Women of the Confederacy: a Mom-ument (Gone)
Raleigh, North Carolina
The year was 1914, and the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol already had three monuments to the Confederacy -- so why not make one more? The "Women of the Confederacy" monument joined the state's official Confederate Monument, the monument to North Carolina's Rebel governor, and the monument to the first Rebel soldier killed in the war. It was unveiled June 10, 1914.
The sculptor, Henry Augustus Lukeman, created a contemporary vision of Southern Womanhood: a grandmother reading a big book about the Civil War to her 1914 grandson. He grasps his grand-dad's sword, inspired by grandma's reading to defend the South against Yankees, Carpetbaggers, Scalawags, and anyone who might dishonor The Lost Cause.
It was the first monument in North Carolina to honor a real southern woman rather than an allegorical southern woman, although it doesn't give the woman much to do.
