Confederate Monument, Augusta, Georgia

Standing in a park in the middle of the 700 block of Broad Street, Augusta, Georgia, the Richmond County Confederate Monument soars seventy-six feet tall. It has a granite base topped by a shaft of pure Italian marble. The monument was commissioned by the Ladies Memorial Association of Augusta in 1875 at the cost of $17,331.35 – a princely sum at that time.

Around the base of the monument are the life size statues of four Southern generals in the War Between the States: Thomas R. R. Cobb, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and William Henry Talbot. A Confederate private is depicted at the top of the shaft. The model for this statue was Private Berry Benson of Augusta. An inscription at the base reads, “In honor of the men of Richmond County who died in the cause of the Confederate States.” A crowd of ten thousand people turned out for the dedication of the monument on October 32, 1878. On one side of the monument is this inscription:

-
IN MEMORIAM
"No nation rose so white
and fair
and none fell so pure of crime."
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The inscription on the other side is even more eloquent:

WORTHY

to have lived and known

our Gratitude:

WORTHY

To be hallowed and held

in tender remembrance

WORTHY

the fadeless fame which

CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS

WON,

who gave themselves in life

and Death for us:

for the Rights of the States,

for the Liberties of the People,

for the Sentiments of the South,

for the Principles of the Union

as these were handed down to

them by the fathers of

OUR COMMON COUNTRY