History of the Monument

Gestation: 1865–1884

Birth: 1884–1898

Life: 1898–present

Gestation: 1865–1884

The war ended in April. On 23 November 1865 an informal meeting was held in the capitol with the object of organizing “The Historical and Monumental Association of Alabama.” Col. Joseph Hodgson, who was appointed secretary, gave notice through the press that the group would meet to organize formally the next day. In his words, “the sacred duty of preserving the memory of our gallant dead is one which will commend the devotion of all who lament misfortune and applaud virtue.” According to Marielou Armstrong Cory¹s 1902 history of the Ladies Memorial Association, the purpose of the Historical and Monumental Association was “to preserve the historical facts in relation to the late war and to build a monument to the dead of Alabama.” Ladies and gentlemen were invited.

Cory records the report published in the Montgomery Advertiser: “We desire a pall dropped upon the past except so far as their patriotic devotion is to be recorded. The grave of the hero is sacred everywhere—the impulses which prompt to its veneration are indifferent to neither friend nor foe... In this sense we desire to record the memory of our sons, and erect a cenotaph which shall at once be sacred to their names and battlefields. Nor will it be said by the invidious critic that this pious task is affected by unfaithfulness to our now common country... Let us all unite in erecting a pillar for the dead of Alabama in the solemnity and manliness of a yet free people. Let it record only of her sons what the traveler reads of the gallant Spartans who fell at Thermopylae: ‘We lie here in obedience to the laws of our country.’”

The first resolution stipulated that the state legislature be memorialized for a $5,000 appropriation “as a basis of capital upon which to begin the erection of a monument on the Capitol grounds with the inscription: ‘Alabama honors her sons who died in her service.’” The second resolution stipulated “That the outside of said monument shall be built of solid marble, and under the supervision and after the plan hereafter agreed upon...” But there is no evidence of a specific plan or design for the monument at this time. The original architectural drawings have not come to light and the earliest image of the design apparently dates to the 1880s. Finally, the association resolved “That every man, woman, and child of the State who authorize the Secretary to record their names shall be considered a member of the Association.”

According to Hodgson, over the winter, “Nothing was done to move forward the monument. Congress, which met in December 1865, was preparing the Reconstruction scheme that threatened subversion of the State government, and no one could predict the future. So deep was the gloom that no one was disposed to embark on even philanthropic movements that might be tortured into displays of latent rebellion. The Society remained quiet until appeals came from the battle-fields for protection of the graves of our soldiers.” Appeals like those would delay the monument effort for years, but they illuminate the environment in which the Confederate Monument took root.

On 3 March 1866, “An Appeal for the Dead” published in the Montgomery Mail indicates receipt of a letter from Winchester, Virginia saying that the ladies there were preparing a cemetery “for the reception of those remains which are not removed by friends. The ploughshare is now passing over their graves and soon the places which once knew of their gallant devotion on the banks of the Shenandoah will know them no more forever, unless the hand of pious affection collects their ashes and marks their resting place in some consecrated ground.” Two weeks later the Historical and Monumental Association Executive Committee met and appointed a commissioner to “proceed to the battlefields of Virginia and other States to collect and protect from desecration the remains of her gallant dead.” They also moved to appoint vice presidents for each county and encouraged ladies to hold bazaars on the first day of May to “raise money enough to give the remains of our dead decent burial.”

That April, on the anniversaries of the battle of Selma (April 2) and Lee’s surrender (April 9), ladies in Selma and Columbus, Georgia honored soldiers’ graves there with proper interment and flowers. Mrs. Lizzie Rutherford Ellis is credited for the first Confederate Memorial Day along with Mrs. Anne Williams for her March 12, 1866 letter to the editor of the Columbus newspaper which put forth the idea of setting aside April 26th annually as the observance of the South’s “All Soul’s Day”

On 11 April 1866 Montgomery’s Judge Phelan, who lost several sons in the war—two then still sleeping on the battlefields—appealed to the local ladies “to devote the first evenings of the coming May to a fair or festival by which money can be made” to care for the graves of the dead. The appeal said: “With your aid, daughters of Montgomery, the Mecca of Alabama will be the cemeteries of her soldiers. To collect their remains within church-yards which look out upon the fields of battle and to decorate them with the simple emblems of purity and holiness, will adorn the abyss of ruin with a splendor as enduring as that of the eternal rainbow which spans the precipice of Niagara.”

