Rebels' 'vandalism': Defacement of Andrew Jackson monument

A cropped version of a Harper's Weekly illustration from July 5, 1862, of a park monument
to Andrew Jackson in Memphis, Tenn. It was defaced by Confederate sympathizers.
(Archive.org.) 

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Monuments to Andrew Jackson -- a racist, ethnic cleanser, and tyrant to some; a hero to others -- literally and figuratively have taken a beating recently. In June 2020, protesters in Washington climbed atop the sculpture of the seventh U.S. president in Lafayette Square opposite the White House, tying ropes around Jackson and his horse before attempting to pull the statue from its base, which was defaced with spray paint. In July 2020, the Jackson (Miss.) city council voted to remove a bronze statue of "Old Hickory" from City Hall grounds.

This Andrew Jackson monument in Lafayette Square,
opposite the White House, was defaced in 2020.
(Wikipedia | AgnosticPreachersKid)

Jackson, who died in 1845, was a flashpoint during the Civil War, too.

In the center of Union-occupied Memphis, Tenn., in June 1862 was a beautiful park filled with trees, flowers, shrubbery, and "benches for the accommodation of loungers of both sexes." Surrounded by an iron railing, the public square -- lighted by gas at night -- was a premier gathering spot. Authorities aimed to keep it that way -- dogs were discouraged, and anyone who meddled with the shrubbery risked a $10 fine, a significant sum. (You can still visit Court Square, where scenes from The Firm, the 1993 movie starring Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman, were filmed.)

In the park's northwestern section, surrounded by a circular iron fence and "ornamented by carefully trained shrubbery," rested a large, marble bust of Jackson atop a tall pedestal. (The former president was a co-founder of Memphis.) "Honor and gratitude to those who have filled the measure of their country’s glory," read an inscription in the pedestal's south side. On the north side appeared these words:

THE FEDERAL UNION, IT MUST BE PRESERVED 

That was a take on Jackson's famous utterance, made at an 1830 Thomas Jefferson birthday dinner, about federal law superseding authority of individual states. (Read more about the Nullification Crisis and its Civil War ramifications here.) 

A circa-1844 daguerreotype of 78-year-old
former president Andrew Jackson.

Before the Rebels high-tailed it out of Memphis in early June 1862, someone was determined to erase the words of the "Hero of New Orleans." Wrote a Chicago newspaper correspondent:

During the occupancy of Memphis by Gen. [Sterling] Price’s rebel army, a Col. Brunt rendered himself forever notorious and forever infamous by defacing and partly erasing the word federal in the above inscription. The monument still stands, however, a lasting rebuke to the rebels and a reminder of the reckless and venom minded policy of some of the men who have led its armies. The word federal has not been entirely effaced. It is yet readable, and is fast coming out of the dust of anarchy and confusion which for a twelve-month [period] have obscured it.

In addition to the word "Federal," the first two letters of "Union" were chipped by "some rampant rebel," another newspaper correspondent reported, "presenting an appearance as if a small hammer had been several times struck across the obnoxious words." 

Continued the correspondent: "It was a very feeble attempt at defacement of the words that grated harshly on treason's ear." The bust reportedly suffered the wrath of Rebel rabblerousers, too. (Damn kids!)

A Union soldier recalled a visit to the Court Square in late fall 1862. "...one of our company marched in, and it done me good to see them in a ring around the marble bust of General Jackson to which they showed their respects with presenting arms," wrote 30th Iowa quartermaster sergeant John Caleb Lockwood. "Upon the marble pillars upon which the bust of the general stands are cut the words, 'The Federal Union—it must be preserved.' The words 'Federal' I noticed were defaced as though it was intended to be obliterated. I thought I could see from the countenances of the citizens that we were not very welcome visitors."

An uncropped version of an illustration of the Jackson monument park in Memphis
from Harper's Weekly on July 5, 1862. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Another Northern visitor was infuriated by the damage. "Vain attempt to obliterate the noblest utterance of Tennessee's favorite son!" he wrote. "There it stands, marred but still legible, a monument of vandalism of the perpetrators, and of the still greater vandalism and infamy of the rebels, who would not only obliterate the mute words on the marble but who have employed their mightiest energies to destroy the Federal Union itself, with all its living interests."

Now I couldn't track down "Col. Brunt," whose descendants may be aghast by his alleged behavior. As for the bust of Jackson, well, you can visit it at the D’Army Bailey County Courthouse in Memphis. Be warned: "It bears ample evidence of the turbulent reaction to Jackson."   

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SOURCES

• Chicago Tribune, June 18, 1862.
• Harper's Weekly, July 5, 1862.
• John Caleb Lockwood letter to his wife, Nov. 7, 1862, William Griffing's Spared & Shared site (Letter 2), accessed July 20, 2021.
• Nashville Daily Union, June 22, 1862.
• The Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 31, 1862.

'Garden of Eden' to Arkansas: Patrick Cleburne's final ride

Killed at the Battle of Franklin, Confederate General Patrick Cleburne was buried at a cemetery
behind St. John's Church near Columbia, Tenn.  The Irish-born officer's remains were disinterred  
and re-buried in Arkansas in 1870. (CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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For nearly six years, Confederate General Patrick Cleburne's remains rested among the oaks and magnolias in a church cemetery near Columbia, Tenn. A comrade of the Irish-born officer called the spot as "beautiful as the Garden of Eden — seemingly a fit place for pure spirits to dwell, and for the haunts of angels."

