About this item
Highlights
- Monuments honoring leaders and victorious armies have been raised throughout history.
- About the Author: Douglas J. Butler is an independent scholar, practicing physician, and avid photographer.
- 272 Pages
- History, United States
Description
About the Book
"This illustrated history details one state's commemorative response to a war in which more than 30,000 of its soldiers died in military service: 101 Confederate monuments--and eight Union memorials, including one honoring African American troops--were dedicated across the Tarheel State between 1865 and 1961. Committee minutes, financial records, legal documents, and contemporaneous accounts are quoted"--Provided by publisher.Book Synopsis
Monuments honoring leaders and victorious armies have been raised throughout history. Following the American Civil War, however, this tradition expanded, and by the early twentieth century, the Confederate dead and surviving veterans, although defeated in battle, ranked among the world's most commemorated troops. This memorialization, described in North Carolina Civil War Monuments, evolved through a challenging and contentious process accomplished over decades. Prompted by the need to rebury wartime dead, memorialization, led by women, first expressed regional grief and mourning then expanded into a vital aspect of Southern memory. In North Carolina, 109 Civil War monuments--101 honoring Confederate troops and eight commemorating Union forces--were raised prior to the Civil War centennial. Photographs showcase each memorial while committee records, legal documents, and contemporaneous accounts are used to detail the difficult process through which these monuments were erected. Their design, location, and funding reflect not only the period's sculptural and cultural milieu but also reveal one state's evolving grief and the forging of public memory.
Review Quotes
"This is a well-researched and well-written book...an excellent source"-Civil War News; "degree and depth of the research is very impressive...a most useful book"-Blue & Gray Magazine; "a very thorough account of the various monuments built to honor the fallen of the war"-Salisbury Post; "presents photographs and descriptions of 109 Civil War monuments, memorials, and commemorations erected in North Carolina between 1865 and 1961"-Reference & Research Book News.
About the Author
Douglas J. Butler is an independent scholar, practicing physician, and avid photographer. He lives in Crumpler, North Carolina.