George Davis Monument

Spurious "Lost Cause" inscription on monument.

The idea for the monument was developed by Cape Fear Chapter 3 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 1901, just three years after violent white mobs removed a duly elected biracial government during the Wilmington insurrection of 1898.

The monument is a piece of a far wider national propaganda effort by the UDC and others, decades after the surrender of the confederacy, to insert the false Lost Cause Narrative into the cultural memory, announce to nonwhites the final defeat of Reconstruction, and to support white supremacy.[6]

Front inscription and artwork, including the seal of the defeated confederacy.

UDC Cape Fear Chapter 3 began raising money in 1904 but fundraising was slow, despite the urgency the UDC presented to the community. The minute book of the chapter shows fundraising was complete in April 1909, with the chapter having raised nearly $900. The rest was raised by Sprunt, a cotton brokerage heir who was a profiteer during the US Civil War. Sprunt provided funding he said he had gathered from friends and colleagues. His portion brought the total amount raised to $5,010.34.[7]

Packer's travel was paid for by Sprunt. His sculpture was cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company in 1910 in Rhode Island.[5]

Inscriptions on the pedestal include a long, spurious encomium to Davis's alleged virtues.[8]

The monument was installed on the westernmost end of the grassy median of Third Street, at Market Street—the crossroads of the city. It is within sight of Wilmington's city hall, the New Hanover County courthouse and St. James Episcopal Parish, the city's oldest Christian church.[9]

The cornerstone of the monument was laid on October 14, 1909, during a Masonic ceremony. Within the cornerstone were placed:[10]

• A copy of the first number Carolina Churchman, dated October 1909
• A copy of commission of George Davis as Attorney General of the Confederate states, dated January 4, 1864
• Coins and other items

The statue faces west, toward the terminus of Market Street at the Cape Fear River, a marketplace where slaves were sold from the days of city's settlement in the early 18th century until the city's capture by the Union Army in 1865 during the US Civil War.[11]

The George Davis monument was dedicated in 1911.

The monument was struck by a motor vehicle and toppled in 2000. It was removed for repair, and then re-erected in its original location.

In June 2020, the City of Wilmington removed the statue, but not its pedestal, to "protect the public safety and to preserve important historical artifacts." [2]