Midtown - Downtown in Columbia in Richland County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)

South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Monument

Photographed By Mike Stroud, August 16, 2009

1. South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Monument

Inscription.
[North Face]: To The
South Carolina Women
Of The Confederacy
1861-1865
—
Reared
By The Men Of Their State
1909-11 [West face]: In this monument
Generations unborn shall hear the voice
Of a grateful people
Testifying to the sublime devotion
Of the women of South Carolina
In their country's need.
Their unconquerable spirit
Strengthened the thin lines of gray.
Their tender care was solace to the stricken.
Reverence for God
and unfaltering faith in a righteous cause
Inspired heroism that survived
The immolation of sons
and courage that bore the agony of suspense
and the shock of disaster.
The tragedy of the Confederacy may be forgotten
But the fruits of the noble service
Of the Daughters of the South
Are our perpetual heritage. [South Face]: At clouded dawn of peace
they faced the future
undismayed by problems
and fearless of trials
in loving effort to heal
their country's wounds
and with conviction
that from the ashes of ruin
would come resurrection
and truth
with glorious vindication
Inscription by William E. Gonzales.
(East face)
When

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reverses followed victories
When want displaced plenty
When mourning for the flower of southern manhood
darkened countless homes
When government tottered and chaos threatened
the women were steadfast and unafraid.
They were
Unchanged in their devotion
Unshaken in their patriotism
Unwearied in ministrations
Uncomplaining in sacrifices.
Splendid in fortitude
they, strong while they wept,
in the rebuilding after the desolation
their virtues stood
as the supreme citadel
with strong towers of faith and hope
around which civilization rallied
and triumphed.

Erected 1912 by State of South Carolina,United Sons & Daughters of the Confederacy, South Carolina.

Topics and series. This historical marker and monument is listed in these topic lists: War, US Civil • Women. In addition, it is included in the United Daughters of the Confederacy series list.

Location. 33° 59.926′ N, 81° 1.947′ W. Marker is in Columbia, South Carolina, in Richland County. It is in Midtown - Downtown. Marker is on Pendleton Street, on the right when traveling west. Located between Assembly and Sumter Streets, on the south lawn of Capital grounds. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Columbia SC 29201, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least

Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, north face image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Mike Stroud, August 16, 2009

2. Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, north face

10 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Capitol Complex (within shouting distance of this marker); Liberty Bell Reproduction (within shouting distance of this marker); Strom Thurmond (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Wade Hampton (about 300 feet away); Richardson Square (about 400 feet away); Quoin-Stones (about 600 feet away); Town Theatre (about 600 feet away); Sherman’s Artillery (about 600 feet away); Spanish-American War Cannon (about 600 feet away); African-American History Monument (about 600 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Columbia.

Regarding South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Monument. Siris entry: Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy, (sculpture).
• Artist: Ruckstull, Frederic Wellington, 1853-1942, sculptor.
• Fonderie Nationale des Bronzes, founder.
• Wilson & Sompayrac, architectural firm.
• Title: Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy, (sculpture).
• Date: Commissioned 1909. 1911. Dedicated April 11, 1912.
• Medium: Sculpture: bronze; Base: granite.
• Owner: Co Administered by State of South Carolina, Building Services, Columbia, South Carolina
• Co Administered by United Sons & Daughters of the Confederacy, South Carolina
• Located South Carolina State

Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, west face image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Mike Stroud, August 16, 2009

3. Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, west face

House, Columbia, South Carolina
• Control_Number: 77006081 Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Also see . . . Frederick Ruckstull. Frederick Wellington Ruckstull (May 22, 1853 - May 26, 1942) was a French-born American sculptor and art critic. (Submitted on August 29, 2011, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)

Additional commentary.
1. Frederick Wellington Ruckstull and the SC Women of the Confederacy Monument
With the State House substantially complete, attention turned to the condition of the grounds. The Wade Hampton monument was the first major project and it fore-shadowed things to come. Frederick Wellington Ruckstull (1853-1942), the sculptor who made the Hampton monument, would later make both the Women of the Confederacy statue and the columnar memorial to the Revolutionary Partisan Generals. All would be in the American Renaissance Style; all were related to specific works of art elsewhere, and all expressed specifically local sentiments...

