Introduction
This tour is designed to guide you through monuments in the Augusta area that are in some way related to the Civil War and the Lost Cause. This tour is designed presuming that you’re starting at the Morris Museum of Art, where I have a temporary exhibition on display on a related subject matter. If you’re finding this after that exhibition’s run is over – Spring of 2023 – then you can see the expanded digital version of my exhibit at AugustaMonuments.com/Exhibit. This tour is envisioned as a bike tour for the simple reason that I find the bicycle to be an absolutely delightful method of travel. I do recognize that not everyone is willing or able to travel this distance via bicycle. Every stop on the tour, save for the very middle of a pedestrian-only bridge is easily viewable from a car. So, you’re certainly welcome to drive from point to point as well. The route is viewable above.
On this page you can see a list of points and their locations, read descriptions of the monuments, and find audio versions of those descriptions. You can also download these onto your favorite podcast client if you prefer. This will enable you to download the recordings in advance. Each stop’s description will be listed as a stand-alone episode. This way you can listen to them, and visit them, in any order you please. I’ve provided a route in an order that I think makes sense logistically. You can download the route from the website.
This tour will travel to various sites around the Augusta area and even ventures into North Augusta, South Carolina. As designed, the tour is a little over twelve miles long. It’s mostly flat, but there is some elevation to get to the Meriwether Monument in North Augusta. It’s early in the route, and then it’s all downhill after that. The bulk of the tour is on pedestrian-only trails and surfaces. However, travel between some points on the tour does necessitate traveling on public roadways including residential streets in North Augusta and some streets in Downtown Augusta. I encourage operating a bicycle with the very best of safety practices. Be predictable, be aware, and be safe. Wear a helmet and use lights, particularly if daylight is fading.
Flags Along Riverwalk Park
Directions & Maps:
This installation appears twice – the first is just outside the doors of the Morris on the Riverwalk park. The second is at the Riverwalk Park at Eighth Street. The second installation is first point of interest on the map at the top of the page. The flags are flying just past the stairs that take you down to eighth street near the 2nd City Distillery. There is a plaque, titled “The Flags,” describing each flag in a planter that sits midway between the Bonnie Blue and Georgia Secession flags at eighth street.
Riverwalk Park has numerous flags on display. The intent of the display is to highlight the various flags that flew over Augusta throughout history. These flags pickup in the colonial era with flags of colonial France, Spain, and England. There are also several early American flags. This display also includes several Confederate flags. One flagpole was previously flying the First National Flag of the Confederacy, although this was taken down at some point and replaced with the current flag of the State of Georgia – which just happens to be identical to the flag that it replaced save for the seal of the state of Georgia flying in the top left corner. One such flag flies immediately outside the Morris, with its marker on the ground still indicating that it is a Confederate flag – there is some evidence that this marker had something placed over it that has since been removed or fallen away.
Bonnie Blue Flag
This flag is also known as the flag of the Republic of West Florida. The Republic of West Florida was a republic that lasted for less than three months after the region claimed independence from Spanish rule before being annexed into the United States. This occurred in the fall of 1810. The Bonnie Blue flag was also associated with the Texas independence movement. During the Civil War, the flag returned to prominence when it became a sort of unofficial “national” flag of the Confederacy in the early months of the war. The Bonnie Blue flew over Confederate batteries as they fired on United States military personnel at Fort Sumpter. Aside from its time as a pseudo-official flag of the Confederacy, the Bonnie Blue became the title of a popular wartime marching song. This flag flies immediately between the Morris and the Marriot, as well as again further downriver. At its base, the inscription reads “Bonnie Blue Flag Jan 19, 1861- Feb 8, 1861.” This flag, as indicated by the dates below it, are roughly a period post-declaration of secession and pre-formation of the Confederate States of America under the provisional constitution.
The Bonnie Blue flag is perhaps best known from its reference in Gone With the Wind, where Rhett and Scarlett nickname their daughter “Bonnie Blue” after the color of her eyes.
State of Georgia Flag
This lesser-known flag flies next to the Bonnie Blue immediately outside the Morris and again further downstream. This flag, a single red star in a field of white, is in the same vein as the Bonnie Blue – a lone star indicating a state’s willingness to “go it alone.” The base of the flagpole has the inscription “State of Georgia Jan 19, 1861-Feb 8, 1861.” The first date is the date which Georgia officially attempted to secede, with the latter being the day after the adoption of the Confederate constitution, formally creating the provisional government of the Confederacy.
