page_title: Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
section_title: Dedication delays
hierarchical_section_title: Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery) / Building the memorial / Dedication delays
caption_attribution_description: English: Unveiling Confederate Monument, Arlington, [Virginia]
context_page_description: The Confederate Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States, that commemorates members of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America who died during the American Civil War. Authorized in March 1906, former Confederate soldier and sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in November 1910 to design the memorial. It was unveiled by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914.
  The memorial grounds have changed slightly due to burials and alterations since 1914. Some major changes to the memorial were proposed over the years, but none has been implemented. Since the memorial's unveiling, the President of the United States has almost always sent a funeral wreath to be laid at the memorial every Memorial Day. Some presidents have declined to do so, and the tradition is controversial.
context_section_description: While work on the monument initially progressed on schedule, delays began to occur. Funding was not the issue: By November 1913, the ACMA had paid $20,000 to Ezekiel to secure raw bronze, and almost $22,725 remained in the organization's coffers to complete the memorial, ship it to America, and assemble and erect it. The first delay was small but significant, and occurred in early 1913 when Ezekiel could not obtain copies of the Confederate state shields in a timely fashion. This forced the ACMA and UDC to give up on a June 1913 dedication, and November 5 was informally set as the new date for the event.
  Yet more delays occurred. About July, Ezekiel said he needed 10 more days to complete casting, and the UDC changed the dedication date to November 15. But on August 19, an accident occurred in the casting process which delayed delivery of the memorial by yet another three months. The Confederate Memorial was finally complete in November 1913, and shipped to the United States via a Hamburg America ocean liner in early 1914. It was sent by barge up Potomac River and arrived at the Washington Navy Yard on January 10, 1914.
  The Confederate Memorial consisted of a number of pieces which required assembly. Civil engineer A. C. Weeks donated his services to help prepare the site for the monument, and oversaw the memorial's erection. The memorial was stored in crates not at the Navy Yard but at the Army Quartermaster's headquarters at Fort Myer, next to Arlington National Cemetery. The ACMA decided to uncrate and erect the memorial in early March 1914 (as soon as winter weather permitted), and established a new the dedication ceremony date for April 27.
  But construction problems again forced a delay in the dedication ceremony. With the assistance of Representative James Luther Slayden of San Antonio, Texas, the ACMA had contracted with a Texas firm to provide the granite for the memorial's base. But the company could not furnish enough granite in time to meet the April 27 dedication deadline. The ACMA canceled its contract, and commissioned a Maryland firm to provide the granite instead. The Maryland company said the base would be completed by May 22, so the ACMA rescheduled the dedication for Confederate Memorial Day, June 4.
  Dedication of the Confederate Memorial was the most prominent project the UDC had ever undertaken, and the organization desired to make it a special occasion. Florence Butler (wife of former North Carolina Senator Marion Butler) chaired the dedication program committee. She called it a "disagreeable job", for it involved declining hundreds of requests from people who wanted to read speeches, sing or play songs, and recite poetry. Butler, however, was convinced that there should be a bare minimum of speeches, and none of them should be lengthy. President Woodrow Wilson, a native Virginian, was invited to be the keynote speaker, and an invitation he readily accepted. His participation was almost derailed, however, when Wilson decided against attending the Grand Army of the Republic's Memorial Day ceremonies. An outraged GAR demanded that Wilson withdraw from the Confederate Memorial dedication. But Wilson quickly agreed to attend the GAR's event, and the scandal died down.
caption: Unveiling of the Confederate Monument on June 4, 1914.
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