorating great Confederate men. [8] The ‘Stonewall’ Jackson statue like other statues along this Avenue were publicly funded. [5] A local Richmond sculptor Frederick William Sievers, sculpted both Jackson's and Mathew Maury's statues. [9] The first cornerstone of Jackson's monument was laid on June 3, 1915, with it being fully unveiled on October 11, 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War. [1] The official commemorative service on October 11, 1919, was attended by the Governor of Richmond with Robert E. Lee's grandson speaking at the service, Thomas Jackson's granddaughter and the sculptor's son pulled the ropes to unveil the completed monument. [10] This was followed by a parade of Virginia Military Institute cadets, Virginia National Guards and school children who marched to the newly unveiled monument. [10] It was suggested that the timely completion of the statue, may be a reminder of the model ‘young brave soldier’ who were now returning from another major war. [10]

Design

The equestrian statue depicts the Confederate general, on his horse, Sorrel, holding the horse's reins in his left hand. [1] The bronze sculpture measures 20 x 7 x 18 ft, with Mt. Airy granite base measuring 20 x 9 x 18 ft, surrounded by a wrought iron fence. [1] There are oak leaves adorning the base of the statue which may reference the stoic nature of Jackson, while there is a Greek style art deco frieze lining the top of the base. [10]  The inscription on the east and west side of the granite base reads “STONEWALL JACKSON” while the inscription on the north side says “BORN 1824/DIED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE/1863”. [1] Jackson's statue faced north which some suggest reference as if to continue the fight. [11]

Controversy

Significance

The statues were commission and erected along Monument Avenue from 1890 till 1919 as the narrative and support for the Confederate cause re-emerged. [2] The commemoration of the Confederate leaders is one of the few times in history where a losing side in a national civil war had the platform during their lifetime to celebrate their cause. [5] It highlights the Confederate states' desire and ability to raise memorials a generation after their failure to establish an independent slaveholding republic, representing a need to vindicate and legitimize the Confederate experience in American national history. [5] The Confederate cause is commonly known as the Lost Cause which has come to describe the legitimization and, at times, the idealization of the Confederate motives to go to war against the Union states. [12] This narrative sought to absolve Confederate states of charges of treason, legitimize their reasoning for going to war to maintain states' rights and sovereignty over its territory and people, primarily the continuation of slavery on the basis that it was just and ethical and to find moral victory in military defeat. [5] The Lost Cause narrative further sought to minimize the centrality of slavery and white supremacy in the build-up and outbreak of the Civil War. [12] Richmond was a focal point for the narrative of the Lost Cause with several of the most well-known Confederate men's statues along Monument Avenue in Lee, Jackson and Davis. [2] These Confederate leaders were often depicted as brave and virtuous and were celebrated with parades and events occurring annually along Monument Avenue. [2] Thomas Jackson is of particular importance to the Lost Cause, as he was one of the leading and most influential Confederate commanders until his death in 1863. The statues and monuments erected throughout Southern states are now widely seen as symbolizing the Lost Cause narrative thereby perpetuating racism and racist power structures within America, more prominently in Southern states. [13]

Removal

Removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue, on July 1, 2020 Stonewall-jackson-removal.jpg
Removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue, on July 1, 2020

There was opposition to the commissioning of the statues along Monument Avenue from the very onset, with John Mitchell, a black city councilman, in the 1870s, strongly opposing paying tribute to "blood and treason" and paying for these statues with public funds. [11] He vowed there would come a time when African Americans would be there to take these statues down. [11] More recently, the statues on Monument Avenue have come under scrutiny after the murder of George Floyd and the renewed global attention on the importance of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The movement was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer. [14] It aims "to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes". [14] Through protesting, the BLM movement seeks to illustrate how statues of Confederate commanders came to symbolize the lack of freedom, liberty and justice black people had, historically and today. With Richmond being a focal point for celebration of the Confederate cause, BLM protests were extensive with great importance placed on the need to remove statues of Confederate generals, one of whom is Thomas Jackson. [11] The statues are now widely viewed as paying tribute to the Lost Cause, particularly the gradual rationalization of the necessity of institutionalized slavery and the perpetuation of racial inequalities. [11] As part of the BLM protests, Jackson's monument was vandalized and on July 1, 2020, the equestrian statue was removed on the mayor's orders, with the base the only remaining feature. [2] His statue along with James Stewart, Jefferson Davis, Matthew Maury and later Robert E. Lee were removed while the Arthur Ashe monument is the only remaining one. [15] The shifting status quo is perhaps best described in a letter to the Richmond Mayor, Levar Stoney and members of the Monument Avenue Commission from descendants of Thomas Jackson. They requested the removal of the Jackson statue as well as all Confederate statues along this Avenue as in their opinion they are overt symbols of racism and white supremacy and they recognize the need to stop commemorating symbols of racial injustice. [11] This represented a global shift away from honoring figures who attempted to maintain great inequalities in society, as issues of racial injustice and discrimination are being addressed and publicly condemned. [6]

