Confederate Veterans Monument

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The Confederate Monument on the square was dedicated on November 7, 1901. Eyewitness account of the dedication by William Moffitt J. can be found within Bromfield L. Ridley’s Battles and Sketches, Army of Tennessee. According to the account, 3,000 people gathered on the square to witness the dedication. Hundreds of Confederate veterans were present within this assemblage. The account itself is dripping with Lost Cause ideology, filled with descriptions of tears shed by those in the crowd and nostalgia for the Confederate South. Southern melodies were played, as well as an enthusiastic rendition of Dixie. Palmer Bivouac, one of the men who donated to the cause of building this monument, was quoted as saying “There have been other monuments erected on the battlefields more gorgeous in design, but none on the face of the earth was ever erected for a higher or more noble purpose.”

The monument was sponsored by the old Monumental Association, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and a local man named Palmer Bivouac.