Fame Confederate Monument, Salisbury
A bronze statue of the muse Fame supports a defeated and dying soldier who clutches his gun; Fame, a winged figure dressed in robes and wearing a laurel wreath atop her head, holds a second wreath high into the air as if to place it on the soldier. The statue stands on a pink granite pedestal. From the bottom of the pedestal to the top of the bronze grouping, the monument measures almost 23 feet.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) chapter decided on the statue in 1901. The completed statue arrived in Salisbury in 1905, but the land that the monument sits on wasn’t deeded to the UDC until 1908 by the Salisbury Board of Aldermen and Mayor.
The monument was relocated in 2021 from its downtown location to the Old Lutheran Cemetery. In the new location security cameras, lights and an 8-foot wrought iron fence were installed. Brick pavers were placed around the monument base.
In downtown Salisbury, before its removal in 2020 (images by Natasha Smith):
Contemporary view |
View from the intersection of West Innes and Church Streets |
Rear view |
Front inscription |
Left inscription |
Right inscription |
The muse and the soldier |
With St. John's Lutheran Church in the background |
The removal of Fame Confederate Monument on July 6, 2020 (courtesy of City of Salisbury) |
Work crews lift
the pedestal and the statue (courtesy of Josh Bergeron/Salisbury Post)
At the new location at the Old Lutheran Cemetery (images by Rusty Long):
Front view
|
Closer view
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View from the right
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Side view
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Far-off view of the cemetery and the Fame Confederate Monument
Southeast (front) base:
IN MEMORY OF /
ROWAN'S /
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS /
THAT THEIR HEROIC DEEDS /
SUBLIME SELF-SACRIFICE /
AND UNDYING DEVOTION /
TO DUTY AND COUNTRY /
MAY NEVER BE FORGOTTEN /
1861-1865
Northeast (right) base:
THEY GAVE THEIR /
LIVES AND THEIR FORTUNES FOR /
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY /
AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY /
IN OBEDIENCE TO THE TEACHINGS OF THE /
FATHERS WHO FRAMED /
THE CONSTITUTION /
AND ESTABLISHED THE /
UNION OF THESE STATES
Southwest (left) base:
SOLDIERS OF THE /
CONFEDERACY /
FAME HAS GIVEN YOU /
AN IMPERISHABLE CROWN /
HISTORY WILL RECORD /
YOUR DARING VALOR /
NOBLE SUFFERINGS AND /
MATCHLESS ACHIEVEMENTS /
TO THE HONOR AND /
GLORY OF OUR LAND
Northwest (back) base:
DEO VINDICE / R.I.P.
Robert F. Hoke Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
May 10, 1909
35.670170 , -80.462930
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"Innes Street, Salisbury, NC" Rowan County, North Carolina Postcard Collection (P052), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill Link
Anderson, Natalie. “A Year After Removal, ‘Fame’ Confederate Monument Relocated to New Home,” Salisbury Post, (Salisbury, NC), July 23,2021, (accessed September 26, 2021) Link
Anderson, Natalie. “UDC Signs Agreement From City to Relocate ‘Fame’ Confederate Statue,” Salisbury Post (Salisbury, NC), June 22, 2020, (accessed July 24, 2020) Link
Butler, Douglas J. North Carolina Civil War Monuments, An Illustrated History, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013), 107, 163
North Carolina Historical Commission. Eleventh Biennial Report of the North Carolina Historical Commission. December 1, 1924 to November 30, 1926, (Raleigh : Edwards & Broughton, 1927), 39-40, (accessed October 26, 2014) Link
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Fifth Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division, Held in Charlotte, N.C., October 9, 10, 11, 1901, (Raleigh, NC: Capital Printing Company, 1902), 101, (accessed May 23, 2012) Link
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Fourteenth Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division, Held at Rocky Mount N.C., October 12th, 13th, 14th 1910, [Raleigh, NC: Capital Printing Co., 1910], 85, (accessed September 3, 2012) Link
United Daughters of the Confederacy, North Carolina Division. Minutes of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy North Carolina Division, Held at New Bern, N.C., October 13, 14, 15, 1920 (Charlotte, N.C.: Queen City Printing Company, 1920), 158, 160, (accessed September 10, 2012) Link
Whisenant, David. “After 111 Years, Salisbury Confederate Monument ‘Fame' Moved,” WBTV.com, (Charlotte, NC), July 6, 2020, (accessed July 27, 2020) Link
Whisenant, David. “Tentative Deal Reached to Move Salisbury Confederate Monument ‘Fame,’ Requires City Council Approval,” WBTV.com, (Charlotte, NC), June 12, 2020, (accessed July 24, 2020) Link
“List of Removed Baltimore Confederate Monument,” The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), August 18, 2017, (accessed August 28, 2017) Link
“Monument Unveiled,” Salisbury Evening Post (Salisbury, NC), May 10, 1909, 1,4-5
“The Salisbury Monument and the Witness Which It Bore to the Merits of the Lost Cause – Mrs. Tiernan’s Poem and General Young’s Speech,” The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), May 31, 1909
Yes
Bronze statue, pink granite base
Robert F. Hoke Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
$11,500 total ($10,000 for the bronze grouping, $1,500 for the granite base)
With 4,000 in attendance, the 160 Confederate veterans were given a place of honor with seats in front of the rostrum. Among the distinguished guest was Mrs. Stonewall Jackson. When recognized, the veterans began to call for her to rise. She was greeted with applause as she rose and bowed; as many of the old veterans were seen to wipe tears from their eyes.