One year and seven months after the removal of the statue, the vacant pedestal was also removed on 1 February 2022, and the site paved over to make it into an ordinary road junction. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonewall Jackson</span> Confederate States Army general (1824–1863)

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a general officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the Eastern theater of the war until his death. Military historians regard him as one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. P. Hill</span> Confederate Army general (1825–1865)

Ambrose Powell Hill Jr. was a Confederate general who was killed in the American Civil War. He is usually referred to as A. P. Hill to differentiate him from Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill, who was unrelated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monument Avenue</span> United States historic place

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. The Robert E. Lee monument was handled differently as it was owned by the Commonwealth, in contrast with the other monuments which were owned by the city. Dedicated in 1890, it was removed on September 8, 2021. All these monuments, including their pedestals, have now been removed completely from the Avenue. The last remaining statue on Monument Avenue is the Arthur Ashe Monument, memorializing the African-American tennis champion, dedicated in 1996.

Lee–Jackson–King Day was a holiday celebrated in the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1984 to 2000 as a combination of Lee–Jackson Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Beginning in 2000 the state observed them as two distinct holidays.

Arthur Ashe Boulevard is a historic street in the near the West End of Richmond, Virginia, providing access to Byrd Park. It serves as the border between the Carytown/Museum District to the west and the Fan district to the east. Attempts were made to rename the street after Arthur Ashe, a tennis star and social activist who was born and grew up in Richmond, but previous attempts failed until February 2019 when Richmond City Council voted in favor of changing the name to Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Near the south end is Richmond's Boulevard Bridge across the James River. Arthur Ashe Boulevard intersects with main arteries Cary Street, Main Street, Monument Avenue, Broad Street, Leigh Street, and Interstate 64/95, and terminates at Hermitage Road. The Diamond is located on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. The intersection of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Monument Avenue featured a statue of Stonewall Jackson.

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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equestrian statue of Stonewall Jackson (Charlottesville, Virginia)</span> United States historic place

Thomas Jonathan Jackson is a historic bronze equestrian statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson which was formerly located at Courthouse Historic District of Charlottesville, Virginia and installed in 1921. The statue was sculpted by Charles Keck and was the third of four works commissioned from members of the National Sculpture Society by philanthropist Paul Goodloe McIntire. It was the second of three statues McIntire donated to the city of Charlottesville, which he did over a period of five years from 1919 to 1924. The statue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert E. Lee Monument (Charlottesville, Virginia)</span> Destroyed equestrian statue

The Robert E. Lee Monument was an outdoor bronze equestrian statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and his horse Traveller located in Charlottesville, Virginia's Market Street Park in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District. The statue was commissioned in 1917 and dedicated in 1924, and in 1997 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was removed on July 10, 2021, and melted down in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert E. Lee Monument (Richmond, Virginia)</span> Former public sculpture in Richmond, Virginia, United States

The Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia, was the first installation on Monument Avenue in 1890, and would ultimately be the last monument removed from the site. Before its removal on September 8, 2021, the monument honored Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee, depicted on a horse atop a large marble base that stood over 60 feet (18 m) tall. Constructed in France and shipped to Virginia, it remained the largest installation on Monument Avenue for over a century; it was first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 and the Virginia Landmarks Register in 2006.

<i>Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument</i> Double equestrian statue formerly installed in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

The Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument, often referred to simply as the Jackson and Lee Monument or Lee and Jackson Monument, was a double equestrian statue of Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, formerly located on the west side of the Wyman Park Dell in Charles Village in Baltimore, Maryland, alongside a forested hill, similar to the topography of Chancellorsville, Virginia, where Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee met before the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. The statue was removed on August 16, 2017, on the order of Baltimore City Council, but the base still remains. The monument is in storage and some city council members have called for all Confederate monuments in the state to be destroyed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials</span> Ongoing controversy in the United States

More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.

