Restricted "In their own words", contemporary documents on the creation and dedication of Confederate Memorials

Andersonh1

Brigadier General
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South Carolina
As I found out when I looked into the Silent Sam dedication speeches, what we are told today about why these monuments were erected and what the people who placed them over a century ago said about their meaning are often two different things. I began searching for other contemporary documents which discuss the reasons for installing these. Many of these documents have been digitized and are available online. What I would like to do with this thread is post the name, date and link to some of these documents, and then a summation of relevant information about how and why the monument was created.

No modern politics... this thread is for period documentation only, not discussing what modern writers have to say about Confederate monuments or if they should stay where they are or be removed. We're looking at origins here, as told by the people who had them built.

For example:


A Brief History of the Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston, SC
From its Organization in 1865 to April 1, 1880
Together with a roster of the Confederate Dead interred at Magnolia and the various City Church-Yards
H. P. Cooke & Co., Printers, 52 Broad Street, 1880

https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofla00ladi/page/n3/mode/2up

A brief prefatory note says that the goal was to prepare a list of the Confederate dead buried at Magnolia, and that was expanded to include those in various city church yards. "Correspondence was accordingly entered into with officers and prominent members of the several city churches, and a notice to all relatives and friends of the dead was published in the newspapers soliciting information. Numerous replies were received..."

After a quote by the Rev. J. L. Girardeau from Memorial Day 1871, we are given various pieces of correspondence related to compiling the history of this association and various officers over the decade and a half it had been in existence. The association was formed in 1866, and "... Its primary object was to take care of the Graves of the Confederate Dead, who were buried in Magnolia Cemetery, and to erect a suitable Monument to their memory."

These ladies marked the individual graves as best they could, which was an expensive undertaking. The State legislature donated about a quarter of the funds and some marble and granite that had been intended for the building of the new State House but was not needed. Over 800 headstones were created this way. The ladies also worked hard to recover and re-inter as many of the dead from Gettysburg that they could find and identify.
So what about the monument?

Having thus done honor to the individual dead, it was resolved that a suitable monument should be erected in memory of all who fell; and the President was authorized to take the necessary steps for its accomplishment.​
-------​
The Monument has been appropriately placed in the midst of the graves of those whose death it commemorates. It is plain and unostentatious, but neat and appropriate. As it is a memorial of a lost cause, it should not be a triumphal memorial. Placed in the City of the Dead, and near the entrance, the sight of it cannot fail to call back the memory of the sad history which it commemorates. A splendid monument in the city would be only an ornament to be gazed on with listless and indifferent eyes; and, instead of being a memorial of the dead, would be only the object of cold, art criticism.​
Its proper place, therefore, is just where it is, in the midst of the silent slumberers, whose deeds, and whose failures, it is designed to keep alive in the memories of the people.​

How did these ladies raise the money?

From Subscriptions and Donations...$4,377 06
Donation from State......................... 1,000 00
From Entertainments.....................$1,943 10
Less expenses for Hall.
etc ...........................................225 00 1,718 10
Interest on City Stock .....................1,233 23
Interest on Deposits and Loans ..........251 15
From Collections Memorial Days ................$2,117 31
Less expenses, ....................................$305 40,
including carriage hire and stationery,
$63 83....................... 369 23.................1,748 08
From Raffles and Sale of Marbles, etc..........45 00

Total amount received ............................$10,373 22

The remainder of the book is a list of the known dead, and a few letters discussing the construction of the monument.
 
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