The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument of Indiana
The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument
As a sign of celebration and remembrance, many Confederate monuments offer a message of a time in US history marred by slavery and the breakup of the Union. The objectives of these monuments are to perpetuate the Lost Cause narrative and continue the fallacies that the Civil War was not fought over slavery. In many cases those monuments are a representation of a belief system yet offer no historical context. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indiana was erected as a memorial to Confederate prisoners of war who died at Camp Morton. The memorial gives a glimpse into the horrors of war if looking deeper into the grounds where the monument once stood. It also inspires the inquiry of why the monument erected to memorialize the Confederate dead and why it was important to do so. Camp Morton served as a military camp for Union troops from April 1861 until February 1862. Situated on the Indiana State Fairgrounds, it was used as a mustering ground and military camp. One of eight Union prison camps for Confederate noncommissioned officers and privates, it is estimated that approximately 1,700 prisoners died at Camp Morton between 1862 and 1865. Some of the buried soldiers were exhumed and returned to their families. However, it is known that the remains of 1,616 prisoners were left behind. In 1866 a fire ravaged the cemetery office, destroying the records that gave the precise locations of the burials. In 1909 former Confederate General William C. Oates, a former congressman from Alabama, was commissioned to identify the soldiers who died in federal prison camps. Unsuccessful in finding the remains of the missing soldiers, former General Oates recommended a single shaft be erected bearing the names of the soldiers. The monument reads, “Erected by the United States to mark the burial place of 1,616 Confederate Soldiers and Sailors who died here while prisoners of war and whose graves cannot now be identified.” The monument represents the lives lost as prisoners of war but unlike other conflicts before and after, the men memorialized died at home. These men had been made prisoners by their own countrymen, fighting for ideological differences that enslaved the lives of men and women who also shared the same nationality. Ultimately, the monument, like many others like it, met its demise and was removed on June 8, 2020, following Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd. The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument of Indiana served not just as a memorial of the prisoners that died there. It also served as a historical landmark that provided an insight into the Civil War that many other monuments simply do not offer. It does not celebrate the Confederacy, or does it perpetuate the Lost Cause narrative. It provides a symbol of a nation broken by the institution of slavery, a nation that was forced to turn on itself in the name of individual freedom in the belief that all men are created equal.
Confederate General William C. Oates (creator)
Winslow, Hattie Lou, and Joseph R. H. Moore. Camp Morton, 1861–1865: Indianapolis Prison Camp. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society: 1995.
Bodenhamer, David, and Robert G. Barrows, eds. The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Indiana University Press: 1994.
"Memorial for Confederates". Plymouth Tribune. November 5, 1908
Mack, Vic Ryckaert and Justin L. "Garfield Park Confederate Memorial being dismantled". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
1911
Max Bezanilla
English
Memorial
Hist. 402A Fall 2021
Indianapolis, Indiana
Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery
Located on the western edge of Arlington National Cemetery inside the Jackson Circle stands the Confederate Memorial. Reaching to a height of 32 feet above the ground, it looms large over the 482 graves of Confederate soldiers and officers that encircle it.
Contrary to the straight rows of Arlington's headstones, the Confederate graves are arranged in concentric circles with the Memorial at the center. Additionally setting them apart are the tops of their grave markers, angled to a point, meant to differentiate them from the round tops of the Union stones.
At the top, a female figure carved in classical Greek style stands as a representation the South, with the inscription of a biblical quote from Isaiah 2:4 at her feet: "And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks" Beneath this are fourteen shields decorated with the coats-of-arms of the eleven seceded states plus the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland.
The thirty-two figures at the base depict the Lost Cause in fantastical detail, with mythological gods mixed in with Southern soldiers and civilians. Two of the figures are African-American, one a "mammy" and the other a body-servant following his master to war. These were meant to represent a popular Southern belief in the "loyal and faithful slave" and dispel notions of the brutality of the slave regime, which Ezekiel and the UDC considered lies told by the North.
The south side bears the inscription:
TO OUR DEAD HEROES BY
THE UNITED DAUGHTERS
OF THE CONFEDERACY
VICTRIX CAUSA DIIS
PLACUIT SED VICTA CATON
(Translated from Latin: The Victorious Cause was Pleasing to the Gods, But the Lost Cause Pleased Cato.)