<i>Rumors of War</i> Statue

Rumors of War is a series of artworks by Kehinde Wiley examining equestrian portraiture in the canon of Western art history culminating in a bronze monumental equestrian statue by the artist of an African-American young man, created in response to the statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart in Richmond, Virginia in particular and similar statues of high-ranking Confederate Army officers, some of which still stand in the United States despite persistent calls for their removal. Since the installation of Rumors of War in Richmond, all of the statues of the military leaders of the Confederacy have been removed from Monument Avenue where they had been since the first decade of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Floyd protests in Richmond, Virginia</span> 2020 civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd

Richmond, Virginia, experienced a series of protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Richmond was the first city in the Southeastern United States to see rioting following Floyd's murder. Richmond, formerly the capital of the short-lived Confederate States of America, saw much arson and vandalism to monuments connected with that polity, particularly along Monument Avenue.

<i>J. E. B. Stuart Monument</i> Monument of J. E. B. Stuart formerly in Richmond, Virginia

The J. E. B. Stuart Monument is a deconstructed monument to Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart at the head of historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, which was dedicated in 1907. Despite a majority of Virginians not supporting removal, the equestrian statue of General Stuart was removed from its pedestal and placed into storage on July 7, 2020 after having stood there for 113 years. The removal was in response to nationally reported events of police brutality and a corresponding emergency declaration in Virginia. The granite pedestal, which stood empty for nineteen months, was finally dismantled in February 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Ashe Monument</span> Monument in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.

The Arthur Ashe Monument is a bronze sculpture by Paul DiPasquale installed along Richmond, Virginia's Monument Avenue. The statue depicts tennis player Arthur Ashe, who was born, raised and buried in Richmond.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson Equestrian, (sculpture)". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Leib, Jonathan I. (July 2002). "Separate times, shared spaces: Arthur Ashe, Monument Avenue and the politics of Richmond, Virginia's symbolic landscape". Cultural Geographies. 9 (3): 286–312. Bibcode:2002CuGeo...9..286L. doi:10.1191/1474474002eu250oa. ISSN   1474-4740. S2CID   143324432.
  3. ↑ S.C. Gwynne (October 2014). "Stonewall: few people knew General Thomas J. Jackson before 1861, but his steadfastness in the first major land battle of the Civil War earned him the name he would carry into history". American History. 49 (4) – via Gale Academic OneFile.
  4. ↑ "Stonewall Jackson | Biography, Battles, Death, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Graham, Christopher (December 2017). "Monument Avenue, Richmond Virginia: Writing History with Bronze and Marble". Sculpture Review. 66 (4): 8–15. doi:10.1177/074752841706600402. ISSN   0747-5284. S2CID   192607685.
  6. 1 2 3 "Toppling statues is a first step toward ending Confederate myths". History & Culture. 2020-07-02. Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  7. ↑ "News articles — L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs". wilder.vcu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  8. ↑ Driggs, Sarah Shields (Spring 2003). "Richmond's Monument Avenue". Urban History Review. 31 (2): 43–44. ProQuest   216510212 – via ProQuest.
  9. ↑ Edwards, Kathy; Howard, Esmé; Howard, Esme (1997). "Monument Avenue: The Architecture of Consensus in the New South, 1890-1930". Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture. 6: 92–110. doi:10.2307/3514365. ISSN   0887-9885. JSTOR   3514365.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Monument Avenue Commission" (PDF). Virginia Historical Society. 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Warren; Christian, Jack (2017). "The Monuments Must Go: Reflecting on Opportunities for Campus Conversations". South: A Scholarly Journal. 50 (1): 47–56. ISSN   2474-8102.
  12. 1 2 The myth of the lost cause and Civil War history. Gallagher, Gary W., Nolan, Alan T. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2000. p. 20. ISBN   0-253-10902-7. OCLC   51098610.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  13. ↑ Mortenson, Christopher R. (2014). "Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly: 221–222. ProQuest   1562709744 – via eLibrary; ProQuest Central Student.
  14. 1 2 "About - Black Lives Matter". Black Lives Matter. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  15. ↑ Robinson, Mark (2020-07-08). "UPDATE: Lawsuit seeks to halt Stoney from removing Richmond's Confederate iconography; heritage group wants statues". Richmond Times Dispatch. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  16. ↑ "Richmond's remaining Confederate monument pedestals to be removed this week". WTVR. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
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