Ok. Gentlemen, our first speaker today is dr. Timothy s sydnor. He is professor of english at the City University of new york, Bronx Community college. He holds a doctorate in english education, a masters in religious studies, and masters of divinity in theological studies. Person,e have a museum a lawyer, and a theologian. [laughter] discussiono our today the perspective of a scholar who pays close attention to the power of words. All the monuments on our collective commemorative landscape have back stories, stories of individuals or groups , who decided to erect them where or how they are, and to read the words on them that we see today. His 2011 book, an illustrated guide to virginias Confederate Monuments, is the First Complete catalog of virginias monuments, but it is much more than just a catalog. It is a study through those monuments of ideology and meaning and provides a window of what the people who erected them were thinking at the time and wanted to say. Sydor has finished a similar study of tennessee monuments and is working on another one about mrs. It be. Mississippi. His wife tells me she has seen more monuments in more states than anyone else in the union. [laughter] i think the two of them together have seen more monuments in any of those states than any of the resident in the state. The program today will draw from his work on all three states and is entitled words, breast, text, and landscape, virginias civil war, monuments in the context of mississippi and tennessee. Good morning. I am very here pleased to be here to stay to you about Civil War Monuments on the american landscape, specifically in context with tennessee and mississippi. My work in this area has taken me to Civil War Monument from the Atlantic Coast to the mississippi river, from nor folk, virginia nor folk, virginia, to memphis, tennessee. East to west. From the Potomac River to the north, eleanor. Self. Gulf coast and the we have moved county to county to county to battlefield to cemetery to poor houses to wayside, to city parks and to state capitals. I wanted a text. I wanted to collect a text. The collectived monument landscape of virginia, tennessee, and mississippi, all of it together. So over the course of several years, i researched and identified some 400 monuments, union and Confederate Monument in virginia. Some 400 union and Confederate Monuments in tennessee, and most monuments,ome 800 union and confederate in mississippi. Twove at least preoccupations when we drove down the appellation valley into tennessee. Appalachian valley into tennessee. I assumed these states would yield similar results, that the collective text would be essentially the same from one day to another. This is something that was not borne out. The monuments in the states as striking regional distinctions. Preconception that each monument is different is true. The idea of the standard Confederate Monument is a myth. There are no types. They may look the same but they are not. They are all interesting. They can be variously cryptic, descriptive, vexing, mysterious, banal, and provocative. They can be funereal or sentimental or defiant or restrained or if uses. They can be thin ocular and acular and obscure , as well as prominent and majestic. It becomes a matter of breaking a code. They are telling us something and we are missing it. It comes down to this what is the message . What are they trying to tell us . The process reminds me of the servicemen and women who worked to break the secret codes of opposing nations in world war ii, the men and women who broke the enigma code. Five digit numeral groups like and this was, their secret according to thomas dyer, u. S. Navy. He wrote that what you do is you sit there and you stare at it until you see what it says and then you put it down. Untilok, you look at it you see something that attracts your attention, your curiosity. Maybe you did not see anything at all. You go onto Something Else and the next day you come back and look at it again and again. I am not breaking codes of other nations, but i am and we are looking at a vast, fragmented, complex text. Words, breath, image, and landscape. For example, monument avenues symbolic importance is of course singular. Absolutely distinctive. Lee,es of general Robert E Thomas j stonewall jackson, je b stewart provided over the landscape, grand equestrian form. Richmond still looks like a national capital. On monument avenue, beyond monument avenue virginia monuments frequently defined the war in nonnationalistic terms of virginias who fought for virginia virginians who fought for virginia, not for the confederacy. The Lancaster County and Northumberland County courthouse monuments east of richmond, do not mention the confederacy. Even the war is not mentioned. The focus is on quotes. For who gave their lives the cause of their native state and the south. Addition, we use the term Confederate Monument were confederate soldier, but many monument inscriptions deliberately avoid the use of the word confederate. Many do but many do not. At Stonewall Cemetery in winchester, the virginia obelisks remembers 398 virginia soldiers who fell in defense of the constitutional liberty and the sovereignty of their state. ,hey fought for virginia virginians fighting for virginia. Furthermore, we speak of the lost cause but the monument makers do not. I found only two mentions of that phrase among the 400 monuments i studied in virginia. I found none at all among the 400 in tennessee and only one in mississippi. Did they lose . Surprisingly depends. Arguably, of