The Greenwood (Miss) Monument.

In presenting the monument to the veterans of Leflore County, Mrs. T.M. Whetstone, President of the Varina Jefferson Davis Chapter, and under its auspices said:

"To me has been assigned the pleasant duty of presenting to you, veterans of Leflore County, a monument which has been built as a testimonial of the love and honor which you and the noble women of the Confederacy inspire in the hearts of every true son and daughter of the South."

"There is a period in the world's history known as 'The Age of Chivalry.' It was an age when every soldier was incased in a suit of mail as nearly weapon proof as the most skilled and accomplished artisans of the day could make it. But not so with the Confederate soldier; his simple suit of gray composed his only coat of mail."

"Want and privation were the constant attendants on the armies of the South, yet no army that was ever marshaled accomplished greater deeds of valor than those accomplished by the 'ragged Rebels' of the South. No cause was ever dearer to it's people, no cause more just or more righteous than the cause for which the Confederate soldier contended, nor was a cause more gallantly defended."

"This day is, in a happy sense, a supreme day for all of us, especially so for the good people of Leflore County. We have with us as out guests, representatives from all sections of our state who are here with us to join in giving united expressions of our love for those brave hearts of our own soil and kindred in whose struggle and indurance were written one of the great epochs of the world's history - that of the War between the States - and to the Varina Jefferson Davis Chapter, U.D.C., was intrusted by Leflore County a high duty, which we felt also to be a precious privilege. It was ours to carry out the commission of Leflore in erecting her memorial to those of her children who in the home or on the battle field had faithfully done their part in that tremendous conflict, who in there day not only sustained their own high standard of right, loyalty, and honor, but shed on the path yet untrodden of their people the long rays of a light of example which should say to us forever: 'Mississippi expects every man to do his duty.' It is sweet to know that in Mississippi was the earliest establishment of the beautiful custom of observing Memorial Day.[Honored by Mississippi, but the Veteran understands that to Mrs. Williams, of Columbus, Ga., has been given the distinction of inaugurating Memorial Day.-Editor.] It is also a fact undisputed- the question being settled by the General Convention U.D.C.- that the first Confederate Monument was in Mississippi."

"It is the tragedy of human love that often the full appreciation of it comes too late to bring comfort and reward to the hearts that have yielded their best treasure of devotion. Too late, for the story is ended! Not so with us. This day has not been deferred until all whose praise it speaks are beyond the reach of it's music, beyond the sight of it's flowers; for we have with us many of our beloved old heroes who have come to honor us with their presence, and many of the sweet faces which we see before us are the faces of our dear women of the Confederacy. So long as these survive, one of our veterans and one of our revered mothers of the Confederacy, the rythm of our epic beats on, and when we wreathe this memorial we lay the blossoms to the lips of the living, thank God, as well as the graves of the dead."

"The survivors of those stirring and glorious days can rejoice with us, meeting handclasp with smile. Surely if under the sod where others lay, could they know, they too would tremble with an answering thrill as they heard and remembered songs and felt that their comrads were gathered together as in old times, and that the women, their children, and their grandchildren were all gathered in token of love and pride as they commemerate the deeds of the heroes of fifty years ago, and that they were seeing with tear-dimmed vision this monument rise from masses of bloom as fresh and fragrant as is the memory of the past to us."

"This storied stone standing here before us with its sculpture and inscriptions is dear to us, and to each of us it stands for and expresses our very hearts, our highest, our fondest hopes. And now, honored and beloved veterans of the Hugh A. Reynolds Camp, U.C.V., in the name of our patriotic Board of Supervisors and the citizens of Leflore County, we of the Varina Jefferson Davis Chapter, U.D.C., present it to you as its custodians with a prayer in our hearts that it will be pleasing and acceptable to you. It will be a treasured and eloquent addition to the growing beauty of Leflore's county seat, and it will be an impressionable sign to all generations of our people of high duty faithfully done and loyally and lovingly remembered."

Dedication of Confederate Monument in Greenwood, MS, October 9, 1913.

Facing the courthouse(not shown in picture) is a life size statue of a Confederate woman, who stands with her hands uplifted, watching in the Battle of Charleston Harbor between the Confederates and the United States navy. She has engaged in that battle a husband and a son, whom she has willingly given up to her country. Under the feet on this figure are the words, dedicating her husband and son to her country: "Father, thy will be done."

Lower down on the monument is engraved: "To the Confederate women! None has told the story of whose heart and life were a scrifice, offered as valiantly and unselfishly upon the alter of her Southland as any warrior's life upon the battle field; so to her in part we have placed this monument, that all may know she loved her country, and enfold her memory in eternal glory, cherishing it forever."

On the other side of the monument is a group figure, and under it is inscribed: "Leflore County's tribute to her sons and daughters of the Southern Confederacy, erected under the auspices of the Varina Jefferson Davis Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, October 9, 1913."

Next page.

Back to Confederate Monument.