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The dedication of the monument "To the Sons of the University
who died for their beloved Southland 1861-1865" on June 2 1913. This speech is by Mrs. H. A. London, Chairman of the
Monument Committee of the North Carolina
Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
As Chairman of the Monument Committee of the North Carolina Division
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy I have the honor, and it gives
me much pleasure, to present in their name to the trustees of the University
of North Carolina this monument which is erected in memory of those students
of the University who served in the armies of the Confederate States of
America.
No man in any age or country more richly deserves to be commemorated
in bronze or stone than those youths who at the call of their respective
states rushed to arms and suffered the indescribable hardships and dangers
of a Confederate soldiers life. While this monument is an outward expression
of our love for them and our admiration for their heroism, yet also the
loving hearts of the women of the South will ever be memorial tablets
on which will be inscribed the memory of their virtues and valor. Governor
Craig has given you in part a history of the services rendered by the
students of the University to the Southern Confederacy, but no tongue
can tell, nor pen describe all that can be said or written in their praise.
In honoring the memory of our Confederate heroes, we must not be
misunderstood as having in our hearts any hatred to those who wore the
Blue, but we do not wish to forget what has been done for us by those
who wore the Gray. The love we have for them is like the faithful clinging
ivy;
"So we who stand beneath the stripes and stars
Upon the threshold of these later years
Like ivy, clinging to a Dear Lost Cause
Still yield the tribute to of our love and tears,
Thus may, with all the future's slow decline,
The reverence of generations be,
Forever an Ivy, that will still entwine
The ruins of the proud Confederacy."
We have erected this monument not only in honor of the dead but
also of the living. To the latter, I would say in behalf of the women
of the South that we hope that their last years may be their happiest
and when they cross the river that they may rest under the shade of the
trees with their immortal leaders, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
Of those who have died we may well say, in the words of Father Ryan, the
poet priest of the South;
"We care not whence they came,
Dear in their lifeless clay;
Whether unknown or known to fame,
Their cause and country still the same,
They died--- and wore the Gray!"
Accept this monument and may it stand FOREVER as a perpetual
memorial to those sons of the University who suffered and sacrificed so
much at the call of duty.
Mrs. H. A. London (1853-1930)
At the dedication of Silent Sam June 2, 1913
Article from the Raleigh
News and Observer, March 14,
1911
TO BE ERECTED AT CHAPEL HILL
Monument to the University Boys Who Dropped Their Books in the Sixties
to Take Up Arms at The Call of Their States
This picture represents the monument to be erected on the campus
at Chapel Hill, not only in memory of the "boys"
who left the University from 1861-1865 for the war, but also for those
who attended the University and afterwards became Confederate Soldiers.
There were more than 1000 University men in the struggle between
the states enlisting from various States of the South. At least 40% of
the students enlisted which is a record not equaled by any other institution,
North or South. The monument was designed by
Canadian sculptor, John Wilson, and will be very beautiful.
The front die will bear a bronze tablet depicting a woman --- representing
the State--- appealing to a young student to take up arms for the Commonwealth.
Books are falling from the youth's arms as in agitation. He listens to
her appeal. The heroic figure surmounting the shaft represents the call
answered--- that of a soldier boy, the soft felt hat pushed back from
his noble brow, enthusiasm in every line of his young face.
On the reverse side will be another bronze tablet reciting the number
of University students who from first to last enlisted in the cause---
from the highest officer to the lowest private.
Standing on the campus for all time, it will be an object
lesson to all future generations and will impress upon them their obligations
to respond to the call of duty. This record should ever be upon the eyes
of the present day students.
Tablets have been erected in Memorial Hall in memory of those who
lost their lives and all of those who enlisted are surely worthy of a
monument.
This monument is to be erected under the auspices of the North Carolina
Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who hope to have
it unveiled during next Commencement, it being the fiftieth anniversary
of the beginning of the War for Southern Independence.
But in order to accomplish this purpose, it will be necessary to complete
the fund of $7,500, which represents the cost. Each chapter is urged
to send at once its contribution to the state treasurer. Unless a goodly
sum can be raised at once, the statue cannot be unveiled at the commencement.
Mrs. Henry A. London
Chairman of the Monument Committee
United Daughters of the Confederacy
March 13, 1911
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