The War Horse at Virginia Historical Society

WHAT: The War Horse at the Virginia Historical Society on The Boulevard, Richmond, Va.

LOCATION: 428 North Boulevard, Museum District.

ARTIST: Tessa Pullan.

DEDICATION: September 17, 1997.

DESCRIPTION: The bronze horse sculpture is mounted on a six-foot base and surrounded by a high iron fence. The statue stands in front of the Virginia Historical Society on The Boulevard. The War Horse is a memorial to the Civil War horse, designed by Tessa Pullan of Rutland, England, and given to the historical society by Paul Mellon.

An inscription on the granite reads:

In memory of the one and one half million horses and mules of the Confederate and Union armies who were killed, were wounded or died from disease in the Civil War. 

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The first thing most people notice with the statue is the ribs. The horse is intentionally gaunt and overly thin, indicating how difficult it must have been for the dedicated domesticated animals during the Civil War. The best time to see the statue may be at night, as a floodlight focused on The War Horse helps cast a huge shadow on the granite walls of the VHS.  Take a walk or drive by on The Boulevard some evening to see for yourself.

Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue

WHAT: Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.

WHERE: Monument and Davis avenues, in the center of the intersection.

ARTIST: Edward V. Valentine.

DEDICATION: June 3, 1907.

DESCRIPTION: A 7 1/2 foot high standing figure of bronze atop a 12 foot granite pedestal. This grouping stands in front of a 67 foot high column on top of which is another Valentine sculpted allegorical figure of the South “Vindicatrix.” The column stands in front center of a semi-circle classical colonnade of 13 Doric columns. William C. Noland of Richmond designed the entire monument.

Monument to Confederate War Dead at Hollywood

WHAT: Monument to Confederate War Dead.

LOCATION: Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond’s Oregon Hill neighborhood.

ARTIST: Design originated from engineer Charles Henry Dimmock.

DEDICATION: November 8, 1869. (Cornerstone was laid Dec. 3, 1868)

DESCRIPTION: The famed 90-foot pyramid is made with large blocks of James River granite. The blocks were stacked without bonding. Built overlooking the cemetery’s Soldiers’ Section. It is a monument to the 18,000 Confederate enlisted men buried in the cemetery.

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The pyramid took a year to build and there were many accidents during construction. Thomas Stanley, a Lynchburg convict working with the construction crew, made the perilous climb to the top to lower the capstone into place.

The plaque reads: “A memorial to the Confederate women of Virginia, 1861-1865. The legislature of Virginia of 1914, has at the solicitation of Ladies Hollywood Memorial Association and United Daughters of Confederacy of Virginia placed in perpetual care this section where lie buried eighteen thousand confederate soldiers.

A chapter (Oct. 1996) in Harry Kollatz Jr.’s book, True Richmond Stories, retold the tale of the capstone’s placement, and how prisoner Thomas Stanley — assumed to have come from the nearby state penitentiary on Gamble’s Hill — volunteered to perform the dangerous honor:

And thus it was that a horse thief came to be on the work gang for Dimmock’s pyramid. The knots in the hoisting ropes were tied too close to the top and the stone wouldn’t go past them. Stanley poured water on the ropes, causing them to shrink the needed inches. Then, as a breathless crowd watched, the prisoner put himself between the mass of hanging rock and the pyramid and righted the stone to its seat.

Everyone that has heard of this legend assumes that Stanley went free after this accomplishment. Kollatz’s story cleared that up, somewhat:

In the release box of his prison schedule, the simple penciled notation reads “transferred.” There is no mention of when or where. A romantic notion suggests itself: the warden opened a gate and told Stanley to go and never come back…

Seeing this monument is an essential to anyone that visits Richmond. The first time I saw the pyramid, I was shocked by its size and towering presence in the scenic cemetery. It can be seen from many points near Oregon Hill. It is easy to imagine the stones being brought in from either the Kanawha Canal — located just below Hollywood — or Belle Isle — just a bit further below the canal and across the James River.

J.E.B. Stuart on Monument Avenue

WHAT: Statue honoring J.E.B. Stuart on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.

WHERE: Monument and Lombardy avenues in the Fan District, in the center of the intersection.

ARTIST: Fred Moynihan.

DEDICATION: May 30, 1907.

DESCRIPTION: A 15-foot-tall equestrian bronze statue mounted on a 7 1/2 half foot granite pedestal. The statue faces north and is the most animated of the Monument Avenue statues. The horse’s right foot is raised and Stuart is portrayed turned in the saddle to face east. It was unveiled by Virginia Stuart Waller, the general’s granddaughter. 

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Confederate General James Ewell Brown “J.E.B.” Stuart was major general — chief of cavalry — in the Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate States of America.

While he cultivated a cavalier image, his serious work made him the eyes and ears of Robert E. Lee’s army and inspired Southern morale.

He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864 and died in Richmond just a few blocks away from where his monument is located at the intersection with Lombardy Street.

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I’ve often heard the complaint from visitors and tourists what a shame it is that Stuart’s statue is facing the direction it is facing. Monument Avenue officially begins at this intersection. As the traffic heads east, the street becomes into Franklin Street and is one-way. That makes it tougher to drive by the monument and get a good look at Stuart, especially for tour buses. Traffic through the intersection also makes it tough to safely cross the street to get a closer look at the statue.  

No matter. I’ve always enjoyed the confines in Stuart Circle. The intersection is the most busy, architecturally speaking. The statue came first, but then came First English Lutheran Church (1911), St. John’s United Church of Christ (1928), Grace Covenant Presbyterian (1920-23) — and on opposite corners, the old Stuart Circle Hospital (now apartments) and the attractive high-rise Stuart Court Apartments.

General A.P. Hill’s statue on Laburnum Avenue

WHAT: Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill in Richmond, Virginia.

LOCATION: Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road in the center of the intersection.

ARTIST: William Ludwell Sheppard.

DEDICATION: May 30, 1892.

DESCRIPTION: A 9 1/2 foot high standing likeness of General Hill which is mounted on a 24 1/2 foot high pedestal which contains the remains of the General. The monument is on land donated by Major Lewis Ginter and was erected by the efforts of Pegram’s Battalion. Caspar Burberl of New York enlarged in bronze Sheppard’s model.

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The tale of how Hill came to rest in the middle of Laburnum Avenue is a good one, best told by Gary Robertson in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in April, 2005, 140 years after the general’s death:

Confederate Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill was buried standing up. It took three tries before he reached his final resting place.

And if all that wasn’t odd enough, the search to find his first grave — and perhaps correct the historical record — has been led by a group of Civil War devotees whose primary focus is illuminating not the life of Hill, but of another Confederate general, George E. Pickett.

A member of the Pickett Society noted that the nonprofit society was formed in 1999 to honor Pickett but also to correct “many subjective and historically incorrect items and pretensions.”

Hill was shot to death near Petersburg on April 2, 1865, as his battle lines were collapsing during the last days of the war. Then the race was on to bury him appropriately — and before nature took its course and ravaged his body even further.

Research by the Pickett Society indicates that the first burial came not where some Civil War researchers believe it was, at Bellgrade Plantation, near Huguenot and Robious roads in Chesterfield County.

Pickett Society records at the Virginia Historical Society and other research from local historians and authors, instead indicate that Hill was buried in an area south of the James River near Bosher Dam, in what is now the city of Richmond.

Hill lay in that grave for two years before he was unearthed and his remains transferred in the autumn of 1867 to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, which was where some of his former soldiers wanted him.

In 1891, the remains were moved again and buried under a statue erected in Hill’s honor at the current intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road.