That very day, the “ladies met to devise ways and means for raising funds to have the remains of Alabama soldiers now lying scattered over the various battlefields of the war collected and deposited in public burial grounds or elsewhere where they may be saved from neglect.” They established officers and passed their first resolution: “That it is a sacred duty of the South to preserve from desecration and neglect the mortal remains of the brave men who fell in her cause, to cherish a grateful recollection of their heroic sacrifices and to perpetuate their memories.” Dues were established as $1 per year. All clergy were considered honorary members. The group was initially named the Ladies Society for the Burial of Deceased Alabama Soldiers, but it was later changed to the Ladies Memorial Association. Sophie Bibb was called to the chair.

On 14 April 1866, Hodgson gave notice in the daily papers for the ladies of Montgomery to meet at the Methodist Episcopal Church to take “immediate steps to bury the Alabama soldiers in a decent and becoming manner.” On 21 April, the Daily Mail requested that ladies “assemble at the city cemetery this morning and to have with them utensils for improving and repairing the graves of the Confederate soldiers.”

By this time word had spread of confrontations in some southern cities between Federal soldiers and women tending soldiers’ graves. Consequently, on 25 April 1866, Maj. W.W. Screws published a lengthy editorial in the Advertiser entitled “The 26th of April.” In his words, “The heart must be dead to all the feelings of humanity that would object to the ladies of the South showing by this simple and touching act that they venerate the memory of their fathers, husbands, brothers and friends, who gave up their lives in a cause we all believe is just... No matter what may have been the differences of opinion produced by the late conflict, no one can doubt the purity of the motives by which the Confederate soldier was actuated, nor the unparalleled heroism with which he contended so long as there was a ray of hope.”

The next day, on the first anniversary of General Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender, the ladies decorated Union and Confederate soldiers’ graves at Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery. And the Daily Mail editorialized, “The strong arm of the Federal government has been extended to prevent the plough-share from destroying the graves of the Federal soldiers, but there is no arm except that of affection to prevent the places which once knew the Confederate hero from knowing him no more.” On the 27th, the Advertiser indicated “yesterday they gathered in numbers, according to previous appointment, at the cemetery, re-touched and re-decorated the grave of every soldier therein interred, planted and strewed them with flowers and performed such other offices as their fancies suggested, or as seemed necessary.”

On 2 May 1866 the first May Day offering in Montgomery was held. On the tenth the first of many meetings of the Ladies Society occurred at Sophie Bibb’s home. Over the following ten months they raised and distributed more than $4,000 for improving Confederate graves in Richmond, Fredericksburg, Jonesboro, Resaca, Franklin, and Corinth. In 1868 the ladies committed $700 for a monument, pavilion, and chart of the graves in Montgomery’s Greenwood Cemetery. A slender marble obelisk was erected that year. Eight years later the ladies approved a proposal to erect local granite headstones in the cemetery—3 feet tall with 1 foot below grade—at a cost of $3 each. It took six years to raise the $2,400 needed for that task, but on 1 May 1882, the treasurer reported stones were on all the graves and all were paid for. At that same meeting, the ladies requested that Mrs. Dudley Robinson give an opera and that proceeds “be given for the Monument to our fallen heroes and that said Monument be erected on Capitol Hill in the City of Montgomery.” The event netted $117.65.

Two years later, on 9 April 1884, the ladies established a Monument Committee and a “Committee to take charge of the Monument Fund.” A year and a half later, on 30 September 1885, the men’s Historical and Monumental Society was formed, chaired by Montgomery mayor Col. Warren S. Reese.

With the completion of their duties to bury the dead, and the formation of committees for a monument on Capitol Hill, the long period of gestation comes to a close, and a long and labored birth of the monument begins.

Birth: 1884-1898

By the mid-1880s, Montgomery was booming. It became home to one of the first electric streetcars in the country, and a huge decorative cast iron fountain was built in Court Square at the bottom of Dexter Avenue. An energetic young mayor, a Confederate veteran, Col. Warren Reese, pressed the city into prosperity. Still, fund-raising for the projected $45,000 Confederate Monument went slowly, and construction was stymied by disagreement between the patrons, the artist, and at least one contractor.

Part of the problem stems from the existence of the two monument committees. The men apparently contracted with Alexander Doyle, but after raising $6,755 the men’s committee deferred to the ladies the responsibility of raising funds and building the monument. Doyle still felt he had a contract for the monument, but the ladies persisted in shopping around. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, the records of the Ladies Memorial Association reflect Doyle’s persistence in enforcing his contract and the ladies’ search for alternatives.

In the mid-1880s, the ladies continued to hold entertainments and bazaars to raise money and committees were appointed to canvas the several wards of the city to solicit contributions to the monument fund. In 1886, the ladies corresponded with Jefferson Davis for photographs of him and his family that might be offered for sale at the monument dedication, the proceeds to benefit the monument fund. At that time, the record books of the Ladies Memorial Association report about $1,300 on deposit earning 8% interest. A month before laying the cornerstone, Reese “gave the members of the association the great honor that they have won in the effort to erect a monument to Alabama’s sleeping soldiers. The ladies were first and have always been foremost in the performance of the sacred duty the living owe the dead.”

Laying the cornerstone

That sacred duty was played out with appropriate solemn pomp on 29 April 1886 with the laying of the cornerstone by the elderly and greatly venerated Jefferson Davis, the one and only President of the Confederacy. Davis made the trip from Belvoir, his home hear Biloxi accompanied by another senior statesman of the south, Gen. John Gordon, governor of Georgia. The trip took Davis on to Atlanta, and thence to Macon, where he laid another cornerstone of a smaller monument, and finally to Savannah. It was his last series of public appearances. He died in December 1889.

Inclement weather in Montgomery postponed the annual Memorial Day ceremonies on April 26. They were rescheduled in conjunction with laying the cornerstone on the 29th. That day about noon an immense procession accompanied Davis from the Exchange Hotel near the foot of Dexter Avenue to Capitol Hill. Owing to the continual rains, the place for the program was changed to the steps of the capitol, where Davis stood when he took the oath of office.

According to the Huntsville Daily Mercury: “about 2:30 the sound of the approaching band was heard and in a few minutes the shouts and cheers of the immense crowd made the ground tremble. The foundation only of the monument was ready. It is thirty-five feet square. The cornerstone to be laid by Mr. Davis was all ready for him. It bears this inscription: Cornerstone laid by ex-President Jefferson Davis, April 29, 1886. The monument itself will be from a design by Alexander Doyle, of New York City. It will be very fittingly built of Alabama limestone. It is to be eight-five feet high, a single column, architecturally beautiful and commanding. The base is in the form of a Greek Cross, up a flight of five steps. Upon the arms are four statues, representing branches of military service. The single round column rises seventy feet. Then comes a carved Corinthian cap, upon that a bronze figure, ten feet high. This will be a Southern woman in bronze to represent patriotism. A niche is to be left in the base for a statue of Jefferson Davis. The whole work will cost $45,000 and will require two to three years to complete. The artist who planned it is the one who designed the statue of Margaret of New Orleans, and of the late Senator Ben Hill, at Atlanta, Ga.; also that ordered by the United States Government at Yorktown, Va.”

Alabama’s ex-governor Watts presided. He made a brief address and then introduced Davis, who spoke for half an hour. The event is meticulously chronicled in the Advertiser. Grand Master Mason John G. Harris laid the cornerstone, which weighs more than a thousand pounds. According to the Advertiser, “Mayor Reese conducted Davis from the stand to the spot where the cornerstone lay. He laid his hand upon it, bowed his head in silent prayer; then the stone was lifted and placed where it is to remain through the coming ages.”

