Monument At Corsicana, Texas

From the Confederate Veteran, Official Journal of the Sons of Confederate Veteran, p 211

The Corsicana (Tex.) Light reports the unveiling of the Confederate monument there on January 20. The occasion was propitious. Capt. H. G. Damon, master of ceremonies, explained the object of the gathering and paid an eloquent tribute to the women of the South for their devotion to the Confederacy.

Rev. George L. Bitzer offered a fervent prayer, after which an orchestra played MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME. Miss Katie Daffan, President of the Daughters of the Confederacy of Texas, paid tribute to the Navarro Chapter for its devotion and self-sacrifice as shown in the erection of the handsome monument to be unveiled. THE TEAR-STAINED BANNER, a poem, was read by Mrs. M. D. Peck. This was followed by thirteen little misses who represented the thirteen Southern States with Bonnie Blue Flags in their hands and pulled the cord that drew the veil from the monument, at the same time waving their flags and singing that familiar war song. THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG. The participants in this feature and the Sates they represented were Misses Emily Kate Johnson as Confederacy, Ellen Van Hook as Virginia, Bertha Zadek as Louisiana, Katrina Stout as North Carolina, Josephine Bogy as Texas, Mildred Caldwell as Mississippi, Frances Edens as Kentucky, Louise Knox as Maryland, Carolyn McCrery as Florida. Hattie Mae Fowler as Tennessee, Catherine Kirven as Georgia, Margaret Lowry as Missouri, Minnie Johnson as Arkansas, and Maggie Clarkson as South Carolina.

Hon. R. E. Prince, the orator of the occasion, was then introduced and made one of his characteristic speeches, paying tribute to the valor of Southern soldiers and Southern women.

Capt. A. F. Wood followed Mr. Prince in a good speech which the old soldiers greatly enjoyed.

DIXIE was then sung by all who would join in.

Captain Damon called for the “old Rebel yell,” and the Confederates who were there in their gray uniforms responded in three hearty yells, after which Rev. J. H. Hughes pronounced the benediction.

All told, the occasion was a most impressive one, and was witnessed by possibly a thousand people.

The monument represents a Confederate bugler calling his comrades to arms. The statue is of bronze, was cast in Philadelphia, and is nine feet high, while the marble pedestal on which it stands and the following inscriptions are made is ten feet high, making a total height of nineteen feet.

On the front of the monument are these words: “The Call to Arms. Erected 1907 by Navarro Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, to commemorate the valor and heroism of the Confederate soldier. It is not the power of man to command success. The Confederate soldier did more: he deserved it.

‘But their fame on brightest pages

Penned by poets and by sages

Shall go sounding down the ages.’”

On the back are these words: “It is the duty we owe to the dead—the dead who died for us, but whose memories can never die. It is a duty we owe to posterity to see that our children shall know the virtues and rise worthy of their sires. —Jefferson Davis.”

On one side is the following: “the soldiers of the Southern Confederacy fought valiantly for the liberty of State bequeathed them by their forefathers of 1776.

‘Who glorified

Their righteous cause and they who made

The sacrifice supreme in that they died

To keep their country free.’”

On another side are these words:

“Nor shall your glory be forgot

  While Fame her record keeps,

Or Honor points the hallowed spot

  Where Valor proudly sleeps.”

“Tell it as you may,

  It never can be told;

Sing it as you will,

  It never can be sung—

The story of the glory

  Of the men who were the gray.

 

Submitted by J L Halbert Camp No. 359, SCV
Norman Stubbs Cdr Jan 2002

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