Confederate Soldier Monument, Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville, AL

Gabriel Church, Fall 2024

The Confederate Soldier Monument was originally erected in 1905 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to commemorate the Confederate soldiers that died during the American Civil War. The monument actually goes by varying names such as: Soldiers’ Monument, Confederate Soldier Memorial, and Madison County Confederate Monument. The base underneath the statue is engraved with text praising the “noble cause” of the Confederacy. It has been damaged, rebuilt, and was relocated since its original unveiling at the Madison County courthouse.

The monument depicted a Confederate private with his musket at parade rest. The monument’s base features a Confederate battle flag and is inscribed: “In memory of the heroes who fell in defense of the principles which gave birth to the Confederate cause." The monument acknowledges "Our Confederate dead" and praises the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" Confederate General John Hunt Morgan who was born in Huntsville. The monument’s statue stands twenty-four feet tall and cost $2,500-$3,000. The statue was designed by John Frederick Hummel with Jim Mott Robinson as the model for the statue’s pose.

The monument’s unveiling ceremony saw the largest North Alabama veteran gathering since the reunion of 1891. About four hundred Confederate veterans marched through the streets, while many more had spectated. The monument was unveiled by Virginia Clay Clopton, the president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Thirteen wreaths were placed at the foot of the monument to represent each Confederate state.

Confederate monuments were one of many forms of desperate Confederate praise in order to mask the more convoluted political reality of North Alabama in 1861. Alabama succeeded in January 1861 and held the Confederacy’s first capital in Montgomery. Despite its Deep South state status, Alabama held a noteworthy unconditional Unionist population of about 15%. During the Civil War, North Alabama and Huntsville provided quite a few volunteers for both Confederate and United States armies, notably the United States’s First Alabama Cavalry. 

The text engraved on the monument’s base praises the Confederacy’s “noble cause,” which was later promoted as the pro-Confederate “Lost Cause” ideology by groups like the United Confederate Veterans and UDC. Lost Cause ideology claimed that the Civil War was not about slavery but rather states’ rights. It portrayed Confederate soldiers as brave and valorous, but overwhelmed by “Yankee hordes,” which did not last against scholarly study.

In 1966, the demolition of the old Madison County courthouse and the construction of the new courthouse damaged the statue of the monument. The memorial was moved across the street with other pre-Civil War structures that were to be demolished where it was accidentally crushed by a falling wall; the base was unharmed. The sculpture was replaced through funding of the Huntsville and Madison County and was rededicated in 1968.

In early June 2020, the Confederate Soldier Monument, along with most Confederate monuments, was protested against in the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd. The monument was vandalized and BLM groups called for its removal, so the Madison County Commission sought to move it. The monument was moved overnight between October 22nd and 23rd, 2020. It was relocated to Maple Hill Cemetery in a Confederate soldiers section. (528 words)

Bibliography

“Soldiers Monument,” UAH Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives, accessed October 8, 2024, http://libarchstor2.uah.edu/digitalcollections/items/show/4934.

Cowsert, Zachery. “Madison County Confederate Monument (1905-2020).” Clio, October 28, 2020. https://theclio.com/entry/117870. 

This article briefly describes the background and history of the Confederate Soldier Monument.

Carr, Timothy. “Confederate Monument Historical Marker.” Edited by Craig Swain. Historical Marker, November 25, 2021. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=27784.

The Historical Marker Database website lists markers for many sites and gives brief and basic information about the site as well as coordinates for the marker of its original location at the Madison County courthouse.

Kelly. “Statement on Confederate Monument Relocation.” City of Huntsville, October 23, 2020. https://www.huntsvilleal.gov/statement-on-confederate-monument-relocation/. 

This website is a news article about the relocation of the monument in 2020. The website is the city of Huntsville, Alabama’s official news website.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the UAH Honors College and UAH Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives.