Appomattox is a bronze statue commemorating Confederate soldiers from Alexandria, Virginia. It was positioned in the center of the intersection of South Washington Street and Prince Street in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. On June 2, 2020, the bronze portion of the statue was removed in response to the protests that followed the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, with the pedestal removed the weekend of June 20.
History
It was created by sculptor M. Caspar Buberl and commissioned and erected by the Robert E. Lee camp of the United Confederate Veterans in 1889. The form of the soldier was designed by John Adams Elder, who modeled it after a painting of the same title that shows a lone Confederate viewing the aftermath of the battle of Appomattox Court House, where Gen. Robert E. Lee ultimately surrendered to Union general Ulysses S. Grant. The dedication ceremony was held on May 24, 1889, and was attended by a vast crowd. It was noted that by noon of that day, a great influx of visitors had swarmed the town of Alexandria to take part in the ceremony, which was overseen by Fitzhugh Lee, who was governor of Virginia at that time. Joseph E. Johnston, former Confederate general of the Army of Tennessee, was also in attendance. The UCV foresaw the controversy that would arise over the monument. Thus, they petitioned the Virginia House of Delegates in the same year to have it protected by state law. On August 20, 1988 a car crash toppled over the statue, though it was later restored. During the same crash, a time capsule that had been placed at the base of the statue was dislodged and a majority of its contents were lost. What little remains of the contents of the time capsule is housed in the 17th Virginia Infantry Regiment's Museum in the nearby R. E. Lee Camp Hall. In September 2016, after a period of public debate, the Alexandria City Council voted unanimously to move the statue to the lawn of the Lyceum, a local museum in one corner of the intersection. However, at that time, state legislators declined to introduce legislation to make this possible, seeing its passage as unlikely. In August 2017, Democratic state lawmakers stated that they want to propose a bill to remove the statue once their legislature reconvenes. In the 2018 Session of the Virginia General Assembly, Alexandria Delegate Mark Levine introduced two such bills to accomplish this -- one unique to Appomattox and the other allowing local control of all of Virginia's Confederate memorials -- but both bills died in a Republican-controlled committee. In the 2020 Session, the first session where Democrats had full control of Virginia Government since 1994, Delegate Delores McQuinn and Mamie Locke introduced similar legislation to allow local control statewide. This became law and is set to go into effect on July 1, 2020. At 7:00 AM on December 14, 2019 a vehicle struck the statue in a car crash and it was slightly turned. However, unlike the 1988 crash, the statue did not topple over. On June 2, 2020, the statue's owner, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, removed the soldier sculpture, but left the base intact until later removal the weekend of June 20. The organization did not inform the city where they had moved the statue. Alexandria had planned to legally remove the statue on the July 1, 2020 effective date of the new statute making the removal of Confederate monuments legal in the state. The owner, United Daughters of the Confederacy, moved the date up because of the protests that followed the May 2020 killing of George Floyd. The city provided traffic control.
Appearance
The statue is cast in bronze and stands upon a square stone base with inscriptions on each side. The figure is that of a lone Confederate soldier, who stands facing south with his arms crossed. His wide-brimmed hat is clasped in his right hand and he is looking down toward the ground with a somber expression on his face. The soldier is facing south, the general direction of the battlefields of the Civil War. The base is made of concrete and marble and bears several inscriptions. The north side of the base reads, "They died in the consciousness of duty faithfully performed." The south side reads, "Erected to the memory of Confederate dead of Alexandria, Va. by their Surviving Comrades, May 24th 1889." The east and west sides bear the names of those from Alexandria who died during the Civil War. A short way from the statue is a stone historic marker with a bronze plaque upon which is engraved the following:
