KVM_8 1/2_010 / TOK_HS_097 MONUMENT _ SOUTH BOSTON-HALIFAX COUNTY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS AND HISTORY / KUMARI VAIMU MUUSEUM

A Daily Dose of History
18. aprill kell 01:00
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As Civil War veterans began to age and die, across the country there was a surge in demand for monuments honoring their service. Beginning in the late 1800s and continuing into the early 1900s many hundreds of monuments were erected. It seemed that no self-respecting county seat in America could be without one.
Of course, the public appetite for war memorials was a boon to the business of the New England marble quarries where they were made. In order to keep costs down, the monument-makers developed a single mold of a soldier at attention, and would just adjust some simple details, like the hat style or the letters on the soldier's belt buckle, depending upon whether their customer wanted a Union soldier or a Confederate soldier.
Ten years after the Confederate monument went up in neighboring Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Halifax County still didn’t have a monument of its own, an indignity it finally remedied when it was able to raise the funds and order one from the T.O. Sharpe Marble Company. After the statue arrived, county authorities organized a dedication ceremony, at which the monument would be, at long last, unveiled. The statue was placed atop a tall pedestal in front of the courthouse and the date of the historic unveiling was announced. But as they were preparing for the event, someone took a good look at the statue and said, “Hey, y’all. That’s a Yankee.”
Oops.
The monument manufacturer had mistakenly sent Halifax County one of the Union statues, rather than one of its nearly identical Confederate counterparts.
Word got out and there was a public uproar. Citizens crowded into the Board of Supervisors meeting demanding that the Northern soldier be taken down and replaced by a Confederate. In July 1910, the Board approved returning the monument to the manufacturer. The manufacturer admitted its error and eventually sent along a proper replacement, but evidently the errant Yankee wasn’t worth the cost of shipping him back. So, the original statue was pulled down and taken to the fairgrounds, as a curiosity.
Finally, one hundred fourteen years ago today, on April 17, 1911, the fiftieth anniversary of Virginia’s secession, Halifax County unveiled its very own Confederate monument. Unfortunately, the statue was unstable atop such a tall pedestal and a few years later it was toppled and destroyed during a windstorm. For over 15 years the pedestal stood empty before the courthouse. But in 1936 a UDC delegation persuaded the county to buy and install yet another monument. The third time was a charm. The pedestal was shortened, and soldier number three was placed atop it in 1937, where he remains today.
Eventually the rejected Yankee was rescued from ignominy at the fairgrounds and today he stands, confused perhaps, in the South Boston-Halifax County Museum of Fine Arts and History. Kuva vähem

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