This flag is a replica of a flag which flew over the arsenal here in Augusta from the time of secessionist control over the arsenal until the provisional Confederate government was organized. An original version of this flag, along with more information about the arsenal and Augusta’s history during the war, is on view in the Augusta Museum of History.
A final note on these flags – it is, of course, curious that someone thought to remove the Confederate flag, replacing it with a state flag, while leaving up the Bonnie Blue Flag and the Georgia Secession flag. These flags aren’t necessarily widely known, but they do clearly state what they are at the base. If, as it clearly is, the Confederate flag was removed because of its inherent nature as offensive, then the Bonnie Blue and Secession flag should meet the same fate.
Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge at Fifth Street
Directions and Map:
The Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge is labeled as “Stop Two” on the map at the top of the page. It is where fifth street crosses the Savannah River. Two sets of near-identical plaques installed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, one at each the Georgia and South Carolina side of the bridge, dedicate the bridge in honor of Jefferson Davis.
This bridge was recently (fall of 2022) reopened as a pedestrian and bicycle-only facility. It is quite lovely, as you can see, with benches and shade structures. There are even two sculptures as part of an art walk – one called “soccer dude” and one called “ruthless,” which is the metal shark. An enjoyable, modern, linear park out across the Savannah River, joining North Augusta and Augusta. This bridge is, however, also known as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge. To understand why the troubling nature of this bridge goes deeper than just its name, I need to explain what occurred at this bridge in 1876.
On the Fourth of July in 1876, members of Company A, 18th Regiment, South Carolina National Guard were accosted while parading and drilling. The National Guardsmen were Black. The men who accosted them were white, members of a local elite planter family. There are conflicting accounts of the specifics but eventually, a court hearing was called in a few days. Before the hearing could finish, armed members of a white supremacist, fascistic mob known as the Red Shirts arrived, demanding that the National Guardsmen surrender their weapons. Reports indicate that there were approximately 100 Red Shirts to some 30 National Guardsmen. The Guardsmen were pinned in their “arsenal,” which was really a storeroom that served as their meeting place. The Red Shirts opened fire on Company A; Company A returned fire. One Red Shirt, Thomas Meriwether, died – a gunshot wound to the head killed him instantly. This enraged the Red Shirts further as they laid siege to the arsenal. Running low on ammunition, severely outnumbered, and having learned that the Red Shirts were bringing a cannon from Augusta’s arsenal, the members of Company A began to slip out of their positions and flee. Two of these fleeing men were killed immediately. Throughout the subsequent evening and night, some two-dozen more Black men were captured by the Red Shirts. They were brought to the base of the bridge linking Augusta and Hamburg- in approximately the same location as this bridge on which we currently stand. The Red Shirts formed what was known as the “Dead Ring” from which they debated the fates of the men they held hostage, subsequently murdering several in cold blood. At least four men were murdered here, with others injured.
Ninety-four men were indicted for their roles in the attack, though none were ever prosecuted or tried. This event, known as the Hamburg Massacre, was the first in a wave of white supremacist violence that sought to reestablish white, conservative control over South Carolina. This event kicked off a campaign of violence in 1876 that saw the election of Wade Hampton, III, himself a former Confederate, to Governor of SC. This marked the end of Reconstruction in South Carolina
At the base of this bridge (on both the Georgia and Carolina side) are plaques, from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, dedicating the bridge in 1930s to Jefferson Davis, erstwhile president of the Confederacy. In December of 2021, these plaques were absent – removed during the renovation project – only to be reinstalled in immaculate and shiny condition. A marble marker in the middle of the bridge also notes it as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge. Actual taxpayer dollars went into refurbishing these portions of the bridge. If not removed, they could have easily been left in their previous condition. Instead, money was spent to refurbish them, including the installation of new lighting to increase their visibility.
Meriwether Monument
Directions and Maps:
The Meriwether Monument sits in Calhoun Park, just beyond downtown North Augusta. There are many ways to get there from the Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge, but the route at the top of this page shows the simplest route – Shoreline drive to Riverside Blvd, to East Buena Vista, to West Avenue. It avoids major and busy roads, making it safer for bicycle traffic.