The north side displays this message:
NOT FOR FAME OR REWARD
NOT FOR PLACE OR FOR RANK
NOT LURED BY AMBITION
OR GOADED BY NECESSITY
BUT IN SIMPLE
OBEDIENCE TO DUTY
AS THEY UNDERSTOOD IT
THESE MEN SUFFERED ALL
SACRIFICED ALL
DARED ALL — AND DIED
Confederate soldiers were forbidden burial at Arlington prior to the end of the Spanish-American War. After that conflict ended with an American victory, President William McKinley kicked off his 1898 “Peace Jubilee” tour with a speech in Atlanta that addressed the issue of honoring the Confederate dead, stating that “…Sectional feeling no longer holds back the love we feel for each other. The old flag again waves over us in peace with new glories”
By 1902, the remains of more than 260 Confederate soldiers had been exhumed and relocated to Section 16 of the National Cemetery. Over the next few years, that number would increase to over 400.
In 1906, the United Daughters of the Confederacy began fundraising efforts to pay for a proper memorial, hiring Confederate veteran Moses Jacob Ezekiel to design and sculpt the monument. It was completed and unveiled by President Woodrow Wilson on June 6th, 1914. Ezekiel was buried at the monument's base upon his death in 1921.
As of October 2023, the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery is in the process of being removed from the ANC. The granite base and foundation will remain in place to avoid disturbing surrounding graves. It is going to be moved to a Civil War site owned by the Virginia Military Institute.
Moses Jacob Ezekiel
“Confederate Memorial.” Arlington National Cemetery. https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Monuments-and-Memorials/Confederate-Memorial.
Shapiro, T. Rees. “Uneasy Future for Arlington’s Confederate Memorial.” The Washington Post. Washington, D.C: The Washington Post, 2017.
1914
David Cantwell, Kevin Gomez
English
Sculpture
HIST 402A Fall 2021
Arlington National Cemetary, Arlington, VA
Confederate Soldiers Memorial, Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego
The Mount Hope Cemetery Memorial represented the continuation of the Lost Cause legacy as it stretched into the Golden State. The memorial continued this legacy by honoring the soldiers who fought to preserve slavery. It resides in San Diego, California’s Mount Hope Cemetery, a cemetery that has been serving its community since 1869. The cemetery itself is owned by the city of San Diego therefore operating on public land. According to the city however, the plot by which the monument was located is privately owned. The owner of that plot is the Stonewall Jackson Chapter 476 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They purchased the plot in 1905 and erected the monument in 1948. The city maintained the monument for the duration of its residency in the cemetery.
The monument appears to be made of granite. It consists of three joined blocks each with lines of text. When facing the monument, the leftmost block reads "Dedicated to Confederate Veterans and their Wives Herein Buried". The central and tallest block reads, "Stonewall Jackson Chapter 476, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Organized in 1901”. The rightmost block reads, “For their work and devotion in securing this plot and monument we lovingly remember Mattie S. Davis, Mary K. Carter, Kathryn C. Blackenburg”. The monument sat underneath the American flag, surrounded by gravestones of Confederate and Union soldiers.
A flashpoint in the Mount Hope Monument’s history occurred in the aftermath of the killings during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. After those events a national reckoning took place over the use of Confederate monuments in public spaces. For many people, these confederate monuments represent a minimization the role slavery had in the Civil War. This minimization of slavery is believed to help contribute to the racial inequities of today. This includes monuments such as the Mount Hope Memorial. As a result, the Mount Hope Memorial faced numerous amounts of vandalism. In one instance pieces of the monument were chiseled off. In another instance the monument was painted red with the words “This is a monument to racism and white supremacy” written on it. Similarly, an effort to petition the mayor to remove the monument took place with significant support.
In July of 2020, the Mount Hope Monument was taken down at the request of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Many assume this was in response to the growing number of vandalism occurrences. The monument is currently held in city storage. Although the monument’s fate is unknown, its presence served as a reminder for many of the continued inequities that persist in contemporary America. While others may continue to push the notion that the Confederacy fought a noble cause and for states rights, the scars of slavery continue to influence an unequal reality of racism today. Mount Hope’s Confederate Memorial reminds individuals that if this history is ignored, then individuals will take matters into their own hands.
