Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument

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The Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument is a 52-foot obelisk monument composed of sandstone, located at the southern entrance of Linn Park, at the foot to 20th Street North.

The $5,000 memorial was commissioned by the Pelham Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, led by Jennie Rountree. Its cornerstone was laid during the United Confederate Veterans Reunion on April 26 (Confederate Decoration Day), 1894. Birmingham News publisher Rufus Rhodes introduced featured speaker and UCV Commander-in-Chief Stephen D. Lee at the ceremony.

The completed monument was formally dedicated on April 26, 1905.

The possibility of moving the monument was first raised by the Olmsted Brothers in their 1925 report and recommendations for "A Park System for Birmingham".

In 2015, in the wake of a mass shooting at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, activist Frank Matthews called for the monument to be removed on the grounds that its depiction of deadly weapons alongside quotes from Jefferson Davis were offensive, and that its sentiment has nothing to do with Birmingham. The Birmingham Park and Recreation Board voted on July 1 to pursue relocating the monument by consulting with attorneys and with the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Inscription

Monument in 2010
(south face)

To the

Confederate soldier & sailor.
Erected by
Pelham Chapter No. 67
Daughters of the Confederacy
Birmingham, Ala.

April 26, 1905

(north face)

"The manner of their

death was the crowning
glory of their lives."

Jefferson Davis.

(west face)

A relief sculpture of an anchor to represent the Confederate Navy

(east face)

A relief sculpture of crossed sabers and a musket to represent the Confederate Cavalry and Infantry

References

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