all things is irrelevant. Arguably, the outcome is not the issue. Even the cause is not the issue. The greensville courthouse monuments in emporia, virginia declares that greensville countys soldiers fought in defense of rights they believe sacred. They took up arms against the invaders of virginia i love that phrase, because i am one of them the invaders of virginia. The glory dies not in the grief is passed. Finally, we speak of the American Civil War but the monument makers do not. We use the term American Civil War to describe the events of 1861 to 1865, at the monument makers defined the conflict as the war between the states. The phrase civil war israel used on virginia monuments is rarely used on virginia monuments. It occurs three times among the 400 i found, very few in tennessee and mississippi. The official term is the war of the rebellion. As you might imagine, this never occurs on a Confederate Monument. Second the conflict a war of independence is a declaration in itself. Calling the conflict war between the states is a kind of four word sermon, if you will. The stanton river battlefield tablet erected in 1955 describes a conflict between citizen soldiers, virginia infantry and virginia citizens taking up arms and defeating soldiers, citizens from pennsylvania and new york. No confederacy, no federal, it is state versus state. The cause is not mentioned. The war is not mentioned. The outcome of the war is not mentioned. In contrast, tennessee was a kind of border state. The war is understood in contrasting ways. We might expect to find many Confederate Monument in tennessee. And of course, we do. Ashville, dresden a closeup of the dresden monument. Alexander p stewart at chattanooga. There are many Confederate Monuments, most of them to be found in tennessee towns and cities. However, on two of the major battlefield, shiloh and chattanooga, the Union Soldier dominates and a number of Union Monuments vastly outnumbers the number of Confederate Monuments. On the shiloh battlefield this is chattanooga, let me show you shiloh there are more boundaryregimental gun monuments to union forces. At chattanooga, union battlefield monuments lying Missionary Ridge and are scattered across the slopes and crests of lookout mountain. Look at that come up on that hill in the woods. The Cravens House on the terraces. All the monument tatian at stones river is devoted to the service of Union Soldiers. In fact, you there are more union money meant in tennessee then Confederate Monuments monuments in tennessee then Confederate Monuments. At the same time, there are almost no tribute to tennessee Union Soldiers, just this one at Nashville National cemetery. And this one at the Greene County courthouse in east tennessee. Tennessee Civil War Monuments continue to reflect the same divided tennessee during the war and there is a continuing ambivalence to this day, including monuments such as this one at crossville in Cumberland County attributed to union and confederate soldiers. That is an ambivalence prevails in tennessee. Mississippi, monumentation describes an embattled state which embarked on a course that its leadership voted for and its citizens largely supported. They paid a heavy price for doing so and mississippi monumentation reflects that legacy. Mississippi soldiers fought bravely and well. Aty turned back union forces fort pemberton and rolling rock. They stopped sherman at chickasaw blush. They won at chickamauga. At the crossroads was a textbook armsry, of confederate over union forces. In spite of these victories and others Confederate Forces were conceded just defeated. Defeated. They withdrew from tennessee altogether and they lost at corn, mississippi. They lost a sixmonth campaign for vicksburg, lost new orleans, and surrendered natchez without a fight. They would not give up, and i am summarizing and 19 in broad strokes. However, painting in broad strokes. In short the war was a death ride for mississippi. Mississippi could no longer contest largescale military movements across it territory. Civil government was no longer effective and a general breakdown of order could not be avoided. Nevertheless, mississippi was one of the last confederate date to surrender states to surrender. The war has not ceased to affect the people and landscape. The people of mississippi did not forget, but the way in which the war hashich been remembered in public space is complex. As early as 1906, the Mississippi Legislature appropriated funds for the direction of Confederate Monument statewide for every county in mississippi to have a monument of its own. This promise was not fulfilled. Many counties do, but fewer than in virginia and fewer in tennessee, and many do not. More than elsewhere, mississippi monuments juxtapose life and death. They offer tributes, express affection and sentiment, they show the flag but they are not the laboratory and they are not triumphant. There are 80,000 graves of confederate soldiers in mississippi. 