This monument is to Thomas Mackie Meriwether. Meriwether was the one white man who died in the Hamburg Massacre, the event we discussed at some length at the previous stop. Meriwether was present in the Red Shirt mob attacking members of Company A, 18th Regiment of the South Carolina National Guard. Meriwether died attempting to reestablish overt white supremacy as the law of the land in South Carolina. There is no other way of interpreting his death. Don’t take it from me – read the engraving on the monument. “In his life he exemplified the highest ideals of Anglo-Saxon civilization. By his death he assured to the children of his beloved land the supremacy of that ideal.”
This monument was erected in 1916 with funding from the South Carolina State Legislature. The early 1900s and 1910s was a period where there was a substantial spike in Lost Cause sentiment. The nationalistic ideologies that would sweep Europe into the First World War were not confined to Europe – similar ideas were swirling around America, as well. Ideas of forging a national identity, of firmly defining what it meant to be American, made their way into monuments as well. In the period surrounding the First World War, Black soldiers returned from fighting in Europe to a homeland that was unwelcoming. There was also a spike in monument construction in this interwar period, as Black soldiers and citizens continued to forge an identity as Americans. At the same time, there was simultaneously substantial pushback from the majority white power structure defining “American” as predominantly white. Monuments built in this period, certainly more so than those built in the immediate post-Civil War years, were designed to intimidate as much, if not more than to memorialize.
Confederate Powderworks Chimney
Directions and Maps:
There are multiple ways to get from the Meriwether Monument to the Powderworks, but the map at the top of the page shows a route that minimizes time spent on major roadways. From the Meriwether Monument, backtrack down West Avenue then cross the Savannah River on 13th Street. Once back in Georgia join the Bartram Trail, taking it to Lake Olmstead Park. From Olmstead, follow the Canal Trail downstream towards the tall brick chimney.
This is a fascinating monument. Some describe this as the first Confederate monument ever constructed. Describing it in that way is sort of a rhetorical trick, but they’re not entirely wrong. Let’s explain. The chimney you see is all that remains of what was once a massive industrial complex spanning well over a mile. The powderworks are purported to be the “only permanent structure” ever constructed by the Confederacy – everything else they utilized for government or wartime function was either seized, commandeered, otherwise stolen, or temporary. The Confederate Powderworks was the second-largest gun powder factory in the world, and it produced nearly three million pounds of gunpowder between its completion in 1862 and the end of the war in 1865. The rest of the facilities of the powderworks were dismantled following the unconditional surrender of the Confederacy and the bricks were repurposed to construct the Sibley Mill we see today behind the chimney. In 1872, Colonel Rains the designer and commandant of the powderworks asked that the chimney remain as a “monument to the Confederacy.” City officially gave the Chimney to a Confederate survivors’ association in 1879 to beautify and protect it. The Sons of Confederate veterans raised almost 200,000 to restore the chimney in 2010. So, the structure was built in 1862 and it is a Confederate monument.
The highlight here, however, is really the Augusta Canal, without which the powderworks would not have been constructed. The canal was first completed in 1845 and was ultimately successful in attracting industry to the region – Augusta was one of a relatively few manufacturing centers in the south in advance of the Civil War. The canal was widened in 1875. It is the oldest continuously operating hydropower canal in the United States. There is a fall line about ten miles upstream from this point in the Savannah River – the water drops dramatically from that point. The canal keeps water elevated; harnessing the power released by it dropping at controlled points generates considerable power.
Greene Street Cenotaph
Directions and Maps:
There is not a direct route to the Greene Street Monument from the Powderworks, but the route provided at the top of the page minimizes time spent on larger roads. Its approximate address is 436 Greene Street. Continue down the Canal Path until its terminus at 13th Street. Cross 13th Street and continue in an easterly direction on Fenwick Street until 11th Street. Take 11th Street north until turning right onto Greene Street. Continue on Greene Street until you reach the Cenotaph in the median just before Greene Street Crosses under US25.
This monument was completed in 1873. It is a cenotaph – a type of monument (sometimes an empty tomb) erected specifically to honor people whose remains are elsewhere. As far as Confederate Monuments go, this one is almost unproblematic. Most of the monument is dedicated to a list of names of local soldiers who died. This is true and earnest mourning; people should be allowed the grace to mourn the loss of life suffered in a conflict. However, this monument is not free from Lost Cause influence – one side bears the inscription “These men died in defense of the principles of the declaration of independence.” This direct linkage of the Civil War to the American Revolution was common in secessionist sympathies in advance of the war, and in the Lost Cause after the war. It was the type of language that was used to shift the motivations of the war away from issues of enslavement and towards a struggle for independence from tyranny. If not for this line, this monument would be entirely unproblematic, it would be no different from the monuments elsewhere in the area to Vietnam or conflicts in the Middle East.