After the Masonic ceremonies a reception was held for Davis in the capitol and thousands of Confederate veterans shook his hand. Then followed a “long and imposing” procession to the cemetery. The absence of the elderly Sophie Bibb was palpable. She was too ill to participate. At the cemetery, Davis and his daughter, Winnie (the “Child of the Confederacy”), shared the stand with Gen. Gordon and his wife, ladies of the memorial association, and other dignitaries. Miss Minnie Reese recited “Rodes’ Brigade’s Charge at Seven Pines” while wearing the sash Gen. Rodes wore in that famous battle and standing by the flag that flew over his troops that day.

Euphoria, and more labor pains

In the wake of Davis’ visit, the ranks of the Ladies Memorial Association swelled to about seventy-five and meetings were held once or twice monthly. Contributions ranging from a few dollars to $200 poured in. Fund-raising activities proliferated. A news clipping in the record book of the association dated 7 February 1887 indicates a recent bazaar netted about $2,000, making “more clear money than any bazaar ever held in Montgomery.” The ladies reported $6,828 on deposit in March 1888. Later that year they resolved to appeal to farmers for a few pounds of cotton each with the goal of each county contributing a bale.

In April 1888, the association met with Mayor Reese, and others representing the men’s Monumental Association. The ladies’ record book reveals that Reese said “there had been some comments by members of the Association and citizens regarding the foundation of the monument. He said he had communicated with Mr. Doyle, a sculptor of national reputation, who has the contract for building the monument and he assured him that it is throughly secure.” Doyle had Curbow and Clapp make a thorough exam and they had pronounced it sturdy. Reese acknowledged an indebtedness of the Monument Association to the ladies, “who had inspired them to do what they had done in this noble patriotic work.” Col. T. G. Jones indicated the men’s association “would cooperate with them in their efforts to build the monument on Capitol Hill.”

Reese and Jones met with the Ladies Memorial Association and Doyle on 21 May 1888 and Doyle “gave a clear statement of the facts, and many matters about which the ladies desired information. Jones drew up a contract between Doyle and the Ladies Memorial Association and it was signed on June 30” by Miss M. D. Bibb (Sophie’s daughter, who succeeded to the presidency after her mother’s death in January 1887) and Jeanie Crommelin (Secretary of the Association).

On July 6 Doyle wrote Bibb, “I enclose the copy of contract (verbatim) signed by me to which I have attached the drawing—I [am] retaining the copy sent by Miss Crommelin signed by you.” But no contract or drawing is in the remarkably complete files of the association today.

Doyle continued, “As I am informed by Col. Reese and by Mess. Curbow & Clapp that all of the stone has been safely delivered on the hill, I have this day taken the liberty of sending to Mess. T. L. Fossick & Co. of Dickson, AL a sight draft on you as Presdt [sic] for 7500$ on a/c of contract. As it will not likely be presented to you for some days I trust this will be found a satisfactory method of making payment­as, on reflection it seems to me the simplest. But I had marked the draft ‘no protest’ and will request Mess. Fossick & Co. to so collect it, so that in case there are any reasons that I am ignorant of for not paying it in this way, you can remit me a check direct for 7500$ and I will endorse it to Fossick & Co.”

The record book reports under the date of 24 July 1888, “Paid Mr. Alexander Doyle (Sculptor) of New York through draft to F. L. Fossick and Co., of Ingleton, Colbert Co., Ala. the sum of $7500 for stone for monument as per contract of June 30th, 1888.”

Construction apparently proceeded, with Curbow and Clapp in charge or at least supervising. Since they had probably never built a monument of this scale and complexity, it appears that the company of Sinclair and Lawler physically erected the structure. The record book shows that on 4 January 1889, Curbow and Clapp guaranteed the association against “any defect in the stone work... we agree and promise to make satisfactory to you or your inspector.”

