Draw the Sword

Location: West Confederate Avenue.

Monument Specifications: An equestrian portrait of General Robert E. Lee stands atop a rectangular granite monument that is adorned on the front with a large bronze figure group depicting Virginia troops. General Lee holds the horse’s reins in his proper left hand and holds his hat in his proper right hand. On the base figure group, the central figure is an equestrian soldier holding a Confederate flag. To the left of him are two soldiers with rifles standing guard, and one soldier aiming a pistol. To the right of him is a soldier swinging a bayonet, a soldier about to aim his rifle, and a soldier blowing a bugle. It is the first state monument erected at Gettysburg by a former member of the Confederacy, and is installed on Seminary Ridge near where General Robert E. Lee watched Longstreet’s assault on July 3, 1863. The Virginia State Monument is the largest and most expensive Confederate monument on the battlefield. It was also the first monument erected to honor Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg. The sculpture of Lee on Traveller stands 14′ tall. The pedestal itself rises 28 feet.

Dedication Date: Commissioned March 9, 1908. Cast 1912. Installed 1913. Dedicated June 8, 1917.

Sculptor/Artist/Company: Sievers, Frederick William, 1872-1966, sculptor. Kappes, Charles, contractor. Tiffany and Company, founder. Van Amringe Granite Company, fabricator.

Main Inscription: VIRGINIA TO HER SONS AT GETTYSBURG

Details: Additional Close Up Photographs of this monument.

Comments on this Post

One Response to “* Virginia State Monument”

1. Jack Mountcastle says:

   March 29, 2009 at 9:23 am

   Jenny,

   I’ll be at Gettysburg for my annual staff ride with a group of 15 West Point cadets. We will stop at the Virginia Memorial, as always, and look across that mile of open ground to the little copse of trees. And the cadets will get quiet — and think. They will be commissioned as Second Lieutenants in six weeks.