RALEIGH, N.C. – Bronzed Johnny Rebs, sprinting across a Capitol lawn, charging soundlessly for the ideals of the "lost cause," have long been seen as a quaint and largely harmless part of this region's heritage. Today, doubts rise alongside pride in regard to these sculpted heroes. HUH?
Statues and Monuments on Union Square
Over the last century, numerous statues and monuments have been erected on the Square memorializing people and events in the history of North Carolina. The collection on Union Square consists of fourteen monuments, most of them bronze on stone bases. The following are brief descriptions of each:
- Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation - This work honors the three presidents born in North Carolina: Andrew Jackson of Union County, seventh president of the United States (1829-1837); James Knox Polk of Mecklenberg County, eleventh president of the United States (1856-1869); and Andrew Johnson of Wake County, seventeenth president of the United States (1865-1869). Although North Carolina claims all three presidents as native sons, all were elected while residents of Tennessee.
- Charles Duncan McIver - Dr. McIver was a renowned promoter of education in North Carolina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is remembered as the founder and the first president of the State Normal and Industrial School for Women (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro).
- Zebulon Baird Vance - A native of Buncombe County, Vance was one of this state's most popular political figures during the Civil War. He helped organize state troops for the Confederacy and was promoted to full colonel shortly before his election as governor in 1862. He again served as governor from 1877 to 1879 and was a United States senator from 1879 until his death in 1894.
- George Washington - This bronze statue is one of six cast by William J. Hubbard of Richmond, Virginia, from a mold of Houdon's Washington which stands in the Capitol in Richmond, Virginia. It was intended to replace the destroyed Canova statue. Unveiled on July 4, 1857, it was the first statue placed on the grounds.
- Charles Brantley Aycock - Known as the "education governor," Aycock was responsible for beginning the public school system existing today in North Carolina. It is said that one new school was opened for nearly every day of his term, 1901-1905.
- Women of the Confederacy - The Women of the Confederacy monument was a gift to the state by Confederate veteran Col. Ashley Horne, and was unveiled in June 1914. It was the wish of Colonel Horne to recognize the suffering and hardship faced by women during this tragic period in our nation's history.
- Wildcat Division Memorial - A simple stone marker honors North Carolina men of the U.S. Army's 81st Division (nicknamed "Wildcat Division" because of its ferocious and unyielding spirit) who took part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in France during World War I.
- Worth Bagley - Born in Raleigh in 1874, Ensign Bagley was the first American naval officer killed in the Spanish-American War. Bagley, the executive officer of the torpedo ship U.S.S. Winslow, was killed May 11, 1898, by a shell from Spanish shore batteries at Cardenas Bay, Cuba.
- Confederate Monument - This monument is in remembrance of North Carolina's Confederate dead (nearly one quarter of all Confederate deaths were from North Carolina). The three statues on the monument represent Confederate infantry, cavalry, and artillery soldiers. The inscription, "First at Bethel - Last at Appomatox," represents the forwardness and tenacity of North Carolina's soldiers during the Civil War.
- Samuel A'Court Ashe - This tablet is a tribute to Captain Ashe who, as a captain in the Confederate Army, took part in the defense of Fort Wagner, S.C. He later served as a legislator, newspaper editor, and historian.
- Henry Lawson Wyatt - Wyatt, from Edgecombe County, was the first Confederate soldier to die in battle in the Civil War. A private in the Confederate Army, he was killed at the Battle of Big Bethel in Virginia on June 10, 1861, as his brigade attacked Union troops.
- North Carolina Veteran's Monument - This monument honors the veterans of the state who served in World Wars I and II and the Korean War. The base features scenes and lists major battles from each of the wars, and atop a granite shaft stands Lady Liberty holding a palm frond to symbolize peace and victory. The flags of each of the armed services fly at the rear of the monument.
- Old Hickory Highway Marker - This granite marker commemorates North Carolina's soldiers of the U.S. Army's 30th "Old Hickory" Division, who fought and died to break the Hindenberg Line in France during World War I.
- Vietnam Veteran's Memorial - Entitled "After the Firefight," this memorial honors the more than 206,000 men and women of the state who served in Vietnam. The monument depicts two soldiers carrying a wounded comrade to a nearby landing zone to await medical help. This monument is unique in that it is the first to be sculpted by a woman, and the first to depict an African American.