Confederate Veteran Newspaper

		Confederate Veteran
[ Up ]		Confederate Veteran January 1893. CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS. RECORD AS PROCURED IN REGARD TO THE MONUMENTS ERECTED AND UNDER WAY. New Orleans has taken the lead. The following sketch of her monuments was kindly furnished by Mr. W. Miller Owen. He did not give the cost as published, but that was procured by a committee of gentlemen who were familiar with all the enterprises. THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT in Greenwood Cemetery, built by the Ladies' Benevolent Association, is of white marble, surmounted by a figure of a Confederate infantryman "on guard." Around the pedestal are the busts of Lee, Sidney Johnston, Polk and " Stonewall." Under the mound on which it stands are vaults containing the remains of many Confederate soldiers. It was unveiled 1867. Value, $25,000. MONUMENT OF THE ARMY OF WEST VIRGINIA. A column 50 feet above the ground, or 38 feet above the, mound on which it stands. On the summit is a stone statue of Stonewall Jackson, 8 feet 9 inches high. Under the mound are vaults for the dead Jefferson Davis' remains are deposited there at present. Unveiled May, 1881. Value, $25,000. MONUMENT OF WASHINGTON ARTILLERY. Marble shaft on mound, statue of an artilleryman on top, sponge staff in hand. On the base are inscribed the names of those members of the command who were killed or died in service, also the names of sixty engagements in which the command participated. Unveiled Feb. 22, 1880. Value, $15,000. ROBERT E. LEE MONUMENT. A Doric column of granite on a grassy mound, surmounted by bronze statue of Lee 15 feet high. Entire height, 106 feet 8 inches. Column, 60 feet. Unveiled Feb. 22, 1884. It is in St. Charles Street. Value, $40,000. MONUMENT OF ARMY OF TENNESSEE. Mound containing tombs for deceased members, surmounted by equestrian statue of Albert Sidney Johnston in bronze. At the entrance to vaults is a marble life size figure of a Confederate Sergeant calling his roll. Value $35,000. Winchester, Va., has erected a $10,000 monument to the unknown Confederate dead in Stonewall Cemetery. In addition to this principal monument, different States have erected shafts. There is one for Virginia that cost $1,000. Maryland has a superb structure, capped with a statue of a private soldier, by O'Brien, that cost $2,500. The statue was made on an order that failed and the work was procured at a small percentage of its value. Culpepper, Va., has a monument that cost $1,000. ""Woodstock, Va,: Subscriptions have been made in this county for the Lee monument at Richmond, Jackson, Lexington and elsewhere. A monument is being erected near Newport News, Va., to cost between one and two thousand dollars. It is the work of the Lee Camp of Confederate veterans and their friends at Hampton Va. Shepardstown, Va.: A Confederate monument has been erected at Shepardstown at a cost of $2,500. It is a marble shaft. The ex Confederate Association of Grayson County, Texas, are preparing to erect on the public square at Shannon a $2,500 monument to the memory of Confederate soldiers. Anderson, S. C.: "Our noble women have organized a Confederate Memorial Association and are now raising funds to erect a monument in our city." Newberry, S C.': "Our ladies have erected a Confederate monument on the public square which cost $1,300. It is of marble." Natchez, Miss. " We have built a very handsome monument to our Confederate dead costing $3,000. It is a shaft with life size soldier in marble. Statue made in Italy." Confederate Veteran January 1893. JEFFERSON DAVIS was born in 1808, and lived 81 years. His birth place was in a broad, low house at Fairview, a small village in Christian now Todd County, Kentucky, He visited the place in 1886 and participated in the dedication of a pretty brick Baptist church that had been erected on the site of the old house. There was a large gathering of people from the neighborhood, while others had gone many miles through excessive rain. It was a most disagreeable day. As the venerable gentleman stood in the midst of the congregation, whose happy faces are indelibly impressed upon the mind of the writer, he used this language: "Many of you may think strangely of my participation in this service, not being a Baptist. My father was a Baptist, and a better man." In her Memoirs of Jefferson Davis his wife copied just as he furnished them to a stenographer, facts about his family and his own career, points of which are embodied in this little sketch. Three brothers came from Wales in the early part of the Eighteenth Century and settled in Philadelphia. The youngest, Evan Davis, subsequently removed to Georgia, then a colony of Great Britain. He was the grandfather of Jefferson Davis. The father, Samuel Davis, had moved from Augusta, Ga., to Southwestern Kentucky, and resided at Fairview when Jefferson, the tenth and last child, was born. Samuel Davis had entered the army of the Revolution at the age of sixteen, with two half brothers named Williams, and while a boy soldier, met the beautiful Jane Cook in South Carolina, who became his wife and the mother of Jefferson Davis. In his infancy the family moved to Louisiana, but ill health induced their return to Wilkinson County, Miss. Three of his brothers were in the War of 1812, and the fourth volunteered, but " was drafted to stay at home." The Mississippi home of Samuel Davis was rather on a divide, whereby to the west on rich land were Virginians, Kentuckians and Tennesseans, and to the cast on inferior soil were South Carolinians and Georgians. The settlements were sparse, however, for Mississippi was then of the territory ceded by Georgia to the United States, and there were but few schools. At the age of seven Jefferson Davis was sent on horseback through the "wilderness" to a Catholic school in Washington County, Kentucky. He journeyed with Maj. Hinds, who commanded the Mississippi Dragoons in the battle of New Orleans, and his family. On reaching Nashville they went to the Hermitage for a visit to Gen. Jackson. In the reminiscences Mr. Davis dwells upon that prolonged visit of several weeks and upon his "opportunity to observe a great man," and he had always remembered " with warm affection the kind and tender wife who presided over his house." Gen. Jackson then lived in " a roomy log house, with a grove of fine forest trees in its front." In that Catholic school for a time young Davis was the only Protestant boy and he was the smallest. He was very much favored and roomed with the priest. One night he was persuaded by some associates to blow out the light in the reverend father's room that they might do some mischief, which they did in a hurry. He was interrogated severely, but said he " didn't know much, and wouldn't tell that." Finally he agreed to tell a little about it on condition that he be given his liberty. That little was that he blew out the candle. After two years steamboats had been put on the river, and by a steamer the lad returned home from Louisville. Jefferson Davis was sent again to Kentucky, and placed at the Transylvania University, near Lexington. Afterward he was one of six United States Senators who were fellow students at that University. At the early age of fifteen he was given a cadetship at West Point. Here is a literal extract from his dictation: " When I entered the United States Military Academy, that truly great and good man, Albert Sidney Johnston, had preceded me from Transylvania, Ky., an incident which formed a link between us, and inaugurated a friendship which grew as years rolled by, strengthened by after associations in the army, and which remains to me yet, a memory of one of the greatest and best characters I have ever known. His particular friend was Leonidas Polk." Mr. Davis then gives an account of Polk's religious convictions,, and of his joining the church. It is known that he afterward was a Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Polk was a Lieutenant General in the Western Army with Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, whom he confirmed into church membership only a few weeks before he was killed by a cannon shot from the enemy. The dictation ended too early. In referring to it, he said to his wife, " I have not told what I wish to say of Sidney Johnston and Polk. I have much more to say of them." The history starts on from the dictation in a manner worthy the distinguished wife. Our people generally know quite well how meanly the publishers treated the author in regard to the royalty on her book, and that she succeeded in stopping its sale when they owed her a little more than $4,000. When legal technicalities are removed, and she can procure what is due her on sales, there will no doubt be many orders given for the work, both be cause of its merits and the wish to show an appreciation of her noble service in its presentation.