Frances C. Fisher Tiernan, a Salisbury native, writer and novelist, and daughter of Col. Charles Fisher, performed the unveiling and later in the ceremony read a poem, “Gloria Victus,” she had composed for the event. Tiernan who used the male pen name Christian Reid also wrote the inscription that appears on the monument's right side. Mayor A.H. Boyden was orator for the day with speeches also given by Judge John S. Henderson and General Bennet H. Young of Kentucky. Young, invoking divine intervention, said the South was “defeated, not because they were wrong or unfaithful in any aspect whatever, but because an overruling Providence decreed their downfall...” He further stated, “Of one thing my friends, we of the South are absolute sure... that... no misrepresentation of facts, no perversion of truth, no falsely written history tortured to meet partisan bias and prejudice, can deprive us before the bar of public justice... for the superb and magnificent contest they waged for a great principal. The sword does not always decide the right. We failed and yet we know we stood for truth.” Sentiments still heard from those associated with far right nationalist and secessionist groups into the 21st century.
The dying soldier in the bronze grouping was modeled from an 1861 photograph of Confederate Lt. Henry Howe Cook of Franklin, Tennessee.
The Fame monument was one of the most expensive and artistically accomplished Civil War memorials in North Carolina. The statue by Fredrick W. Ruckstahl is nearly identical to his 1905 “Glory” erected in Baltimore, Maryland to that state’s Confederate soldiers and sailors. The only notable difference being the Fame sculpture has a rifle or musket in place of a furled Confederate battle flag as on “Glory.”
Fame was restored in 1991 by the Hoke Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). The repairs cost $14,000 and were completed by Karkadoulias Bronze Art Co. in Cincinnati.
The city of Salisbury estimated it cost $89,000 to remove, store and relocate the statue. An additional $65,000 was privately raised to cover the costs of maintenance and site amenities including security features at its new location in the Old Lutheran Cemetery.
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.
The week after violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia resulting in the death of Heather Heyer, the Baltimore City Council voted to have “Glory” and three other Civil War related monuments on public property removed. Without public notice work crews removed all four memorials during the night of August 15, 2017. They were taken to a city owned lot for storage. The Salisbury Fame Confederate Monument remained on its original location, but it has been suggested in the past that the monument be moved, as more than one car has run into the granite base.
In 2020, the “Fame” Confederate Memorial became a victim of vandalism and civil unrest including a man being arrested after confronting protestors and firing two shots. After discussions between the City of Salisbury and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, it was announced on June 12 that a tentative agreement had been reached between the two parties for the statue to be relocated. On June 16, 2020 the Salisbury City Council passed two resolutions by unanimous votes. The first resolution declared the statue a public hazard giving the city the power to remove the statue. The second resolution gave the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue’s legal owner, 10 days to sign an agreement allowing for its removal and eventual relocation to historic Old Lutheran Cemetery near Salisbury. The signed agreement was picked up by Mayor Karen Alexander on June 21. On July 6, 2020 work crews removed the statue from the intersection at West Innes and Church streets and placed it in storage until the site could be prepared at the cemetery. It was also announced that $55,000 had been raised by the UDC and local historic groups to add amenities at the new location. The Historic Salisbury Foundation agreed to serve as fiduciary agent for the funds. “This is a step toward the healing for the citizens of Salisbury,” Salisbury-Rowan NAACP President Gemale Black said. “It’s a symbol of times we don’t want to go back to, a time we don’t want to relive.”
In 2021, the Fame Confederate Monument was moved to the Old Lutheran Cemetery located at 515 N. Lee Street where 175 tombstones for Confederate soldiers had been installed in 1996. The statue stands in the left rear corner of the Old Lutheran Cemetery located at 515 N. Lee Street, Salisbury, NC.
The well maintained cemetery covers 2.75 acres of open lawn with scattered trees surrounded by a low brick wall. The statue overlooks six rows of Confederate soldier tombstones. Train tracks run along the rear of the cemetery.
Until its removal on July 6, 2020 the memorial had been located in the intersection at West Innes and Church streets facing southeast. Seasonal flowers and greenery were planted around the monument. Access was limited due to traffic and the statue’s base had been damaged more than once by vehicles. GPS coordinates: 35.668410 , -80.471090.
The monument is occasionally used by the Hoke chapter of the UDC to commemorate specific Confederate soldiers by placing wreaths at the monument. The UDC also celebrated the monument’s centennial on May 9, 2009.
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