Documenting the American South

Monument Name

Nine Confederate Brothers [Tolar Memorial], Fayetteville

Type

Column

Subjects

Personal Monuments

Civil War, 1861-1865

Creator

E.L. Remsburg, Designer

Fayetteville Marble and Granite Works, Fayetteville, N.C., Builder

City

Fayetteville

County

Cumberland

Description

This monument was dedicated to nine brothers of the Tolar family from Cumberland County who died as Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. The column is made of stone and tapers upward to a pyramidal cap. It sits on a three tier base. The front is inscribed with a dedication to the brothers, and the sides are inscribed with their names, regiments, and battles where they died.

Images: Right side | Left side | Back side

Inscription

Front, on column: IN MEMORY OF / NINE TOLAR / BROTHERS / SONS OF / ROBERT & FRANCES / TOLAR / ALL BORN IN CUMBERLAND CO., NC / ALL VOLUNTEERED IN 1861. / THEY GAVE THEIR BEST SERVICE TO THIER / COUNTRY AS CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS. Front, on upper base: ERECTD FOR FATHER AND EIGHT UNCLES BY JOHN R. TOLAR, / WHO FROM AGE 15, SERVED / UNENLISTED IN ARMY OF TENN., C.S.A., LAST YEAR / OF THE WAR. Front, on middle base: TOLAR Right, on column: WILLIAM J. / CAPT. CO. B. 10, S.C.V. / SERIOUSLY WOUNDED, LEADING / A CHARGE, BATTLE OF ATLANTA, GA / JULY 22, 1864 / JOHN H. / 1ST LIEUT. CO.H. / ORR’S RIFLE REGT. S.C.V./ KILLED BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS / MAY 5, 1864 / ROBERT M. / PRIVATE MUNN’S ARTILLERY 36 / N.C.V. CAPTURED AT SURRENDER / OF FORT FISHER, N.C. Rear, on column: MATTHEW A. / SERGT. / CUMMING’S BATTERY N.C.V. / THOMAS B. / SERGT. CO. B. 10, S.C.V. / WOUNDED BATTLE OF / MURFEESBORO, TENN. / DEC. 31, 1862 / DIED IN HOSPITAL UNION POINT, GA. / AUG. 5, 1863 / SAMPSOM B. / PRIVATE CO. K. 18, N.C.V. / WOUNDED HANOVER, VA. / MAY 22, 1862 / DISABLED FOR LATER SERVICE. Left, on column: ALFRED A. / CAPT. CO. K. 18, N.C.V. / WOUNDED THREE TIMES, LAST AT / GETTYSBURG JULY 2, 1863, WHERE / DISABLED FOR LATER ACTIVE SEREVICE / HAYNES L. / PRIVATE CO. K. 18, N.C.V. / KILLED ACCIDENTIALLY DURING SEVEN / DAYS BATTLES AROUND RICHMOND / JUNE 1861 / JOSEPH M. / BUGLER / CUMMING’S BATTERY N.C.V.

Custodian

Cross Creek Cemetery, City of Fayetteville

Dedication Date

February 1913

Decade

1910s

Geographic Coordinates

35.054500 , -78.872780

Supporting Sources

"Cross Creek Cemetery, Fayetteville, North Carolina," Waymarking.com, (accessed February 4, 2011)

Confederate Veteran, 21 (1913), p. 225.

Reese, Pat. "From the Fayetteville Observer Archives: Tragic Story Illustrates Tumult after Civil War," The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, NC), www.fayobserver.com, July 20, 2018, (accessed June 23, 2021)

Smith, Blanche Lucas. North Carolina's Confederate Monuments and Memorials, (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1941)

Tolar, William J.., Haywood, Edward Graham., McRae, Duncan G.., Young, Charles P.., Flowers, Charles. Proceedings in the Case of the United States Against Duncan G. McRae, William J. Tolar, David Watkins, Samuel Phillips and Thomas Powers, for the Murder of Archibald Beebee at Fayetteville, North Carolina, on the 11th Day of February, 1867, Together with the Argument of Ed. Graham Haywood, Special Judge Advocate. United States: Published for R. Avery, 1867, (accessed June 23, 2021)

“Nine Brothers Honored by Single Monument,” News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 26, 1913

“To Nine Heroes,” Fayetteville Weekly Observer (Fayetteville, NC), March 5, 1913

Public Site

Yes

Materials & Techniques

White Vermont marble

Sponsors

John R. Tolar

Nickname

Tolar Brothers Monument

Subject Notes

John Tolar dedicated the monument in 1913 in honor of his father, Captain William J. Tolar and his brothers, all who joined up with the Confederate army in 1861 and subsequently died in battle. John Tolar was the President of Tolar-Hart Cotton Mills in Fayetteville and at one time a businessman in New York City, as reported by Blanche Smith.

Tolar's father gained notoriety on Feb. 11, 1867 when he shot and killed Archie Beebe, an African American suspect who was being led from the Fayetteville Market House. Although Tolar's act was witnessed by a large crowd, no one would testify against him and no charges were laid against him. Thereafter U. S. troops, stationed in N. C. during Reconstruction, conducted an investigation and then brought charges against Tolar and other participants in Beebe's murder. Tolar and two others were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Two-thirds of the trial commission, however, voted to reduce the sentence to 15 years at hard labor. A year later President Andrew Johnson granted all three men full pardons and they were released." In subsequent years Capt. Tolar would employ convict laborers to work his extensive landholdings near Tolarsville, NC.

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.

Location

The memorial is located in Cross Creek Cemetery near the place where the Cumberland County Confederate Monument used to stay. The removed monument is believed to be the first Confederate monument erected in North Carolina. The Cross Creek Cemetery is off Cool Spring Street, about 300 feet NE of Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church. It is at 301 N. Cool Spring Street, Fayetteville NC 28301.

Landscape

The memorial column stands surrounded by graveyards.