Pitts County Confederate Monument

For this backstory, we will be diving into the history of the Pitt County Confederate Soldiers Monument previously located in Pitts County, North Carolina. The monument has been removed since last year from the outcry of protestors for the Black Lives Matter Movement and locals from the area. Why was this monument made? Who sponsors/responsible for the erection of this monument? What did the monument stand for? When was the monument dedicated and the details during that time?

To give some detail about what the monument looks like there is a Confederate soldier in uniform on top of a tall column outside of the Pitt County Courthouse. He has his arms crossed as they rest atop the muzzle of his rifle with the butt of the rifle on the ground. The inscription on the statue states “Our Confederate Dead” “To the Heroes of 1861-1865” “Erected by The People of Pitt County in Grateful/ Remembrance of The Courage and Fortitude of Her Confederate/ Soldier” “Dedicated 1914”.  This monument was made in dedication to the Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War (1861-1865). 

      The people/Organization who is responsible for the erection of this monument is The Citizens of Pitt County and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. If you don’t know about the United Daughters of The Confederacy, they are the oldest patriotic organization in the U.S... The objects of the organization are Historical, Educational, Benevolent, Memorial, and Patriotic. They were made to collect and preserve the material necessary for a truthful history of the War between the States and to protect, preserve, and mark the places made historic by Confederate valor. To try and clear up some confusion about the group on their website from preconceived notions they do not hold the same values as their previous members from when they were first made. When you load into their website there is a statement from President General Mrs. Linda Edwards to sum it up “We understand and appreciate the feelings of citizens across the country that are currently being expressed about the Confederate memorial statues and monuments that were erected by members of the past.” “To sum the memorials are divisive but to others simply represent a memorial to our forefathers who fought bravely during four years of war.” During this statement, she says, “They are grieved that certain hate groups have taken the Confederate flag and other symbols as their own and denounce racial divisiveness and white supremacy.” 

         The monument was dedicated on November 13, 1914, by the W.H. Mullins Company, Foundry. An address was given during the dedication ceremony by Governor Locke Craig. To quote a sentence out of Craig’s speech he says, “Out of this ruin and this havoc has been born the New South, greater and grander than ever.” They even through parades for the ceremony with the local high school band. During this time there was a lot of racism and segregation so there weren’t a lot of outcries to remove statues like the one at Pitt County until about 2006 where the demand to remove them was starting to begin. Then in 2020 during the protest of the killing of George Floyd and others there were pleas and protest to take down Confederate statues. In a statement made by the citizens of Pitt County on a Change.org Petition to remove the website it says, "we the residents of Pitt County, submit that the time has come for the removal of the Confederate statue at the courthouse."It is time to take immediate action to remove this monument to slavery, sedition, and racial oppression." On June 15, 2020, the commissioners voted 7-2 to remove the statue.

         In this backstory, we talked about why was this monument made? Who sponsors/responsible for the erection of this monument? What did the monument stand for? When was the monument dedicated and the details during that time? What we have to remember is that even though what they were fighting for was a lost cause they were still human beings and family members of people in the South. That is why some of these people still care about these monuments like the one in Pitts County. 

Citations: (NCPEDIA, 2014)  

                      (WNCT, 2021)

                      (docsouth, n.d.)

                      (Leigon, 2017)

                      (John A. Tucker, 2018)

                      (United Daughters of The Confederacy, n.d.)

Rixon, Kris. Remove Confederate Monument at Pitt County Courthouse, Chang.org. Accessed May 17th, 2021. https://www.change.org/p/pitt-county-commissioners-remove-confederate-monument-at-pitt-county-courthouse.