At the end of February the state legislature appropriated $5,000 for the monument, provided it be used to “purchase goods and services actually supplied and not supplied prior to the date of the appropriation.” In March Doyle wrote regretting that the legislature should do so little towards the monument. He defended his fixed price contract ($47,000 complete; $52,000 with statue of Jefferson Davis) and bemoaned that he had paid out more than received and would have but a small margin of profit once done and “you will have the cheapest monument of our times.” Nevertheless, he was glad the appropriation was no less than $5,000 since that was “just about sufficient to cover the actual cost of casting the statue and putting it in place.” He wanted to finish the upper part of the monument and remove the scaffolding. He predicted about four months to complete and install the finial figure. He offered to “put the statue in place for 5000$ on account payable 4000$ when it arrives in Montgomery and 1000$ when set in place.”

He also chided the ladies “that on artistic grounds I must recommend the female figure and not a soldier on top. A male figure is not adapted at all to the top of such a column—artistically or architecturally speaking. The cost would be about the same except that I already have at odd times prepared the female figure which forms part of the design. Besides there is a statue of soldiers to go below and it would not be good taste to have two statues of soldiers.”

Doyle finished the clay and plaster models. The bronze was cast by an unknown foundry and shipped to Montgomery. At 29 June 1890 news clip in the ladies record book indicates the $109 freight on Patriotism from New York was cancelled by the presidents of the Georgia Central Railroad and steamship lines.

But discord persisted. The correspondence file of the Ladies Memorial Association contains a letter from Doyle to Reese dated 18 December 1890 in which he complained of the ladies’ intimations that they might contract with others for remaining parts of the work. Despite the 30 June 1888 contract documented in the ladies’ record book, Doyle wrote Reese, “of course, I have no contract with them unless the law should construe their previous communication with me as making them a party to my contract with the Ala. S. Mon. Assn.” In fact, he may have been trying to bolster a claim against the men’s association or strong arm them into convincing the ladies of his position.

Doyle went on, “the ladies are deserving all praise for their patriotic endeavors. I also have done my share in endeavoring to help the project, and perhaps foolishly on my part have actually put up more work than warranted by the sums paid on a/c. In short so far I am on the actual losing side. When the monument shall have been completed I shall not [illegible] any profit but my only chance to get back what I have put in and come out even is to so complete it, and of course I should be compelled to vigorously combat any other outcome.”

He closed, “I say this to you confidentially for my relations with the Ladies Assn. have always been pleasant and were it not for the expression in their correspondence before referenced I should have no grounds for saying this. I shall stop over in Montgomery in January.” The presence of this letter in the correspondence file of the Ladies Memorial Association reveals that Reese did not keep the confidence Doyle requested.

Doyle did visit Montgomery at the end of January 1891, journeying from Atlanta, where he was working on the statue of Henry Grady. In early February Miss Bibb and Miss Crommelin, seeking a $10,000 state appropriation, visited the governor, T. G. Jones, who had carried one of the flags of surrender at Appomattox. The appropriation passed on the 18th.

An interview with Doyle reported in the association record book on that same date raises questions about the state of the monument’s construction and reflects Doyle’s claim that he had invested more than he had received. He indicated expenses of “$16,000 for stone but $13,000 cash sufficient to resume work... The entire contract for stone work is with the quarrymen, and about one-third of the stone work is completed on the monument as it now stands.” This last statement casts some doubt on the assumption that the shaft was erected and Patriotism installed upon its arrival in Montgomery the previous summer. However, it may merely be Doyle trying to convince the ladies to ante up the balance needed to finish the statuary at the base and get out without losing his shirt.

Doyle went on to say, “the bronze statues will be 7 ft or 7 1/2 ft or possibly 8 ft high; though there is a certain relative proportion which would have to be observed, and will probably require 9 ft. statues.”

On 4 May 1891 the Ladies Memorial Association met in City Council chambers. The record book indicates “This was a special called meeting,” but there were no minutes. The absence of the minutes in the space left for them in the record book bodes that there were discussions the ladies preferred not to record.

Alas, the record book chronicles on 1 October 1891, “Mr. Doyle... will be in Montgomery tomorrow. He is in Atlanta looking after the Grady Monument... The work on the Confederate Monument seems to be abated for the present. It needs the finishing touches to make it as beautiful as it should be.”