The Hampton Monument was created to honor one in individual, and its history is straightforward. by contract, the Women's Monument tries to summarize the multifaceted, historic role of a group, and Ruckstull designed it with another commission in mind; consequently, its history is interestingly

Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, south face image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Mike Stroud, August 16, 2009

4. Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, south face

convoluted. The idea of erecting monuments to the women who supported the Confederacy on the home front was discussed in Louisiana in 1895 and endorsed at the annual United Confederate Veterans meeting in Richmond in 1896. The following year at a meeting of the Camp Hampton Confederate Veterans in Greenville, the idea was proposed in South Carolina. The Greenville veterans determined to raise $10,000, but the project languished, probably for lack of money. Their idea was revived and expanded in 1906 by General C. Irvine Walker, a Charlestonian, who proposed a regional campaign to raise $25,000 to fund the creation of a major original bronze. He pointed out that the southern states could pool resources and "invite the artists of the world to compete," then a committee would select the design most emblematic of "the magnificent lessons of the sublime heroism of our Confederate mothers" and reproduce the winning design of a modest cost for each state.

Walker's proposal was approved at the 1906 convention of the USCV, and The Confederate Veteran, the official newsletter of the United Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Sons of Veterans, and other organizations publicized the project. As chairman of the Women's Memorial Committee, Walker received some eighty proposals. Among the unsuccessful entries was one by F.W. Ruckstull. The competition

Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, east face image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Mike Stroud, August 16, 2009

5. Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Marker, east face

submissions do not survive, but Ruckstull's description, published in the Veteran, shows his design for the competition was later used as the South Carolina Women's Monument...

Before a final decision was reached in the regional competition, the South Carolina legislature established a commission "to Provide a Monument to the Heroism, Fidelity and Fortitude of the Women of South Carolina during the War Between the Confederate States and the United States." General Walker was appointed to the commission and they contacted Ruckstull to create the monument. Once again, as he had done with the Hampton Monument, Ruckstull went to France, this time to St. Leu near Paris, where he spent the next two years preparing the full-sized model. The sculpture was cast in Brussels, then shipped via New York, and unveiled on the south side of the State House, facing south, on April 11, 1912. In Columbia for the unveiling of the Women's Monument, he told a local reporter:

"...there is a large symbolism in the group. The figure at the rear and the two smaller figures at the sides stand for the State of South Carolina coming joyfully to crown the noble womanhood of the Confederacy. The winged figure predominating is a Victory, the idea being that in her deeds the woman of the Confederacy was victor of every situation, whatever may have been the outcome of the armies.

The

Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Mike Stroud, August 16, 2009

6. Monument to South Carolina Women of the Confederacy

figure of the Confederate matron is seated in a throne of State with the Bible, the main comfort and strength of the women of the Confederacy, in her lap. Her dress is of homespun of the plain character worn by the women during the war. She is looking out into space with a firm, serene and courageous look, meditating over the past and the future." (Source: Creating the South Carolina State House by John Morrill Bryan (1999), pg 125, 128, 130.)

— Submitted August 29, 2011, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.

Text on the child's scroll image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Brandon Fletcher, October 10, 2011

7. Text on the child's scroll

"Enacted by the General Assembly of the state of South Carolina"

Photographed By Brian Scott, July 25, 2011

8. South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Monument

Photographed By Brian Scott, July 25, 2011

9. South Carolina Women of the Confederacy Monument

Credits. This page was last revised on February 16, 2023. It was originally submitted on August 25, 2009, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 3,453 times since then and 188 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on August 25, 2009, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina. 7. submitted on August 14, 2015, by Brandon Fletcher of Chattanooga, Tennessee. 8, 9. submitted on August 29, 2011, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. • Craig Swain was the editor who published this page.