United Daughters of the Confederacy
<p>Chen, Michael. “Confederate monument removed from plot in city-owned Mount Hope Cemetery”. <em>ABC 10 News San Diego</em>. San Diego, California. 23 July. 2020. <a href="https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/confederate-monument-removed-from-plot-in-city-owned-mount-hope-cemetery">https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/confederate-monument-removed-from-plot-in-city-owned-mount-hope-cemetery</a>.<br /><br />Dotinga, Randy. “San Diego's Other Confederate Memorial Sits in a City-Owned Cemetery”. <i>Voice of San Diego</i>. San Diego, California. 18 August. 2017. <a href="https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/news/meet-s-d-s-other-confederate-memorial/">https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/news/meet-s-d-s-other-confederate-memorial/.</a><br /><br />Hall, Jerry. “Mr. Mayor, Remove Confederate Monument Celebrating Slavery from Public Mount Hope Cemetery”. <i>Change.org</i>. <a href="https://www.change.org/p/mr-mayor-remove-confederate-monument-celebrating-slavery-from-public-mt-hope-cemetery/u/27216094">https://www.change.org/p/mr-mayor-remove-confederate-monument-celebrating-slavery-from-public-mt-hope-cemetery/u/27216094</a>.<br /><br />“Mount Hope Cemetery”. <em>The City of San Diego</em>. <a href="https://www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/general-info/mthope">https://www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/general-info/mthope</a>.</p>
<p>Wilkens, John. “For some, Civil War furor is personal”. <i>The San Diego Union-Tribune</i>. San Diego, California. 28 June. 2015. <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sdut-confederate-flag-civil-war-reaction-2015jun28-story.html">https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sdut-confederate-flag-civil-war-reaction-2015jun28-story.html.</a></p>
Erected: 1948
Removed: July 2020
Sean Ghafourian, Madison Hardrick
English
Granite
History 402A 2021-2023
San Diego, California
General Stand Watie Monument, Tahlequah, Oklahoma - Cherokee Nation
In 1921, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) unveiled a 13,000-pound granite slab marker honoring Confederate General Stand Watie. [1] Stand Watie was the only Cherokee leader in the Confederate States Army and the last Confederate officer to surrender in the Civil War on June 23, 1865, making him a prominent figure of the Confederacy. [2] The top portion of the granite slab features a bronze relief of General Stand Watie and the bottom half features an inscribed dedication concluding with the phrase “Lest We Forget” – the official motto of the UDC. The monument was erected in front of the county courthouse in Tahlequa, Oklahoma at a time when the property belonged to the state and not the Cherokee nation. [3] It was the second of two confederate monuments within the capitol square to be commissioned by the UDC. The first memorial was a fountain dedicated in 1913 to fallen Cherokee soldiers that served in the Confederate States Army. [4]
In 2017, after the statue of Robert E. Lee was removed in Charlottesville, Virginia in response to the tragic events that took place, the Cherokee Nation confronted Confederate monuments on their own land. Two Confederate monuments were erected before the Cherokee Nation reclaimed the land in 1979 and it was time to rethink their meaning. [5] In June 2020, the Stand Watie Monument was removed from the capitol square, where it had stood for nearly one hundred years, and placed into storage. Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in a statement about the decision to remove the monument, “The days of Cherokees leaving it to others to tell our story are over. We have suffered for centuries with others telling our story for us and telling us which people, places and events should be glorified in monuments. I have committed much time and energy to giving our national story back to Cherokees.” [6]
United Daughters of the Confederacy
1. “Cherokee Nation Removes Confederate Monuments from Historic Capitol Square,” Anadisgoi online, June 13, 2020. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://anadisgoi.com/index.php/culture-stories/331-cherokee-nation-removes-confederate-monuments-from-historic-capitol-square. <br /><br />2. Pierpaoli, Paul G., Jr. <em>American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection</em>, ed. Spencer C. Tucker (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), 2091-2092. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3160502547/GVRL?u=csuf_main&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=2f930974. <br /><br />3. Rowley, Sean. “Confederate Monuments Erected When Courthouse Was County Building,” August 18, 2017. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/news/confederate-monuments-erected-when-courthouse-was-county-building/article_199e412a-3e3c-5502-a7fd-b3f56e096cee.html. <br /><br />4. Melero, Ellie. “Oklahomans Rethink Confederate Monuments Around State,” June 16, 2020. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://www.oklahoman.com/article/5664682/oklahomans-rethink-confederate-monuments-around-state. <br /><br />5. McClelan, Jacob. “As Cities Remove Confederate Monuments, Cherokees Grapple with Civil War Past,” August 31, 2017. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://www.kgou.org/native-american/2017-08-31/as-cities-remove-confederate-monuments-cherokees-grapple-with-civil-war-past. <br /><br />6. "Chief Chat: Why I removed Confederate monuments from the Cherokee Capitol Grounds." <em>Indian Life</em>, July-August 2020, 8. <em>Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints</em>. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A634771372/OVIC?u=csuf_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=c579dd49.
1921
Monique Corona
English
Granite Slab
HIST 402A Fall 2021
Tahlequah, Oklahoma