27,000 of the mississippians who went to war did not read turn return, and those who did where emotionally and physically crippled for wife life. The population of the state who were 15 years or older in the state were not alive, only five years later. The legacy, the evidence for this legacy may be found across mississippi. For example, there are excellent military histories of the battle of shiloh. The unexamined aftermath of the woundedthousands of confederate soldiers could not be properly cared for. Hundreds of wounded men were loaded onto railroad boxcars and then south and west to small towns across mississippi, as authorities looked to see how many could be cared for at each stop. The soldiers came from any state but many of them never left. They are still there. Today monuments at corinth, macon, meridia, brooksville, boonville, columbus, enterprise, canton, oxford, holly springs, and natchez marked the sites of hostile and cemetery grounds where the sick were cared for and the dead were buried. Affiliated notoriety associated with county courthouse or state monuments, there is a theme of tragedy and morning. This certainly affects the way i understand the meaning of the Confederate Monument. For example, although the figure of a confederate soldier surmounts the monument at the courthouse at laurel in jones county, mississippi, the figure of a woman in morning, take that closeup down to this young woman. The figure of a woman in mo urning is arguably the centerpiece. Similarly, the figure of a confederate soldier there she is, there is a closeup. The figure of a confederate soldier surmounting the hannahs has the look of a veteran facing north, ready to take on northern aggressors if or when they come again. , aever, a second figure young female, in classic greek ng. B is clearly in mourni so they justified it, or at least they sentimentalized it. There is the confederate flag. Annenberg n the in lunenberg. The courthouse at clark county, mississippi declares these were the noble men who marched north beneath the flag of the stars and bars and were faithful to the end. However, the men were killed, disabled, or died on a regular basis died of disease on a regular basis. As for the women who lived through the war, a state capital monument in jackson testified, quoting Jefferson Davis that calamity was there touchstone. Tothe men, i am drawn historian Matt Hastings description, tragedy or absurdity because as is so often the case in times of war, brave men were called upon to do fine and hard things in pursuit of a national illusion. Vicksburg. S me to it was here that federal troops commanded by Ulysses Grant surrounded the Confederate Army commanded by general john anderton. Afterurg was surrendered 47 day siege and a sixmonth campaign of maneuver and battle and near starvation. Vicksburg is the southernmost city with a National Battlefield park of the civil war. At 1800 acres, it is more than twice the size of central park in new york city and has been called the art park of the south with an inventory of 1330 monuments, markers, tablets, and plaques. It may be the largest Outdoor Museum of sculpture and commemoration in north america, unlike any other civil war battlefield. To enter the vicksburg Battlefield Park proper is to enter grounds that are fenced off and separated from the city, to secure the grounds and irreplaceable sculptures. There was one gated main entrance. There is a second entrance to the national cemetery, but this is the main gate. You can imagine security is impractical. But there are several lines of symbolism to this as well. Marks the monumentation the siege lines that continue to surround the city with all of the irony that is implied by perpetually surrounding the city of vicksburg with commemorative federal siege lines. To this day, unless you go west across the mississippi, you have to pass through the siege lines. The landscape itself is held apart, it is sanctified. You must enter the park through that arch. The arch is a kind of point of entry into a temple. All the elements of theater and drama are present. Almost all the dates and narratives terminate at 1863. The participants have no life afterwards. The drama is centered on siege and the surrender. These participants, the dramatic as personae are commemorated in profuse narrative detail. Names, numbers, and narratives copious, ond with multiple monuments or wayside tablets. There are more monuments in tennessee there is the detail more Confederate Monuments in tennessee. There are more monuments in vicksburg and mississippi and Confederate Monuments. Because of Vicksburg National military park, there are more Union Monuments in mississippi than almost any state in the union. Pennsylvania, because of gettysburg is the only exception. Mississippi offers a unique point of contact between northern and southern interpretations of the meaning of the war. First, several Confederate Monument at vicksburg are very dramatic. This statue of a texas common soldier depicts an utterly confident figure, as if he is quite ready if those yankee boys come again. There he is. And monuments like the Alabama State memorial offer defiant counterpoints. The sculptor titled this monument the death stand. We will give you a closeup. Four soldiers are firing their weapons, two are wounded, one is wounded and neardeath, and the woman at the center theres the confederate battle flag. It does not look as if they will last long but they will not give up either. However, the vicksburg monument and landscape is also clear about this this was a union victory. Monuments such as the massachusetts common soldier, the rhode island common soldier, and the new york obelisk, offer clear testimony. In the end, the north, the federals won the victory. There is another dimension to this temple space, temple sacrifice in the most literal sense. Architecturally speaking, several state and regimental monuments have an exquisite form with a large style, a temple for, a place of sacrifice or sacrament. The illinois monument is the largest and most elaborate. It seems unpleasant to have to walk up 47 steps on a hot summer day, but no