(Tredegar Iron Works.) Museum to accept statue (Of Jefferson Davis)

[indguard]

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.a...8-14-0173.html

Museum to accept statue
Civil War Center says it will take Davis bronze; use is to be determined

By WILL JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Richmond could get another statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

But this one might be treated differently from other tributes.

The American Civil War Center announced yesterday that it would accept a life-size bronze statue of Davis from the Sons of Confederate Veterans. A final decision rests with NewMarket Corp. as owner of the museum site at Tredegar Iron Works.

Under the museum's collections policy, the decision comes with no guarantee of where or whether the statue might be displayed or how it is interpreted.

Officials said the statue would help fulfill the museum's mission to tell the story of the Civil War and its causes, conduct and legacies from the Union, Confederate and African-American perspectives.

A spokesman for NewMarket, parent company of Ethyl Corp., said the firm had not yet been briefed on the statue proposal and could not say when a decision would be made.

Christy S. Coleman, museum president, said the statue could be used to show how the Civil War is remembered. The museum includes a gallery that focuses on that, examining such popular cultural influences as "Gone With the Wind" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" television show.

"We are committed to telling the story. Are we committed to propaganda? No," Coleman said.

For now, the decision is good enough for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Group members were angered in 2003, when a statue of Abraham Lincoln was placed on the Tredegar property by the National Park Service.

Brag Bowling, a Richmond resident and board member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he's delighted by the museum's decision. He hopes to meet with museum officials soon to discuss how the piece may be used.

"The statue is not meant to be put in a basement, that's for sure," he said. "It's a tool that will help their program. . . . I think it's a great monument for Richmond."

The statue is being prepared by Lexington sculptor Gary Casteel, and it depicts the Confederate leader standing with his son Joe and with Jim Limber, a mixed-race orphan who was taken in by the Davis family. The sculpture is expected to be completed by late fall at a cost of more than $100,000.

Coleman said the statue is interesting because it depicts Davis as a paternal figure and was offered by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "This really became more of an opportunity [to show] how people choose to remember."

Museum officials expect some backlash. "To a certain degree, that would have come regardless of the decision," Coleman said.

King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP, called the museum's decision disappointing but understandable, given the criticism that likely would have come if the statue had been declined. He said Davis and the Confederacy are offensive to African-Americans because they represent a cause that was based on enslaving blacks.

"Now, it depends on how it's being deployed," Khalfani said, suggesting the statue be placed in permanent storage. "If it has a place of significance in the museum . . . we'll have to see."

Museum officials would not disclose the board's vote but Coleman said it wasn't unanimous.

"The board has made its decision," she said. "Bottom line, we can make this work to look at some pretty good legacy issues."

[sbl]

I hope it looks better in Bronze. It's pretty forgettable.

[indguard]

You can say that about nearly every building, memorial, and statue made since the 1950s! We are in the worst age for such things in human history!

WTH
The itdon'tlookgood Mess

[flattop32355]

So long as they don't stick it directly in the front of the Lincoln bronze there, it seems fine, if not particularly artistic.

[Rick Keating]

Just another monument to a failed cause. I don't think Jefferson Davis is worthy of the bronze, he was a failed leader.

Rick Keating

[huntdaw]

I can't help but wonder what the Civil War Preservation Trust could have done with that money. I think it would have had a much more longer lasting and valuable effect.

[Blockade Runner]

Just another monument to a failed cause. I don't think Jefferson Davis is worthy of the bronze, he was a failed leader.

Rick Keating

Your assertion that President Davis was a failed leader is strictly a matter of perspective. The North had virtually every advantage in the WBTS and couldn't subdue the South for 4 years. Most would agree that was remarkable.

[thpritchett]

The North had virtually every advantage in the WBTS

Very true and Davis should have realized that before he authorized the firing on Ft. Sumter having been warned by his Secretary of War that such an action would likely result in war. Besides, from what I am currently reading about the AoT and the War in the West, Davis does not impress me as a War President.

[40AcreMule]

The North had virtually every advantage in the WBTS and couldn't subdue the South for 4 years.

That is Lost Cause mythology. The United States was at a distinct disadvantage from the beginning. The Confederacy had every advantage which they threw away:

1) Home field advantage
2) Internal lines of communication and transportation
3) A long coastline that was almost impossible to blockade
4) A plethora of West Point educated officers
5) An abundance of cheap slave labor
6) French and English sympathy if not out-right recognition

All of these strengths and they still managed to lose in a brief four years. The American colonies had less advantages, held out for eight years, and defeated the most powerful army on earth. And they did it without an arrogant president screwing things up. Of course they had direct help from the French. The CS would have had the same if they had abolished slavery early.

Jeff Davis frittered away most of the CS's advantages through incompetent leadership. His meddling in military affairs was ruinous. His appointment of John Bell Hood to replace the Joseph E. Johnston in 1864 was sheer idiocy. His only true memorial is the ash heap of failure.

[RebelBugler]

Perhaps if the South countenanced taking the war to the civilian population of the North and engaging in the destruction of their homes, crops, and livelihood, the ultimate outcome may have been different.

Perhaps if Anthony Johnson, a Black freeman, had not introduced the concept of chattel slavery to the Virginia colony and the North American continent, there would have been no need to consider the slavery question in the South

You fail to mention that the North had the obvious economic advantage of the substantive revenue generated by the protectionist tariffs imposed on the South.

Jefferson Davis certainly demonstrated that he was more principled than his Union counterpart Lincoln, who was willing to allow slavery to continue indefinitely as long as the Union was preserved. Follow the money.....Lincoln's motivation was purely economic!