View complete article and references at Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina at: https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/68

Description: A Confederate soldier stands at the ready, holding a rifle pointing at an angle toward the sky. The statue stands on top of a tall, multi-sectioned column divided by two platforms. A raised image of the Confederate flag is on the column, which stands on top of a multi-stepped base. The entire structure is approximately thirty-five feet high.

Inscription:
Front: OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD / PEACE TO THEIR ASHES: / HONOR TO THEIR MEMORY: / GLORY TO THEIR CAUSE / 1861-1865

Side: VANCE COUNTY CHAPTER / U.D.C./ NOV. 10 1910

On all four faces at top: C.S.A.

Dedication date: 11/10/1910

Creator: A. S. Blount of Suffolk Marble Works, Unspecified

Materials & Techniques: Bronze, Warren County granite

Sponsor: The Vance County Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Vance County, and the City of Henderson each contributed approximately $1,000.

Cost: $3630

Unveiling & Dedication: The unveiling ceremony was attended by a large crowd which included school children (reportedly six hundred), approximately one hundred and fifty Confederate veterans, bands, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The mayor of Henderson, Henry T. Howell, was the master of ceremonies, and the monument was unveiled by five year old Miss Elizabeth Renfroe Cooper. Speakers included the Honorable William Walton Kitchin, Governor of North Carolina, and Julian S. Carr. The Confederate Veteran reported that "Carolina" was sung, a "song dear to the heart of every 'Tar Heel'." Attendees enjoyed a banquet following the ceremony.

Subject notes: The inscription on the monument, "Peace to Their Ashes", was written by Orren Randolph Smith (Butler, p. 161). Smith, a resident of Louisburg at the outbreak of the war and originally from Warren County, served in Company B of the Second Battalion, and apparently claimed to have created the winning design for the Confederate flag, the "Stars and Bars," although his claim has no substantive proof.

Controversies: In January 2011, Vietnam veteran James Mason expressed his feelings to the Henderson City Council that the monument was inappropriate. There has been some discussion of the appropriateness of the monument near the city center.

Location: The monument sits in front of the old Vance County Courthouse, to the left of the entrance.

Landscape: The monument sits in the lawn area, surrounded by evergreen shrubs and next to the Old Courthouse bell.

City: Henderson

County: Vance

Subjects: Civil War