Jefferson Davis Memorial (Richmond, Virginia)

Unveiled on June 3, 1907, the east-facing monument sported a 65 foot tall Doric column topped by a bronze figure called Vindicatrix. There were thirteen columns, eleven bronze seals representing the seceding states and two representing states that sent troops for the Confederacy. The bronze statues, Vindacatrix at the top and Jefferson Davis in the center, were designed by Edward Virginius Valentine and the arrangement was planned by William C. Noland.[1]^:12 The frieze carries words Jefferson Davis spoke in his farewell address to the U.S. Senate on January 21, 1861.[3]

"This is done not in hostility to others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit unshorn to our children."

The plaque on the left end of the monument reads:

The Army of the Confederate States [line] From Sumter to Appomattox four years of unflinching struggle against overwhelming odds [line] Glory ineffable these[,] around their dear land wrapping[,] wrapt [sic] around themselves the purple mantle of death. [new line] Dying, they died not at all, but, from the grave and its shadow, valor invincible lifts them glorified ever on high.

The plaque on the right end of the monument reads:

The Navy of the Confederate States [line] giving new examples of heroism teaching new methods of warfare it carried the flag of the South to the most distant seas [line] If to die nobly be ever the proudest glory of virtue, this of all men has fortune greatly granted to them, for, yearning with deep desire to clothe their country with freedom now at the last they rest full of an ageless fame [both plaques originally all in caps]

Following the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, the bronze statue of Davis was torn down by protesters on June 10, 2020.[4] The rest of the monument is pending removal; the statue of Vindicatrix, representing Southern womanhood,[lower-alpha 1] on top of the central column was removed by the City of Richmond on July 8, 2020.[7]

The memorial was largely dismantled and removed on July 8, 2020.[8]

• 
  George Washington Custis Lee on horseback, with staff reviewing Confederate Reunion Parade on June 3, 1907, in front of the monument
• 
  Detail of the statue of Jefferson Davis
• 
  The memorial as it stands in July, 2020 after the removal of the Davis statue

• List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests

• Media related to Jefferson Davis Monument at Wikimedia Commons