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Monument's story
depends on the teller
Memorial depicting
Confederate soldier
stands outside Union
By The Associated Press
Monday August 23, 2004
UNION -- While concentrating on the S-curve leading into town, it's easy to miss the lone marble Confederate soldier atop his granite pedestal surrounded by pasture land and wildflowers.
How the monument to Monroe County's Civil War soldiers came to rest in this valley in southeastern West Virginia depends on who is telling the tale.
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Some say the almost 20-foot-tall monument was placed in the field at the turn of the 20th century in the hope the town of Union would prosper and the soldier would become a town centerpiece. Others claim that continued divided loyalties between the North and South may have forced it to be placed in the field north of town.
"It wasn't their intention to have it out there by itself," said Monroe County Commissioner Craig Mohler.
Standing at parade rest, the soldier comes into sight as motorists travel south on U.S. 219. According to Mohler, all Confederate soldier statues facing south stand at parade rest.
"If they are facing north, then the rifle is supposed to be raised . . . I think that is standard protocol," he said.
A white picket fence separates the grassy knoll where the blue limestone, Barre granite and Italian marble monument stands from the rest of the field. The plot was donated to the Daughters of the Confederacy in the late 1890s by a descendent of Hugh Caperton, a congressman from 1813 to 1815.
"Originally, the statue was to be placed in the middle of Main Street, north of the courthouse," said Ron Ripley, a member of the Monroe County Historical Society. "It was going to be in the middle with a carriage drive around either side. I don't know why it was changed."
This area of southeastern West Virginia was occupied by both Union and Confederate armies and the idea for a Confederate monument came in 1894 at the first Confederate Reunion.
"Union was a great place that changed hands several times during the Civil War," said Union Rotary Club member Marion Shiflet. "It's one of those things we get a lot of people up to see the monument and there have been a lot of stories told."
One story is influential townspeople at the time could have been the deciding factor on where the statue would stand.
"Some say the town (control) was in the hands of the northerners and they made the southerners move it out of town," Shiflet said.
Finally in September 1901, the monument was dedicated.
According to The Monroe Watchman newspaper, 12,000 people attended, including representatives of the 11 southern states.
On the front of the statue an inscription reads "Confederate Soldiers of Monroe County." Also inscribed is a quotation from Gen. Robert E. Lee's farewell address to the army: "There is a true glory and a true honor -- the glory of duty done, the honor of integrity of principle."
"People are proud of their heritage," Mohler said, whether they be sympathizers of the North or South.
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