In late April 1870, a delegation from Arkansas arrived at St. John's Church Cemetery for the disinterment of Cleburne's body for reburial in his adopted state. The division commander had been killed during a charge against Union breastworks at Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864 — one of six Confederate generals to die of wounds suffered in the battle. Two of them — Otho Strahl and Hiram B. Granbury — also rested at the cemetery with Cleburne before they also were removed and re-buried elsewhere.

The delegation found Cleburne buried in a gray uniform in a "good state of preservation," according to a local newspaper, but the "coffin was very much decayed, and not a particle of flesh was remaining on the skeleton."

       PANORAMA: Patrick Cleburne was buried at left, by the trees nearest the church.
                                    (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)

Until 1870, Cleburne was buried in the cemetery behind historic St. John's Church, built from 1839-1842.

Historical sign and Civil War Trails marker in front of St. John's Church.

On April 28, while en route to Helena, Ark., Cleburne's hometown, the group stopped at the train depot in Memphis for a procession through the city with his remains. If anyone doubted the popularity of the "Stonewall Jackson of the West," those doubts were erased that spring afternoon. While a band played a funeral march, Cleburne devotees placed the coffin containing "Arkansas' greatest soldier" in a hearse for a procession called "perhaps the finest ever witnessed in the city."

"The cosmopolitanism of an interior city was never more thoroughly illustrated than in the conduct of Memphis ... when its whole population went forth to tender a deserved tribute of respect to the memories and virtues of a great soldier," the local newspaper said, omitting any reference to its Black population.

"Helena and Memphis, Arkansas and Tennessee, yesterday wept side by side over Cleburne's bier," the Daily Appeal wrote, "and if Helena did not claim the body of the illustrious soldier, that it may find its final resting place within the city which was his home, Helena would concede to Memphis the trust of giving worthy sepulture to the most famous of all citizen soldiery of Arkansas."

War-time image of Confederate
 president Jefferson Davis, 
who was in the procession with
Patrick Cleburne's remains
in Memphis in 1870.
.

Through the heart of Memphis, the city's leading citizens — politicians, lawyers, merchants and others — joined the procession with Cleburne's hearse. Members of the city fire department, Confederate veterans' organizations, the Irish Literary Society, Fenian Brotherhood and Hibernian Mutual Relief Society also attended the solemn event. In an open carriage sat the most notable attendees, including ex-Confederate generals Frank Cheatham and Gideon Pillow and the former president of the Confederacy himself, 61-year-old Jefferson Davis.

His head uncovered, Davis stood at attention "straight as an Indian" as he watched Cleburne's coffin carried from the depot to the hearse. "The whole history of the past ten years," a reporter noted, "ran like a flash of lightning over Mr. Davis' expressive face. There was an intensity of feeling and thought written upon the strongly marked lineaments of his eloquent features that unfolded the profoundest emotions."

Added the reporter about Davis:

There were tears in his eyes and his face expressed sympathies, emotions and strong memories, seemingly shared by none of those who sat beside him. As a statesman and soldier — we read it there — Mr. Davis was relentless in direct paths of duty. The duty of the hour often drew a veil over the heart and the inner man, while the fate of an empire was dependent on his words and acts [and] was rarely revealed to the outer world. His heart was on his lips yesterday, and there was the tenderness of woman's love in his soulful eyes when Cleburne's encoffined body was borne into his presence."

Other ex-Confederates and a few U.S. soldiers followed the hearse, decorated with black plumes, crepe and green ribbon. Cleburne's remains lay in a "handsome metallic case, the lid of which was closely screwed down so that even a glance at the remains through the glass was impossible." A large cross wreath and white flowers rested atop his coffin.

Grave marker for Patrick
 Cleburne at Confederate Cemetery
 in Helena, Ark.
(Find A Grave)

A reporter found a crowd "composed of every nationality, all anxious to pay the last tribute of respect to the departed hero," an Arkansas newspaper noted. "The whole white population shared in the imposing demonstration. The streets along the line of march were thronged with people.

"Balconies and windows were everywhere filled with people who watched the hearse and its multitude of silent followers with eager interest," it added. "The bells were tolled, and skillful musicians burdened the air with mournful melody."

Street cars became hopelessly stuck along the route because of the huge crowd. "There were countless vehicles," the newspaper reported, "in which were seated the matrons and youth and beauty of the city."

After the procession ended, pallbearers removed Cleburne's coffin from the hearse and placed it aboard the steamer George W. Cheek, docked in the Mississippi River. Before the vessel departed for the trip downriver to Helena, hundreds of Cleburne's former army comrades crowded to view the coffin that contained "the sacred dust" of the beloved Confederate general.

 "At Helena the same ceremonies will be gone through with," the Arkansas newspaper noted, "when all that is left of the immortal Cleburne will be conveyed to their final resting place.

"Peace to his ashes."

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 — Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES

• Memphis Daily Appeal, April 29, 1870
• The Southern Standard, Arkadelphia, Ark., May 14, 1870
• Public Ledger, Memphis, Tenn., May 3, 1870
• The Herald and Mail, Columbia, Tenn., April 28, 1870