Broad Street Confederate Monument
Directions and Map:
The Broad Street Monument is at approximately 735 Broad Street. From the Greene Street Cenotaph, take Greene Street to Seventh Street. At the intersection of Seventh and Broad Street, you should be able to see the Confederate Monument, which sits midway between Seventh and Eighth in a median on Broad.
This seventy-six-foot tall monument looms large over us, and over the Broad Street landscape. The buildings on either side of this monument are considerably younger than the monument. At the time of its construction, this monument towered over much of the cityscape. These trees were not yet planted. The monument stood by itself in the middle of the very broad street. Its place of prominence in the community at the time of its construction cannot be overstated.
At the top is a statue of an everyman soldier, modeled after Augustan Berry Benson, who famously never surrendered. Above each corner of the base are life-size statues of four Confederate generals, Stonewall Jackson, Thomas R. R. Cobb, William H. T. Walker, and Robert E. Lee. Each of these five men came from slaveholding families.
In the still rigidly patriarchal postbellum south, mourning the dead was considered women’s work. This monument, erected by the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Augusta, was custom-made from fine Italian Carrara marble with a granite base and cost over $17,000 when it was commissioned in 1875 – nearly $500,000 in today’s money. The majority of monuments across the American South were ordered out of catalogs and were relatively inexpensive creations from regional fabricators – a far cry from the high art and craftsmanship of a bespoke Italian creation.
This monument was at the bleeding edge of a shift in monument construction. In the first decades after the war, most monuments were erected in cemeteries or on battlefields and were generally earnest expressions of mourning and grief. Taking a more macro look, most Confederate monuments nationwide were constructed sometime after the 1890s as expressions of Jim Crow-era white supremacy and prioritized overtly supporting the Lost Cause instead of merely mourning. The Broad Street monument is an early example of a monument that shifts from mourning to lionization, coming decades before most other monuments that share its message and nature. The base of the monument has a series of inscriptions glorifying the Confederacy and its cause.
Expressions of Black citizenship during Reconstruction, like celebratory parades for New Year’s Day or the Fourth of July, had agitated many white Augustans who were eager to reclaim public spaces as Reconstruction failed. More than ten thousand people, a full third of the county’s population at the time, attended the dedication festivities in 1878. Stonewall Jackson’s widow was a guest of honor at the dedication. The headlining oration of the dedication, given by former Confederate officer Charles Jones, Jr., was unapologetic and brazen in lauding the cause for which Confederates had fought:
“with rapturous joy do we bail the dedication of this goodly monument. With kindling hearts do we respond to the inspirations and the memories which its presence bespeaks. We glory in the rectitude of the cause, and exult in the valor of the men symbolized by its towering form and martial outlines.”
“For the past we have no apologies to offer, no excuses to render, no regrets to nitter, save that we failed in our high endeavor; no tears to shed except over withered hopes and the graves of our departed worthies. We yielded in the end because we were overborne by superior numbers and weightier munitions. Any pledges given will be by us duly observed; but it is well known, alike by friend and stranger, that nothing has been absolutely determined except the question of comparative strength. The issue furnished only a physical solution of the moral, social, and political propositions involved in the gigantic struggle. The sword never does, and never can compass other than a forcible arbitrament in matters of conscience, principle, and inalienable right. Even now the fundamental claims, the political privileges, and the vested rights in support of which the Southern people expended their blood and treasure, are, in a moral point of view, unaffected by the result of the contest.”
Excerpt from dedication speeches given by Charles Jones, Jr.in 1878
This monument was erected to celebrate a cause to which white supremacy was central. The leaders of the Confederate cause were clear in this with their words and with their actions. The people who funded this monument were clear when constructing it that they felt the same way as those who had fought for the cause. Their words are available in plain English to corroborate this conclusion. The people of Augusta today are not responsible for the harm caused by the monument’s makers. But every day that the monument continues to exist in its current form and current place contributes new harm, stacking further indignities on the wrongs of the past. We, as a community of citizens, are party to this ongoing harm if we do nothing about it. Silence on the matter is complicity and is a tacit endorsement of the principles the monument memorializes.
Augusta Monuments 