Focus on Jefferson Davis Memorial (Richmond, Virginia) and explore the Description.
The east-facing monument sported a 67-foot-tall (20 m) Doric column topped by a female bronze figure called Vindicatrix, an allegorical representation of Southern womanhood. There were thirteen columns, eleven bronze seals representing the seceding states and two representing states that sent troops for the Confederacy. Two square piers at either end of the colonnade are topped with eagles and faced with plaques. The bronze statues, Vindacatrix and Jefferson Davis in the center – the latter situated atop a block of granite – were designed by Edward Virginius Valentine; the arrangement was planned by William C. Noland.: 12 The statue of Davis shows him with an outstretched arm, lecturing from a history book. The frieze carries words Jefferson Davis spoke in his farewell address to the U.S. Senate on January 21, 1861.
This is done not in hostility to others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit unshorn to our children.
The plaque on the left end of the monument reads [both plaques originally all in caps]:The Army of the Confederate States------------------------------------------------From Sumter to Appomattox four years of unflinching struggle against overwhelming odds------------------------------------------------Glory ineffable these around their dear land wrapping wrapt around themselves the purple mantle of death.Dying, they died not at all, but, from the grave and its shadow, valor invincible lifts them glorified ever on high.
The plaque on the right end of the monument reads:The Navy of the Confederate States------------------------------------------------Giving new examples of heroism teaching new methods of warfare it carried the flag of the South to the most distant seas------------------------------------------------If to die nobly be ever the proudest glory of virtue, this of all men has fortune greatly granted to them, for,yearning with deep desire to clothe their country with freedom now at the last they rest full of an ageless fame
farewell address Edward Virginius Valentine Jefferson Davis granite frieze Doric column bronze figure William C. Noland U.S. Senate seals seceding states