A copy of a memo in the record book dated the next day quotes Doyle reiterating his claim for $13,000 and “whatever amount may be in the treasury not exceeding the sum of six hundred dollars additional.” In return, Doyle guaranteed that the work of setting stone shall be “commenced immediately on its arrival within a reasonable time thereafter.”

Fifteen months passed. Then Doyle wrote asking if the ladies were pleased with the work “as it was progressing and if an appropriation would be made for the remaining statuary.” He asked about the work of Sinclair and Lawler and mentioned it was nearing completion. Things must have been relatively complete, because in March 1893 the ladies received a bid of $223.50 for a cast iron fence to surround the monument.

Then a debate ensued between Doyle and the ladies over the cement used in the monument. Doyle wrote that the ladies’ “claim Portland cement was to have been used—which fact I dispute except as regards the stone work.” Doyle wrote on 8 April 1893 accepting $3,200 in Exchange Hotel stock and an association payment of $1,377.50 to Sinclair and Co. toward the $13,600 contract price, less $106 in dispute over the cement. That left Doyle due a balance of $8,916.50.

On April 14 Doyle wrote the ladies requesting that they pay T.L. Fossick $7,400 in lieu of cash to Doyle. The next day he wrote, “I received your letter of 12th inst. It explains why you did not send the full amount but scarcely why you did not send it deducting the 7400$ due Fossick” which he would have gotten “quicker by not interfering.” Doyle claimed payment had been “miserably delayed” as there is no dispute except the small ones which “you offered to settle for 50$” and he claimed the ladies were “liable for interest to the amount of more than double that and the quickest way to stop accruing interest is to remit at once. If a settlement is not reached this coming week I shall be compelled to enforce my charge for interest as well as for extra brickwork.”

The dispute drug on, and three years later, in February 1897, the state legislature appropriated $1,000 “to complete the erection of a monument to the Alabama soldiers who fell in the late war between the states.” The ladies met on June 7th of that year for “deciding upon the statues representing the four branches of the Confederate Service... it was decided to employ the services of Mr. G. C. Doud to paint ideals to be placed on the vacant pedestals of the Confederate Monument. They will add wonderfully to the appearance of the monument.”

In their meeting on 6 September 1897, the minutes discuss a letter from Doyle regarding the contract and a letter from a Capt. Falcones that “advised the Ladies that the Ladies M.A. could not be held responsible for turning over the completion of the monument to Mr. Curbow and Clapp.” In January of 1898 the ladies were still discussing the selection of statues for the base and Doyle, who threatened suit. Later that year they asked a committee to see Mr. Clapp with instructions “to obtain his lowest figures for the remainder of the work.” They also delegated the program and unveiling “to the taste and discretion of the president and secretary.”

Finally, on 20 July 1898, the Huntsville Weekly Democrat reported that the four statues at the base of the Confederate Monument were completed and accepted. Moreover, the paper indicated that coverings were placed over them until the formal unveiling, which was then scheduled for November. As we know, the dedication did not occur until December.

Dedicating the monument

The monument was dedicated on a beautiful day. In words of the secretary of the Ladies Memorial Association, “The dreary clouds which had heralded December were lifted, earth’s tears were dried, and the matchless bonnie blue floated from line to line of the exquisite dome which rounded above the beauteous figure which drew her harmless sword against the sky.”

Like the laying of the cornerstone, the dedication commenced with a parade up Dexter to the monument, followed by several lengthy orations by prominent men of the day who extolled the courage and valor of the Confederate soldiers. The rhetoric compares with the best of the Lost Cause, concentrating on the commitment to principle practiced by the men and women of the Confederacy and defense of the southern states’ decision to secede from the Union to defend their liberty just as the colonies had declared their independence from England less than an century earlier. “Patriotism,” the title of the bronze finial figure, was cited frequently by multiple speakers. The focus of the day was on 1861, the start of the war, and the significance of the monument’s site on Montgomery’s Capitol Hill, the Cradle of the Confederacy.

The dedication ceremony included an oration prior to the unveiling of each of the four granite figures plus a presentation of the monument to the governor and the acceptance. This was followed by an elaborate tableaux vivant featuring thirteen young girls who Ockenden described as “representing the thirteen states of the Confederacy, attired in spotless white, with grey uniform caps, bright crimson sashes and the badges of their various States.”

