Cumberland County Confederate Monument, Fayetteville
The monument consists of a white marble column with a cross at the top. The base of the column contains inscriptions on all four sides. It holds the distinction of being the oldest Confederate monument in North Carolina.
Stanzas from the poem “The Bivouac of the Dead" by Theodore O’Hara appear on the front.
The monument marks the mass grave of 30 Confederate soldiers killed in 1865 while defending Fayetteville from
Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
Images:
Stanzas |
Right side |
Inscription |
Builder of the monument |
On July 3, 2020, the oldest Confederate memorial in NC was removed at the owner’s request
ERECTED /
DEC. 30, 1868.
"Nor shall your glory be forgot, /
While Fame her record keeps, /
Or honor points the hallowed spot /
Where valor proudly sleeps." /
"On Fames eternal camping ground /
Their silent Tents are spread. /
Rest on embalmed & sainted dead /
Dear as the blood ye gave." /
WOMAN'S /
record /
to the /
HEROES /
in the dust /
IN /
MEMORY /
OF THE /
CONFEDERATE /
DEAD
Cross Creek Cemetery, City of Fayetteville
December 30, 1868
35.054230 , -78.873730
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"Confederate Memorial, Cross Creek Cemetery, Fayetteville, North Carolina," Waymarking.com, (accessed august 30, 2017) Link
"Confederate War Memorial," The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed August 30, 2017) Link
"Cross Creek Cemetery, Fayetteville, North Carolina," Waymarking.com, (accessed February 4, 2011) Link
War Days in Fayetteville, North Carolina: Reminiscences of 1861 to 1865, (Fayetteville NC: Judge Printing Company, 1910), (accessed May 16, 2012) Link
Butler, Douglas J. North Carolina Civil War Monuments, An Illustrated History, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013), 7-11
DeVane, Steve and John Henderson. “Confederate Monument Removed from Fayetteville Cemetery,” Fayetteville Observer July 3, 2020, (accessed July 22, 2020) Link
“Memorial Quilt,” The Fayetteville News (Fayetteville, NC), May 26, 1868
“New Advertisements, Memorial Quilt,” The Fayetteville News (Fayetteville, NC), December 10, 1867
“Spear Patchwork Quilt,” The American Civil War Museum, (accessed August 31, 2017) Link
“Theodore O’Hara’s 'Bivouac of the Dead,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, www.cem.va.gov, (accessed July 31, 2016) Link
Yes
Marble
Fayetteville Soldiers Aid Association (Ladies Memorial Association)
After the war, Mrs. Kyle and a group of Fayetteville women worked together to erect a monument to the memory of the Confederate dead. Raffling a home-made quilt and concession sales at the raffle event raised $405. Many tickets were sold for a dollar each.
The monument is also known as the Cross Creek Monument.
“The Bivouac of the Dead" by Theodore O’Hara is an elegiac poem that expresses feelings of melancholy, sorrow or
lamentation—especially for a person or persons who are dead. Although O’Hara wrote
“Bivouac” as a remembrance of the many casualties suffered in the Mexican War by the Second
Kentucky Regiment of Foot Volunteers it seemed to capture the attention of a patriotic nation
after the Civil War. It began to appear in various forms at Civil War battlefields and cemeteries
across the county, including a monument in
Lumberton, in Lenoir, and Goldsboro.
The date of dedication may have been added to the inscription later.
Raising funds to build the monument in the first years after the Civil War proved to be challenging. Led by Anne Kyle the Ladies Memorial Association decided to create and raffle an “intricately patterned quilt.” Largely sew by Maria Spear the quilt was completed in November 1867 and a notice of the raffle was placed in the Fayetteville News. The ladies hoped to sell 1000 chances at a dollar apiece but by May 1868 had only raised $300. The raffle was held in Fayetteville Hall on May 22, 1868. A total of $405 was raised from the quilt and the sale of cake and ice cream at the raffle event. Martha Lewis of Tarboro won the lottery. Lewis then gave the textile to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The quilt is now in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
Cross Creek Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Fayetteville, NC begun in 1785. Mrs. Anna K. Kyle, who served as a nurse in the hospital here during the Civil War, established the Confederate Burial Ground soon after Union General William T. Sherman and his army left Fayetteville in March 1865. She and Fayetteville Mayor Archbald McLean selected a spot in the back section of the cemetery overlooking Cross Creek to inter the soldiers. The Rev. Joseph C. Huske of St. John's Episcopal Church officiated at a mass burial here later in the spring.
Following the massacre of nine African Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015 by white supremacist Dylann Roof, Americans, especially southerners, have reflected on and argued over the historical legacy of slavery, the Civil War, the Confederacy, and white supremacy. Monuments have been a particular focus of these debates and controversies, especially after the death of a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 and after President Donald Trump expressed his opposition to the removal of Confederate memorials. Despite laws in many southern states intended to prevent or impede the removal or relocation of historical monuments, protesters and local community leaders have removed or relocated controversial monuments associated with slavery, the Confederacy, and white supremacy. The pace of the removal of controversial monuments accelerated sharply in 2020, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Against the backdrop of protests against police brutality and white supremacy across the nation, local authorities in many communities in North Carolina removed and/or relocated monuments that were the focus of civil unrest.
On July 3, 2020 this monument, the oldest Confederate memorial in NC, was removed at the owner’s request, according to Nacarla Webb, a city spokeswoman. She said the monument was privately owned but would not disclose the organization’s name. The city helped remove the monument at the private organization’s request, Webb said. The 1902 Confederate Soldier monument in Fayetteville had been removed on June 27, 2020 also at the request of its owners, the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The memorial was removed at the owner’s request on July 3, 2020 from its location in Cross Creek Cemetery near the Nine Confederate Tolar Brothers Memorial. It was taken to an undisclosed location.
Yes
Until July 3, 2020, the memorial was located in Cross Creek Cemetery near the Nine Confederate Tolar Brothers Memorial. The monument once stood on a small mound that marked a mass grave holding the remains of 30 Confederate soldiers and surrounded by tombstones. The Cross Creek Cemetery is off Cool Spring Street, about 300 feet NE of Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church. The cemetery street address is 301 N. Cool Spring Street, Fayetteville NC 28301.
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