Across the River; A Celebration of the Georgia Division's Centennial
Atlanta: Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1994. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. [6], 84 pages. Illustrations. Cover has minor wear and soiling. This is a collection of poems by members of the Georgia Division United Daughters of the Confederacy. Among the titles are: Across the River (prize winner), Remembrance, Confederate Memorial Day, Wartime Wedding, Harrison Joyner, Dixie, Elias Lastinger, Mary Jane Green, Battlefield, Granite Marker, and Gazaway B. Knight. The Georgia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) was formed on November 8, 1895. Initially, the UDC worked both to maintain the beliefs of the Lost Cause, a heroic interpretation of the Civil War (1861-65) that allowed defeated white southerners to maintain their sense of honor, and to build monuments in honor of Confederate soldiers and leaders. The organization rapidly grew to include chapters in almost every town across the state and connected many middle- and upper-class white women across the South. On September 10, 1894, Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, from Nashville, Tennessee, and Anna Davenport Raines, from Savannah, founded the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy. As a national federation of Confederate women’s organizations, the group brought together numerous women’s associations working to memorialize the Confederacy. At its second meeting, held in Atlanta, the group renamed itself the United Daughters of the Confederacy and revised its constitution. In 1895 the four chapters of Savannah, Augusta, Atlanta, and Covington united to form the Georgia Division of the UDC. Positions within the national organization of the UDC included a president general, vice president general, recording secretary general, and historian general and were filled with women from various states. With its tight connections to powerful southern politicians, the UDC attracted a sizable and influential membership. Women who could prove they were blood descendants of those who served the Confederacy were eligible to join. The UDC established five objectives delineating their memorial, historical, educational, benevolent, and patriotic responsibilities. Among other goals, UDC members strove to present what they considered to be a truthful history of the Civil War, to honor the Confederate dead, and to preserve historic Confederate sites. Prominent white women have been affiliated with the Georgia Division of the UDC since its founding. Although she died prior to the group’s establishment, Lizzie Rutherford is nonetheless closely associated with the organization. Rutherford pioneered the practice of decorating Confederate soldiers’ graves in the years immediately after the war, and to honor her legacy the Columbus UDC became the Lizzie Rutherford Chapter in 1898. This practice became an annual event became known as Confederate Memorial Day, and UDC members joined thousands of white people all across the South to visit graves, decorate headstones with flowers, and hold eulogy services. Indeed, early efforts were aimed at retrieving soldier’s bodies from northern battlefields, erecting tombstones in local cemeteries, and otherwise commemorating and mourning the Confederate dead. Around 1915 Caroline Helen Jemison Plane, the president of the UDC Atlanta chapter, began the project that would culminate in the Confederate memorial carving on Stone Mountain. As leader of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association (incorporated in 1916 as the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association), she solicited the support of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum and convinced the owners of the mountain to give the UDC access to the property. The carving was not completed until 1970. Though it remains in place today, the carving has emerged as a point of contention in recent years. Condition: Very good / No DJ present.
Keywords: Poetry, Verse, Poems, Confederacy, Across the River (prize winner), Remembrance, Confederate Memorial Day, Wartime Wedding, Harrison Joyner, Dixie, Elias Lastinger, Mary Jane Green, Battlefield, Granite Marker, and Gazaway B. Knight
[Book #84752]
Price: $90.00