Confederate Cemetery Memorial

Located within the Confederate graveyard, this memorial was erected in 1900 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the United Confederate Veterans associations to honor the memory of Confederate soldiers who served during the Civil War.

Erected on June 6, 1900 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in conjunction with the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) Camp Garnett Chapter, this monument was originally topped with the bronze statue of a Confederate soldier. It was placed within the Confederate graveyard in Spring Hill Cemetery. The UCV had both purchased these lots, and paid to have the remains of Confederate veterans removed from various locations across the country to be reinterred at this location. Throughout America, and especially in the southern states, chapters of these two groups often worked together to raise funds to erect memorials or support the families of Confederate veterans. 

On July 9, 1965, the monument was damaged when a tree limb, struck by lightning in a storm, fell upon the memorial and toppled the statue from its base. The UCV and UDC were unable to raise the necessary funds to replace the statue, and so the memorial was eventually topped with a small pyramid-like structure, as seen today.

In 2000, on the 100-year anniversary of the monument’s erection, it was rededicated by the UDC. Although they had originally wanted to commission a replacement statue for the memorial, the cost of this was prohibitive, and the UDC elected to instead erect a historical marker outside the cemetery informing visitors of its significance as the resting place of two Civil War generals, as well as the location of 200 veteran’s graves. The number of Civil War graves in Spring Hill Cemetery is now over 300.

The historical marker refers to the “War Between the States” rather than the “War of the Rebellion.” The UDC promoted the “War Between the States” terminology as a way to vindicate the South and the men who fought and died for it. To call them “Rebels” would infer that they had been in the wrong, and had acted unlawfully against the United States. The Official Records of the Civil War, however, use the term “War of the Rebellion.”

Confederate memorials were erected for a variety of reasons, beginning directly after the end of the Civil War and continuing through the 1900’s. The earliest monuments were dedicated to those who had fought and died during the war, and were often placed in cemeteries and on battlefields. After the 1896 Supreme Court Ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed for “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans, the placement of Confederate monuments was often moved to a more public location, such as parks and courthouse grounds. This was a way to both promote the desired Southern narrative of the Civil War, which holds that the war was not fought over slavery, but states’ rights, as well as to remind African Americans of their place within society by showing them the types of people who were admired, such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee; two of the most popular choices for statues. While this monument was erected after the Supreme Court ruling, its placement within a Confederate graveyard marks it as a veteran’s memorial, rather than an attempt to push a certain ideology.

The UDC, founded on September 10, 1894, played a large role in the way that Confederate soldiers were portrayed after the Civil War. They also controlled how the South was remembered in both society and in the United States educational system through the erection of Confederate memorials and the promotion of pro-southern textbooks in schools. They helped to spread the idea of the “Lost Cause,” which held that the Confederacy fought the Civil War in order to defend states’ rights, and organized observances of Confederate Memorial Day. 

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UCV Camp #902, Camp Garnet. Minute Book 1: 1890-1903. Special Collections, Morrow Library, Marshall University, Huntington, WV.