Pasquotank County Confederate Dead, Elizabeth City
This statue is located at the Pasquotank County Courthouse. Both the statue and pedestal are made of
granite. On the south side base, the year 1861 is inscribed along with a Confederate battle flag and the
year 1865. A uniformed Confederate soldier wears a knife hanging from his belt on the left side and
stands at rest with a rifle on his right. His uniform is completed with a hat, canteen, and bed roll.
Additional decoration includes a cannon ball on each side of the base. The soldier is six feet six inches
tall and the total height is thirty feet.
Images:
Far-off contemporary view of the memorial |
Front inscription |
Rear inscription
Front, south face: OUR HEROES
Rear, north face: TO OUR / CONFEDERATE DEAD / ERECTED BY / THE D.H. HILL CHAPTER / UNITED
DAUGHTERS / OF THE CONFEDERACY / ELIZABETH CITY / NORTH CAROLINA / MAY 10th 1911
Pasquotank County
May 10, 1911
36.300100 , -76.222080
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"Elizabeth City Confederate Monument," The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed July 7, 2016) Link
"Pasquotank County Confederate Monument --- Elizabeth City NC," Waymarking.com, (accessed June 9, 2014) Link
Butler, Douglas J. North Carolina Civil War Monuments: An Illustrated History (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2013), 136.
Eure, Julian. “Pasquotank’s Board to Discuss Monuments Future,” The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City), July 5, 2020, (accessed July 27, 2020) Link
Hall, Brett. “Pasquotank Confederate Monument Will Soon Head to Private Property in Nixonville,” WAVY.com, July 13, 2021 (accessed September 5, 2021) Link
Hall, Brett. “Pasquotank County Commissioners Vote to Relocate Confederate Monument in Elizabeth City,” WAVY.com, (Portsmouth, VA), July 14, 2020, (accessed July 27, 2020) Link
Hampton, Jeff. “Confederate Monument in Elizabeth City Needs to Go, but Has No Takers,” The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), January 9, 2021, (accessed June 6, 2021) Link
Neilson, Paul. “Pasquotank Seeks New Firm to Move Monument After Crane Operator Cites Threats,” The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, NC), August 17, 2021 (accessed September 5, 2021) Link
Nielsen, Paul. “Judge Puts Confederate Monument Move on Hold,” The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, NC), October 8, 2021, (accessed August 20, 2023) Link
Nielsen, Paul. “Moving Confederate Monument Appears to Be Still in Legal Limbo,” The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, NC),January 19, 2023, (accessed August 20, 2023) Link
“Alderman Grant Site for Monument,” Tar Heel (Elizabeth City, NC), April 7, 1911
“Confederate Monument at Elizabeth City,” The New Bern Sun (New Bern, NC),April 22, 1911
“Confederate Shaft Unveiled With Impressive Ceremonies,” The Raleigh Times (Raleigh, NC), May 11, 1911
“Pasquotank County Courthouse, Elizabeth City, N.C.,” in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (PO77), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Link
Yes
Georgia granite
D.H. Hill Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy.
$2,650. $1,000 raised by local subscription. $500 each from the Elizabeth City Board of Aldermen and Pasquotank County Commissioners. $650 unknown
The featured unveiling speaker was the president of Elizabeth City College, and later North Carolina State University, D.H. Hill, Jr. Hill was the son of Lieutenant-General D.H. Hill, a high-ranking member of the Confederacy. Prior to Hill’s address a presentation speech was made by Miss S.E. Martin who fifty years earlier had presented a Confederate flag to the first troops to leave the area to fight for the south. Miss Lillian Whitehurst pulled the cord to unveil the monument as the naval reserve fired a salute. The audience then rendered the song “Old Time Confederates” with “an enthusiasm that thrilled the hearts of all.” The dedication was followed by an indoor feast.
The Pasquotank County Confederate Soldier monument was dedicated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The statue was sold by the McNeel Marble Company from Marietta, Georgia, which produced many other Confederate statues and sold them all over the South, including Macon County Confederate Monument in Franklin, Confederate Soldiers Monument in Hertford, Perquimans county, Alamance County Confederate Monument in Graham, and Confederate Monument in Durham.
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.
Since 2015, the Pasquotank chapter of the National Association of Colored People twice asked county commissioners to remove the Confederate monument, calling it a symbol of both hate and white supremacy. On both occasions the board voted 4-3 to leave the monument where it was. That changed after the death of George Floyd. On July 14, 2020 again with a 4-3 vote on the controversial issue the Board of Commissioners voted to relocate the monument. A special projects committee was appointed to determine where to move the monument. Although Pasquotank County will pay for the removal, no organization has offered to take it. The United Daughters of the Confederacy who presented it to the county in 1911 will not accept it. The Museum of the Albemarle located a few blocks from the current location would not accept it and no cemetery in the area has offered space for it. Estimated cost to remove it is $28,000 but that figure may increase if the county is forced to place it in storage. County manager Sparty Hammett was quoted as saying, “It will be moved eventually.”
In early 2021 a local businessman offered to accept and display the monument and on July 12, 2021 the Pasquotank County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 to approve the request. Ownership was transferred to Warren Weidrick for display on private property in Nixonville. The move was temporarily delayed after Superior Cranes of Rockingham raised their cost to remove the monument by almost $50,000 citing threatening phone calls received after agreeing to the project. Lawsuits ensued and the courts placed a hold on its removal in October 2021. As of August 2023 the disposition of the monument had still not been determined by the courts, most likely pending a N.C. Supreme Court decision on the Zebulon Vance Monument in Asheville.
The monument is located on a plaza between the Pasquotank County Courthouse and a federal building, off of East Main Street in Elizabeth City, NC. In 1911 this was the since closed Pool Street with the monument being in the center of the street. Other memorials in the area include plaques to World War One/World War Two dead, Korea and Vietnam war and “Historic Events” on the front walls of the courthouse.
The statue is surrounded by bushes, forming a circle around the monument. The statue is on a lawn, on a paved path, and set against the backdrop of the downtown city buildings.
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