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- Jan 7, 2013
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- Long Island, NY
Recalling Deeds Immortal: Florida Monuments to the Civil War is one of a dozen or so scholarly guides to Civil War monuments in one state that were published in conjunction with the Sesquicentennial. These guides usually give brief histories and location information about many of a state’s monuments, and typically offer background on the monumentation movements of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Most include a discussion of the Lost Cause impact on Southern memorials as well as Reconciliationist themes in monuments in both the North and South.
Recalling Deeds Immortal: Florida Monuments to the Civil follows the lead of similar works published during the Sesquicentennial. It is not groundbreaking, but it provides a good guide to what is behind behind the granite and bronze. Where it shows strength is in the many photographs of the monuments examined.
The book is arranged chronologically, by the periods in which the monuments were erected. This has advantages, you can discern trends in commemoration, but also disadvantages that I will deal with later. In keeping with the structure of the book, I want to begin with the earliest commemorative pieces.
During the Civil War, only graveyard monuments and a few makeshift memorials were erected. Even during the 1865-1876 period, only four monuments, two Union and two Confederate, were installed. The oldest extant monument is the Union obelisk at Key West. Put up in 1866, it is one of the oldest Civil War monuments in the country. For a while it was the southernmost, until Confederate heritage groups pushed for a monument even further south. Like many war memorials, it was funded with both private and public funds.
The first Confederate monument in Florida was unveiled in 1871 on the grounds of a Presbyterian church in the Florida Panhandle. A rival Confederate heritage faction then moved the monument to the Walton County Courthouse in Eucheeanna. The rationale was that a skirmish had occurred there in 1864 making it an historical marker as well.
The angry Presbyterian faction then moved the monument back to the church and threatened “violence to anyone that should interfere” with the move. The matter then went to court, with the Florida State First Judicial Circuit ruling in favor of the church location. When the case reached the state’s high court, the ruling in 1874 moved the object of so much contention back to the Eucheeana location, only to see the courthouse moved to DeFuniak Springs in 1886 leaving the monument behind. Not to fear, in 1927 the Florida Legislature appropriated a $1,000 to pay to move the Confederate memorial to the DeFuniak Springs courthouse, apparently forgetting the reason it had been next to the courthouse to begin with was the forgotten skirmish at Eucheeanna.
In the 1870s, a Confederate monument was erected on land owned by the Catholic Church in St. Augustine after Unionist Reconstruction authorities denied permission to place it on public property. When Reconstruction ended, the monument was moved to the public plaza in 1879 and installed there with additions at public and private expense.
Note: Because this is a long review, I will post it in several parts.
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