How does Athens Confederate Monument elucidate its History?
The monument was one of the first monuments to the casualties of the American Civil War to be raised in the South after the war's conclusion. Construction of the monument began on May 5, 1871, and was completed on June 3, 1872, at the cost of $4,444.44 (about $111,363 in 2023) raised by the Ladies' Memorial Association from the residents of the city, though another professor at the university, Akela Reason, proposed that it was actually funded by the city's wealthy men because "it would have been easier for women to build a memorial mourning the dead than for men to build one in defiance." It has been moved three times since it was first erected at the intersection of College Avenue and Washington Street. It was first moved north one block to the center of College Avenue, but was relocated again in 1912 when it caused congestion there. It then stood in the median of Broad Street until August 10, 2020.
American Civil War Broad Street Ladies' Memorial Association