The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Richmond, Virginia

Sharing Imagined Communities
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April 5, 2023
One of the common misconceptions among many is that public monuments are erected only for aesthetic, social, and ecological purposes. In reality, however, these monuments were intended to have a rich significance in the community's history and have the ultimate purpose of espousing solidarity among the people of the place. Accordingly, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Richmond, Virginia, USA, is a significant example of a public monument that helped to define an imagined community. In this essay, we will analyze how and why this monument functioned as a place of memory and what debates over it tell us about how the imagined community it represented has been contested, transformed, and redefined. Overall, the author believes that public monuments primarily create ideas of solidarity and community between people with shared historical pasts by allowing the people to remember what their ancestors stood for.
Contextualizing the Monument
The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Richmond, Virginia, was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 1887 and finished in 1894. The monument's design includes a 70-foot tall column with a statue of a Confederate soldier on top and four smaller statues representing the different branches of the Confederate military. The monument is situated on the same site as the Virginia State Capitol of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, emphasizing its connection to the Confederacy. The UDC, a women's organization founded in 1894, sought to memorialize and promote the Confederate cause, and the monument was part of that effort. The monument was built during a time of Jim Crow segregation and white supremacy, and it promoted the ideals of the Confederacy and reinforced the idea of white southern identity.
Imagined Community and the Monument
As mentioned earlier, monuments are created to promote and espouse the idea of community among people with a shared historical past. Accordingly, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Richmond, Virginia, played a significant role in defining and promoting an imagined community centered around the ideals of the Confederacy and the Lost Cause myth. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), a women's organization founded in 1894, commissioned the monument in 1887 to honor the Confederate soldiers who fought and died during the Civil War. However, the monument also served as a symbol of the Confederacy and its ideals.
Additionally, the UDC sought to memorialize and promote the Confederate cause, and the monument was an essential part of this endeavor. The monument's design features a 70-foot tall column topped by a Confederate soldier statue, with four smaller statues representing the different branches of the Confederate military at its base. The monument stands on the site of the Virginia State Capitol of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, adding to its symbolic significance.
Returning to its historical significance, the monument reinforced the idea of white southern identity and the glorification of the Confederacy, particularly during the era of Jim C...