General Junius Daniel, Halifax
A bronze tablet attached to a large boulder commemorates General Junius Daniels. The tablet was cast as the front elevation of a Greek revival architectural style building. In relief on the building’s pediment are several components from the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina, to include the state motto ”Esse quam videri” meaning "To be rather than to seem". Also prominent are the figures Liberty and Plenty facing towards each other. A bas-relief eagle in flight is directly below the pediment with the inscriptions appearing below the eagle’s spread wings.
Images: Vintage postcard (early 1930s) with the memorial marker in front of the Halifax County Courthouse
JUNIUS DANIEL / 1828-1864 /WEST POINT GRADUATE IN 1851 / OFFICER IN THE U.S. ARMY UNTIL 1858 / BRIGADIER-GENERAL IN THE C.S. ARMY / MORTALLY WOUNDED IN THE BATTLE / OF SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE / BORN AND BURIED IN HALIFAX
ERECTED 1929 BY / THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION / AND / THE HALIFAX CHAPTER, U.D.C.
Halifax County
November 15, 1929
36.328810 , -77.589550
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Sixth Biennial Report of the North Carolina Historical Commission: December 1, 1914 To November 30, 1916, (Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, 1916), 41 Link
Daniel, Bobby. “Halifax County Courthouse in Halifax, North Carolina,” bobbystuff.com, (accessed July 1, 2017) Link
Folder 0684: Halifax: Courthouse, circa 1920s-1930s: Scan 05, in the North Carolina County Photographic Collection #P0001, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Link
Looper, Lesley. "North Carolina Odyssey Project," ncodysseyproject.blogspot.com, (accessed July 3, 2017) Link
Martin, Lance. "Confederate Memorial to Be Removed from County Grounds," rrspin.com, 05 October 2020, (accessed October 12, 2020) Link
Rives, Ralph Hardee. 1986. “Daniel, Junius,” NCPedia.org, (accessed July 1, 2017) Link
“Tablet Is Unveiled to Junius Daniels,” Roanoke Rapids Herald (Roanoke Rapids, NC), November 28, 1929
Yes
Bronze, stone
The North Carolina Historical Commission and the Halifax Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy
$293.23
About 300 people were present for ceremonies presided over by Mrs. Edward L. Travis, president of the Halifax Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy. The ceremonies were opened by a procession of the Weldon American Legion Post led by Gus Pappas a naturalized American Citizen from Greece. After a speech by Judge Hunt Parke the tablet was unveiled by Miss Mary Long Daniel. The ceremony ended with the Rosemary Band playing “Dixie” and then “Taps” as the American Legion members marched off the grounds.
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 October 5, 2020, Halifax County commissioners voted 4-1 to remove a memorial tablet honoring a Confederate general from the grounds of the Historic Courthouse on King Street. It will be placed at an undisclosed location until the county finds a private entity willing to take ownership of the Daniel memorial, permanently relocate it to an appropriate place and assume responsibility for its care and maintenance.
The memorial marker is located on the front lawn of the Halifax County Courthouse, N. King Street near the intersection with W. Pittsylvania St, in Halifax, NC.
The boulder stands on the front lawn, to the left from a walkway and stairs to the main entrance of the courthouse building.
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