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Pea Ridge National Military
Park
Civil War Site
Pea Ridge, Benton County, Arkansas |
"Angel Aloft"
Gray
Major General E. Van Dorn, Commander of the Army of the
Southwest
Blue
Major General S.R. Curtis
Commander of the Army of the Southwest
Confederate Veterans raised the older memorial just 25 years
after the fight, one of the first in the nation to mark a Civil
War Battlefield. This stark 1887 obelisk mourned the well-known
southern generals lost here: McCullough, McIntosh, and Slack.
The 1889 Pea Ridge reunion was the first to include Veterans
from both armies. Their marble monument to "A United Soldiery"
honored both "the untarnished Blue" and "the unsullied Gray." Artist: Daniels,
Miss, sculptor.
Title: (Monument to a Reunited Soldiery), (sculpture).
Other Titles: Reunited Soldiery, (sculpture).
United Soldiery, (sculpture).
Dates: Dedicated Sept. 1989.
Medium: Sculpture: stone; Base: limestone and marble.
Dimensions: Sculpture: approx. 7 ft. x 1 ft. 8 in. x 1 ft. 8
in.; Base: approx. 8 ft. x 2 ft. 10 in. x 3 ft.
Inscription: (On front of base:) (On cornice:) Angel Aloft (On
shaft:) Spirit of eternal light/Keep silent vigil o'er the
brave/The untarnished blue/The unsullied gray/In peace and love
unite./Proud heroes have fallen,/And over their grave/Our hearts
are united/Our country to save./Over the dead the living
bend,/And up to their God their voices send/That in Liberty's
crown or Eternity's day/He may place as fair Jewels/The Blue and
the Gray/A United Soldiery/The Blue/The Gray.
Description: A female, representing the goddess of Liberty,
stands clasping a flower garland in her proper right hand to her
side. She wears a full-length dress with her bare feet visible
below its hemline. With her proper left hand she grasps her
dress with her index finger extended. The sculpture is mounted
atop a base composed of various types of stone, including a
limestone shaft topped by a marble cornice. On the front of the
cornice, in relief, is a hand with an index finger pointing up,
surrounded by an inscription. On the front bottom of the shaft,
below the inscription, are two clasped hands in relief. The
shaft rests atop a bottom section consisting of two layers of
light stone blocks on top of two layers of dark stone blocks.
The sculpture is in the center of a circular walkway.
Owner: Administered by United States Department of the Interior,
National Park Service, Washington, District of Columbia
Located Pea Ridge National Military Park, Pea Ridge, Benton,
Arkansas
Remarks: The sculpture commemorates all who took part in the
Battle of Pea Ridge. It was dedicated in 1889, during a five-day
reunion of the Blue and Gray, an association of reunited
Confederate and Union soldiers. The sculpture was the artist's
first work. During the ceremony, the fields of Pea Ridge were
dedicated as a National Battlefield Park. The inscription on the
monument was composed by Captains Puckett and Lamkin, and
Professor John R. Roberts. IAS files contain a related excerpt
from J. Dickson Black's "History of Benton County," Little Rock,
AR: International Graphics, 1975, pg. 256-258.
References: Save Outdoor Sculpture, Arkansas survey, 1992.
Note: The information provided about this artwork was compiled
as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of
American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide
descriptive and location information on artworks by American
artists in public and private collections worldwide.
The brave Confederate dead who fell on the field March 6, 7, &
8, 1862 General W.Y. Slack of Missouri General Ben McCullouch of Texas General James McIntosh of Arkansas "Oh give me
the land with a grave in each spot,
and names in the graves, that shall not be forgot;
Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb,
There's a grandeaur in grave, there's a glory in gloom." Remembrance and Reunion
The two stone monuments you see here reflect the long-lasting
grief- and the hopes of the generation of Americans who survived
the Civil War. After the war, young men whose lives had been
forever changed by this battle began returning to these
bullet-shattered forests and blood-soaked fields. They mourned
comrades lost and reflected on the mean of their trial by fire.
In 1914 veterans began the call to preserve this battlefield as
sacred ground. Their descendants again strove for national
recognition in 1924, 1928, 1936, and 1939. In 1956 President
Eisenhower finally signed the law to create and protect this
legacy as Pea Ridge National Military Park.
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Benton County
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Pea Ridge
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