Three thousand children hauled a statue down Franklin Street in June of 1907. The Jefferson Davis Monument was a collaboration between sculptor Edward Valentine and architectural designer William Churchill Noland. Much significance and beauty can be found in the details of the statue.
The location of the monument is significant because of its physical distance to the Lee monument, and a Confederate fort once stood in that very spot defending Richmond.

Originally, many southerners blamed Davis for the Confederate’s failure. Following a series of speaking engagements throughout the south, Davis was seen as a symbol – a strong champion of southern rights. With the erection of the Davis statue, Monument Avenue began to represent the vindication of the confederacy.

Edward Valentine was Richmond’s most noteworthy representative of the American Renaissance. The detail and symbolism found in his work was close to the awe-inspiring artists of Europe. Standing almost eight feet tall, the bronze statue of Davis faces down Monument Avenue toward the Lee statue. Valentine chose to depict Davis speaking since he was known for his public speaking. A reporter for the News-Leader suggests, “His right arm is outstretched as if he were expounding the Southern Doctrine and was on the point of pleading with his countrymen to stand by the things for which do many had laid down their lives”.

Since there are no plaques on any of the monuments offering explanations, it may take a history buff to notice things like the words Davis offered as his resignation from the United States are inscribed along the frieze of the screen of columns behind him. Thirteen columns below the frieze containing 14 state seals represent the 11 states of the confederacy and two states that sent delegates to the confederate Congress. Bookending the statue are funerary urns that are adorned with the stars and bars of the confederacy. On top of it all is Vindicatrix, the classical female statue personifying the memory and spirit of the South.

Research for this article was based on Richmond’s Monument Avenue by Sarah Shields Driggs, Richard Guy Wilson, Robert P. Winthrop, John O. Peters.