Confederate Soldiers Monument (Austin, Texas)

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Confederate Soldiers Monument
Confederate Dead Monument - Texas State Capitol grounds - Austin, Texas - DSC08299.jpg
The monument in 2015
Artist
Year1903 (1903)
MediumSculpture
LocationAustin, Texas, United States
Coordinates30°16′23″N 97°44′27″W / 30.273111°N 97.740792°W / 30.273111; -97.740792Coordinates: 30°16′23″N 97°44′27″W / 30.273111°N 97.740792°W / 30.273111; -97.740792
OwnerTexas State Preservation Board

The Confederate Soldiers Monument, also known as the Confederate Dead Monument, is a Confederate memorial installed outside the Texas State Capitol, in Austin, Texas.[1][2] The monument was erected in 1903, as part of an effort to "romanticize the motivations that drew Texas into the [U.S.] Civil War."[2] Its sculpture was designed by Pompeo Coppini, and its base was designed by Frank Teich.[3] The sculpture was cast by Roman Bronze Works (New York City).

The monument consists of four bronze figures on the base that represent the Confederate Military: Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Navy.[4] At the top of the monument standing far above the other figures is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States.[4]

Inscription[]

CONFEDERATE DEAD

DIED

FOR STATES RIGHTS

GUARANTEED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION

THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH, ANIMATED BY THE SPIRIT OF 1776, TO PRESERVE THEIR RIGHTS,

WITHDREW FROM THE FEDERAL COMPACT IN 1861. THE NORTH RESORTED TO COERCION.

THE SOUTH, AGAINST OVERWHELMING NUMBERS AND RESOURCES,

FOUGHT UNTIL EXHAUSTED,

DURING THE WAR THERE WERE TWENTY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN ENGAGEMENTS;

IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO OF THESE, AT LEAST ONE REGIMENT TOOK PART.

NUMBER OF MEN ENLISTED:

CONFEDERATE ARMIES 600,000; FEDERAL ARMIES 2,859,132

LOSSES FROM ALL CAUSES

CONFEDERATE, 437,000; FEDERAL, 485,216

Historical Inaccuracies[]

Jefferson Davis who stands at the top of the monument, was not a Texan and did not die during the Civil War, which ended in 1865.[5] Davis died in 1889 from bronchitis.[5]

The listed size of the Confederate (600,000) and Union (2,859,132) forces is incorrect and greatly exaggerates the advantage held by the Union Military.[6]

The Texas Declaration Of Causes (1861) does not use the phrase “states rights”, but repeatedly cites opposition to the United States' desire to end the enslavement of Black Americans or grant them legal rights.[7] The only explicit reference to the U.S. Constitution is to the Fugitive Slave Clause.[7]

A declaration of the causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union (February 2, 1861)[7]

"[Texas] was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery--the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits--a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time."

"...based upon the unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of the equality of all men, irrespective of race or color--a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of the Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and the negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States."

“They have for years past encouraged and sustained lawless organizations to steal our slaves and prevent their recapture...”

"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable."

"...in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states."

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "A Guide to Confederate Monuments in Austin". The Austin Chronicle. Austin Chronicle Corp. August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "The Hidden Confederate History of the Texas Capitol". Texasobserver.com. 17 February 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  3. ^ Board, Texas State Preservation. "SPB - Confederate Soldiers Monument". Tspb.texas.gov. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  4. ^ a b "Confederate Soldiers Monument". tspb.texas.gov. Texas State Preservation Board. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Jefferson Davis". Encyclopedia Britannica. Davis died in 1889 in New Orleans of a complicated bronchial ailment.
  6. ^ "Facts - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. National Park Service. In July 1861, the two armies were nearly equal in strength with less than 200,000 soldiers on each side; however at the peak of troop strength in 1863, Union soldiers outnumbered Confederate soldiers by a ratio of 2 to 1. The size of Union forces in January 1863 totaled over 600,000. Two years later, that number had not changed dramatically for the Union Army but had dropped to about 200,000 for the Confederate Army.
  7. ^ a b c "Avalon Project - Confederate States of America - A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union". avalon.law.yale.edu. Yale Law School - Lillian Goldman Law Library. The States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa, by solemn legislative enactments, have deliberately, directly or indirectly violated the 3rd clause of the 2nd section of the 4th article [the fugitive slave clause] of the federal constitution

External links[]

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