Southern Monuments

Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia

As we drove through the Chickamauga battlefield at the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, we noted the monuments that had been put up in honor of all the soldiers who had fought in that battle. There were simple and ornate ones, monuments of great size and others that were smaller. Some were in honor of all soldiers from a certain state, whereas others were in memory of those who fought in a certain brigade. All monuments, however, clearly displayed the pride of those who erected them in their fallen heroes, whether Union or Confederate. One very large monument is the one for the northern Wilder Brigade, pictured above. This colossal tower contains steps which lead up to the turret at the top. Much money and effort were apparently expended in order to create this magnificent memorial.

As we drove along one road through the park, the Union monuments were all placed on the right side of the road, and the Confederate ones on the left. We could not help but notice that those monuments erected by Northern states were very much more numerous than those on the other side, and also that the Northern monuments were often bigger and more elaborate.
As we speculated why this might have been the case, especially since we were in Georgia, we figured that most likely it was due to the Southern states not having money to built great and numerous monuments, as had the northerners done. Even though most of the monuments were built years after the war, the devastation was so great in the south that money for such things was not allocated.

As we drove through the park viewing all the monuments and the battlefield itself, we remembered our ancestors, who fought for what they believed in: the lost cause.