There is no better description of the long-awaited denouement than that of the succinct secretary: “These young women were representatives of old families and were grouped around the tattered battle flag of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, in the hands of the central figure of ‘The Southern Confederacy,’ represented by Miss Sadie Robinson, who was dressed in deep mourning, the only note of color being the thirteen stars that crowned her jet-black hair. Miss Robinson was the niece of the late devoted Secretary, Miss Jeannie Crommelin, and standing thus in the strikingly fair circle, she recited Father Ryan’s immortal poem, ‘Furl that Banner,’ in perfect taste and deep feeling, which held all hearers spell-bound. Intense silence reigned until broken by ‘Taps’ blown by Capt. Courtney, on the clarinet, as if the sad parting hymn of dying day. Slowly the picture became a dissolving scene and the fair wraiths of the Southern Confederacy were lost to sight. The Rev. Dr. Eager pronounced the benediction. The Montgomery Field Artillery fired salutes—the unveiling was over.”

Life: 1898 to the Present

The annual report of the Ladies Memorial Association for March 5, 1898 through April 20, 1899 reports “the contract for the completion of the work, transferred to Mr. Oliver Clapp has been closed satisfactorily to all parties.” (Curbow had passed away recently.) The record book on 18 July 1899 also indicates that $45.20 was “paid to Mr. Towles for cutting drip, pointing joints, carving inscriptions and cleaning.” At last the monument was complete.

But in less than a decade there was discussion of moving it. A 1905 article in the Advertiser regarding the remodeling of the Capitol and the possible addition of a north wing states: “It is a safe conjecture that there will come from the women a protest if the well beloved pile is in any way discounted by the builders. The result will likely be in the end the removal of the monument to the front of the main building, which may be done at an expenditure of not more than $2,000. This would place it in a much more commanding position than it now occupies and where surrounded with running fountains will add greatly to the beauty of the building and grounds as a whole.” Nothing came of this plan, but in 1933 a capitol renovation project included a $10,000 line item to move the monument to the foot of the steps at the front of the building. In 1966 a third scheme surfaced to move it to a new site atop a hill to the east, but objections were heard regarding the cornerstone being laid by Jefferson Davis.

In 1912 a flight of stone steps was built from Monroe Street to the monument and in 1913 a graveled drive with concrete walks and cement curbs and gutters were installed. Ten convicts and one guard were employed on the 1913 campaign, which cost $871.88.

In 1940 the Advertiser reported the monument had received a much needed cleaning, but gave no details of how it was cleaned, by whom, or with what. On 17 August 1979, Marshall Construction Co. of Montgomery proposed to use “your cleaning materials on the brass portion of the monument” for $8,823 including lifts and scaffolding, but the management of the Capitol apparently decided to do the job themselves. Bob Cason, still a curator at the Alabama Dept. of Archives and History, soon discovered the maintenance crew scrubbing the bronze statuary on the Capitol lawn with Old Dutch Cleanser. Cason drafted a letter for Milo Howard, director of the Archives and History, to send Bob Ingram, who was in charge of Capitol maintenance, explaining that chlorine in Old Dutch would damage the bronze. Cason followed up by providing Incralac to the maintenance staff to brush on the bronzes to prevent the prompt discoloration that would have happened to the brightly scrubbed bronze.

Although no documentation has come to light, there is physical evidence that the bronze relief (like the three other monumental bronze sculptures on the Capitol lawn easily accessible from the ground) has had additional maintenance over the past two decades to touch up the Incralac coating. Patriotism appears to have been cleaned and coated, probably in 1979, but has weathered since then. Traces of a coating that may be Incralac are still perceptible on the finial figure.

Written documentation on the replacement of the fence panels likewise has not materialized, but Capitol maintenance staff seem to remember the work being done in conjunction with repair and partial replacement of the similar fence that once stood on the curb of the streets that surround Capitol Hill. According to Capitol maintenance staff, the flag poles were added in the past decade, prior to the removal of the Confederate flag from the dome of the Capitol.