Staff Reports
The Moultrie-McNeill UDC Chapter # 661’s February meeting was brought to order by Chapter President Ann Glass. Chapter Chaplain Nan Newton presented the opening prayer, pledge and salute to the flags. She then presented Commemorative Days which included a reminder of Georgia Day this month, the birthday of Sidney Lanier, renowned poet and musician, born in Macon and served the Confederacy. Gen. John B. Gordon who served as Georgia’s governor after the war and Confederate vice president, Alexander H. Stephens, who was a lawyer and politician. He represented Georgia in the United States Senate after the War Between the States. He was born and died in Crawfordville, Ga.
Chapter Vice President Beth Ottens reported that a 50 year membership pen had been ordered and mailed to chapter member, Ann Alderman, who now lives in Calif.
Chapter Historian Faye Bridwell presented the program, which was a review on the history of the Confederate Monument in preparation for its 100th anniversary to be observed on Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m.
The Moultrie UDC’s organizational meeting was held March 17, 1903, with the charter arriving the following month. Barely one month old, the chapter held the county’s first Confederate Memorial Day Service in April with some 200 Confederate veterans attending. Three years later, 1906, the guest speaker for the group’s Confederate Memorial Service, local attorney, Mark Bolding issued a challenge to the group to place a monument for these soldiers, living and dead.
The UDC was involved in numerous projects such as raising funds for the new Carnegie Library, the first YMCA, and later, was one of the organizations involved with funding the Moultrie Women’s Club House.
Founding chapter president, W. S. Humphreys and 25 charter members took Bolding’s challenge serious and began numerous fund raising efforts. In November 1907, The Moultrie Observer announced a public description of the monument and additional fund raising was launched. The John Benning DAR Chapter donated $500, the Moultrie Rifles National Guards and Confederate Veterans Camp assisted.
On June 3, 1908, Jefferson Davis’ birthday, the UDC announced the purchase of the monument. It was of Oglesby marble, 30 ft. high, had a 12 ft. base and a 5 ft. soldier on top. It was to be placed on the west side of the courthouse, possibly because this was the side of the courthouse from which the local volunteers mustered to leave for the war in March of 1862.
Finally, on March 18, 1909, the shaft was dedicated as an “educational exercise” for several hundred school children. Master of Ceremonies was city school superintendent, George D. Godard, with numerous children participating in the program. Seventy-five Confederate veterans, the UDC and hundreds of spectators were in attendance for the first service to be held at the base of the monument.
The official unveiling was held on Friday, April 23, 1909. A newspaper article reports that the crowd gathered at the courthouse was one of the largest ever witnessed. The Moultrie Cornet Band, directed by C. H. “Pops” Jennison, began playing at 10:30 a.m. and the crowd assembled at 11 a.m. Master of Ceremonies was Capt. Thad Adams, invocation was by the Rev. L. W. Colson and the Rev. J. G. Venable presented the guest speaker, Gov. Hoke Smith. Thirteen young ladies, dressed in white, were assigned the honor of unveiling the monument. The attending Confederate veterans and their families were treated to a grand dinner in the Planter’s Warehouse with tables running the length of the building.
That afternoon a large crowd gathered for a procession to the city cemetery, where the graves of departed veterans were covered with flowers in memory, closing the activities of a special day 100 years ago this year.
In Sept. 1911, the local UDC announced that the final payment of $250 had been raised and the monument was finally paid for in full. It took the joint effort and support of the community to purchase this war memorial.
“It stands today as a reminder of our history, the immeasurable sacrifices given by those before us as our country suffered a second Revolutionary War on behalf of state’s rights. Many families suffered the lose of every son, children lost their father’s, mothers lost their sons, wives lost their husbands, young men left our area to never return. Our known local casualties are named at the base of the monument, they lay at rest as far away as the prison camps in Maryland, Illinois, New York and battlefields from Gettysburg, Pa. to Olustee, Fla. and westward. This war monument stands in their memory,” said Faye Bridwell.
