In 1895, the Yale Daily News, a student newspaper, began campaigning for Yale to honor its students who fought and died in the Civil War and the Revolution. Twenty years earlier, Harvard had put up a massive commemorative hall, but Yale had doe nothing to commemorate the dead from its own student body. In 1909 a memorial commission who first meeting was presided over by William Howard Taft was created to plan the memorial. The members were half from the South and half from the North, with a Union and a Confederate veteran serving as co-chairs.
While this may have seemed fair, let us recall that no former slaves were on the commission, and, for that matter, there were no people of color.
As fundraising increased, the spokesman for the commission, Talcot Russell, stopped referring to the “Civil War” and instead began referring to The War Between the States. In a pamphlet published by the commission, it said; “No memorial now erected will breathe any spirit of exultation in the victory of one portion of a common country, or the defeat of another.” This is now known as the “Reconciliationist” path of commemoration. The alumni was the be heroicized for there deeds of valor, not for the causes they fought for. Both sides causes were seen as having equal value. Russell said that it should not be said of Yale men who fought for the Confederacy that “they died for the perpetuation of human slavery.”
The sculptor commissioned was Henry Hering.
Below is one of the entrances into the memorial.
According to Yale historian David Blight; “Thus, Yale in its official wisdom could not and would not create a memorial to Union victory nor to the end of slavery. All causes and consequences of a war that had freed 4 million people from bondage, slaughtered as many as 700,000 people, laid to waste large swaths of the South, saved and reinvented the American Constitution and nation, and made possible the freedom of the mind that a university celebrated in its very essence had to be dissolved into misty sentiments about unity and the strained image of “mingled dust.””
Russell said that “We of the North have much of error to confess. It is fair that we should ask forgiveness of our Southern brethren for the disasters and needless humiliation caused them by many of our acts during the so-called ‘reconstruction’ period.”
While the memorial was not planned around an outreach to Southern students, by the time the memorial was finished, Yale was seeing an influx of white Southern applicants.
Above is the back of the memorial hall. Outside is an American flag.
On the right right is memorial hall.
In front of the hall is a monument to those who soon thereafter lost their lives in World War I.
The rotunda at the main entrance is a popular place for students to meet, with many visitors having their pictures taken here. While the site was originally planned for those lost during the Civil War and Revolution, it now honors alumni from all of America’s wars.
There is even a prop for photo taking.
The door and stained glass are tourist stops on visits to Yale.
Over the doorway is the inscription “We who must live salute you who have strength to die.” A odd epigram.
Here below is where the plaques are displayed with the Civil War dead of Yale.
My wife contemplated the great loss of life, but she wondered why they were guarded by naked men. Under the industrial carpet are etched in the floor the lines of the poem “The Blue and the Gray,” which David Blight says is another attempt to reconcile the Union and Confederate without African Americans.
In 1915 there was an elaborate ceremony to dedicate the Civil War memorial. No mention was made of slavery, white supremacy, or Emancipation. Unlike several other dedications, no Black veterans were asked to appear.
The building itself is handsome. It is quite large and serves instructional as well as commemorative purposes. The inscription of the names are hard to distinguish on the walls. In fact, the photos show them more clearly than we could see them while were seeing them live. Most of the entries show the full name of the alumni, their class, their rank in the military, their unit, and where they died, if know.
While the memorial was set up for the Civil War dead, there are vastly more names now from the later wars engraved in other places in the building.
There are four figured on the wall. The one below is Memory with an hour glass in her hand.
At the opposite end is Courage.
Courage’s shield has Yale’s Coat of Arms.
One the opposite wall is Peace. Her left arm holds an olive branch, the symbol of peace.
Peace in somber, but she hold the future, a baby, who is reaching out for the olive branch. Of course, by 1915, World War I was underway.
There is an electronic screen a few yards from the memorial that says that slavery is not mentioned in the memorial. This was only put up in recent years. As David Blight points out, Yale had an intimate connection to slavery during its first century and a half of its existence.
Below is Devotion.
As you can see in the blow-up, some are Union and others are Confederate. Some were “killed” and others “died”. Chaplains and Surgeons were lost during the war.
Several were officers of the United States Colored Troops.
Some died at Big Bethel on June 10 of 1861, before major battles had even taken place. Others died on Long Island or New York City, far from battlefields.
Some were with the Christian Commission or the Sanitary Commission. Others were staff officers for Confederate generals.
If you want to visit the memorial, it is open during business hours from Monday to Saturday. I went there one Sunday and it was closed. It may also be closed if the school is closed, I am not sure.
Memorial Hall is where Grove and College Streets intersect. There was paid two hour parking across the street. The building is also known as Woolsey Hall after a 2,000 seat performance space located in the building.
Just two blocks south of the memorial hall is the oldest building on campus, Connecticut Hall. This was partially built by slaves in 1750. A quarter century later, Yale alumni Nathan Hale was executed struggling for freedom and his statue stands outside a building constructed by slaves.
All color photos were taken by Pat Young. To see more sites Pat visited CLICK HERE for Google Earth view.
Sources:
Connecticut’s Civil War Monuments
Civil War Monuments of Connecticut by Dave Pelland
Yale and Slavery-A History by David Blight
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
