We saw a lot of media attention given to Confederate monuments over the summer. These monuments often occupy prominent spaces in Southern towns and cities. Those opposing the monuments typically demand their removal rather than their destruction. In many cases it is suggested that the monuments be placed in a museum where they can be interpreted or at a cemetery or other private location. Pro-Confederate voices often object that doing so would be removing history. What rarely gets talked about is that many Confederate monuments have been moved over the years for many different reasons, long before the modern removal campaigns were even dreamed of.
Over the next few months I will discuss a number of monuments, their placement, funding, construction, and dedication. When we look closely at the history of Confederate monumentation, the arguments used in support of their inviolability fade to dust. In this article I will discuss a couple of fairly obscure monuments in the Florida Panhandle. Their histories are fairly typical. I did not choose to write about them because they are anything other than run of the mill in their stories.
The Walton County, Florida Confederate monument was originally placed at the Euchee Valley Presbyterian Church in 1871. It was then moved to Eucheeanna. Finally it made its way to DeFuniak Springs. Each time it was moved to place it next to the center of county government. In all, it moved more than ten miles during its career. Strangely, Confederate Heritage groups did not claim that moving the monument somehow erased history. Now locals are hoping it will move once more. In 2020 protesters rallied to move the monument and confederate flag to a museum or cemetery, almost anyplace but the courthouse where it now stands. For some reason the earlier moves were okay with the Confederate Heritagers, but the move being asked for now would “erase history.” I am sure the race of those asking for the relocation has nothing to do with it.
Sometimes the dominance of Confederate monuments over the Southern commemorative landscape is dismissed by those who say that if African Americans want more Black representation, they only have to raise money to “put up their own monuments.” This ignores the fact that many Confederate monuments were erected using government cash subsidies on government-owned land. During the Confederate monument building boom these governments were not just white-controlled, in many states Blacks could not even vote. While the monuments often have plaques that say that they were erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, in fact a lot of the money came from the state or local government. These were in effect “socialist monuments.”
Let’s look at another Panhandle monument. The Marianna Florida Confederate Monument was erected in 1921. It was heavily state subsidized, receiving a $5,000 grant from the state. That is worth about $70,000 in today’s money. Mind you, Marianna already had another Confederate monument put up not long after the war! Wasteful government spending?
Source on Erection of the Two Monuments: Honoring the Confederacy in Northwest Florida by W. Stuart Towns The Florida Historical Quarterly Vol. 57, No. 2 (Oct., 1978), pp. 205-212.
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Only a completely ignorant idiot would advocate ripping down such a beautiul and valuable thing.