William Blake: Brothers' Bones Beside - Catalog - Page 9
argued the Federals secured it “from the degenerate sons of
Confederates believed they were following in George
worthy sires.”
Washington’s revolutionary footsteps as they fought their own
Following the Union’s rescue of the bronze Washington,
war for independence.
debates began over where the statue should be sent. While
While the bronze statue of George Washington held
the U.S. Military Academy at West Point stood as an opposite
symbolic significance during the Civil War, following the
to V.M.I., the newly established state of West Virginia also
nation’s restoration and the destruction of slavery, the statue
seemed a fitting choice for the statue of the Founding Father.
was no longer needed as a symbol of the Union’s efforts.
A member of Hunter’s staff explained how the general was
However, material objects like V.M.I.’s statue remained
“happy to have it in his power to transfer this noble & historic
particularly important to those in the former Confederacy
work from the keeping [of] a disloyal people to the loyal state
who tried to make sense of their defeat. No longer able
of West Virginia to which it properly belongs.” By taking the
to define their failed fight for Southern independence as
statue of the first president from the grounds of V.M.I. and
a struggle to protect the first president’s legacy from the
sending it to Wheeling, General Hunter’s men provided West
wayward United States, the defeated rebels instead placed
Virginians with a tangible object that displayed their loyalty to
their Confederate heroes alongside George Washington as
the United States and its founding principles.
key symbolic figures of the South- further complicating the
The stolen statue and destruction of the Virginia Military
Founding Father’s memory.
Institute was devastating to the white South, although they
Like William Blake’s work To See a New Nation, Jean-
understood it was a necessary sacrifice if it meant success
Antoine Houdon’s marble statue and its bronze cast at
for the Confederate States of America. As one southern
the Virginia Military Institute illuminate the various and
newspaper explained, “the State of Virginia had erected this
sometimes contradictory meanings Americans place on the
statue to her own son, whom she gave to the Revolution which
nation’s first president. Blake’s paintings demonstrate the ways
gave birth to the Republic. She has selected the spot for its
George Washington’s likeness can shape national narratives
erection where her State Military Academy was placed, to the
and impacts our collective understanding of United States
end that her sons might draw inspiration from his virtues.”
history. Ultimately, his work encourages us to question our
Highlighting the first president’s links to the Old Dominion,
nation’s most cherished stories and myths. n
IMAGE CREDIT: Barracks in Ruins after Hunter’s Raid, ca. 1866.
VMI Archives Photographs Collection | Photographer: A. H. Plecker.
IMAGE CREDIT: George Washington Statue.
VMI Archives Photographs Collection.
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