UNC Trustees Told to Create New P By Stephen Davis
On December 14, t University of North Carolina System Board of Governors rejected a proposal from University trustees at Chapel Hill to move the Confederate soldier’s monument on campus to a more secluded site, inside a building on the school’s southern fringes. The Board of Governors cited cost as a chief reason in rejecti the university’s proposal to move the bronze soldier, nicknamed “Silent Sam.” The cost of moving and reinstating the statue was es
trustees were directed to come up with a new plan for Silent Sam by mid-March 2019. The issue was brought about by a protest rally at the statue, sited on McCorkle Place at the university’s entrance, last August. Protesters pulled Silent Sam down from its pedestal. University authorities then removed the bronze statue to a secure location, but left the pedes and inscription plaques in place. A week later, the University System Board of Governors called on UNC Chancellor Carol Folt to develop a long-term plan for the statuary. In public state ments, Folt made it clear that
America’s Monthly New r “Silent Sam” trustees did not want Silent Sam on campus, but a 2015 state law prohibits moving historical monuments from public places except to new sites of similar prominence and visibility. The Chapel Hill trustees’ proposal to move the statue, from a prominent walkway at the center of the university, to the south campus and new building housing relics from the university’s history, clearly did not meet that criterion. The statue that stirred the rumpus on the campus actually originated more than a century earlier. In 1907 the North Carolina Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy resolved to raise a monument at the University of North Carolina memorializing students who fought for the South in the Civil War. I was said that forty percent of th male student body volunteered for service, a record not equaled by any other Southern college. The university approve the UDC’s request in 1908. Fundraising for the monument came from UNC alums, the Daughters, and the university itself. When it was dedicated on June 2, 1913, “in memory of all University students, living and dead, who served in the Confederacy,” not only did North Carolina governor Locke Craig address the thousand or so onlookers, but so did University president Francis Venable. In his remarks the governor extolled the bravery of the young men who took up arms. “Nearly all the boy who left this institution to follow the flag of the Confederacy were killed or wounded in battle,” he declared; “the statue is monument to their chivalry and devotion.” The bronze itself presents a young, uniformed Confederate soldier, walking with musket as if into battle. The brim of his h is jauntily folded to its right; blanket roll is tied over his sho der. Below the statue on the pedestal is a metal plaque showing a frieze: a robed female warrior,
book. The message is clear: she i calling the student to war. Given the substantial support
for Silent Sam from UNC and its alums a century ago, I find peculiar the written statement release by Chancellor Folt: “We are the only university in this state that has anything closely resembling this statue….No university today would even consider placing such an artifact on their campuses….Put here more than one hundred years ago, our community is carrying the burden of an artifact given to us by a previous generation in a different time.” I view in the chancellor’s statement a strained effort to forge a presentist disconnect from what was a genuine historical connection in 1908–13 between the university, its alumni, and the Confederate monument. Silent Sam did not stand in a void. Of ninety monuments
H Silent Sam . . . . . . . . . . . . see page 2
“Unveiling of the Confederate Monu Postcard Collection (P052), North UNC-Chapel Hill. A postcard photograph of the unvei of North Carolina on June 2, 1913. unveiling, to Mrs. M.F. Patterson photo of the unveiling of our new 1861. The parade yesterday was a f dresses. We’ll take good care of t Drew.”
8 – Black Powder, White Smoke 36 – Book Reviews 38 – Critic’s Corner
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– The Graphic War – Inspection, ARMS! – Preservation News
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– The Unfinished – This And That – Through The Le