Douglas Butler: North Carolina Civil War Monuments

Featuring Douglas J. Butler, author of "North Carolina Civil War Monuments: An Illustrated History." Butler discusses the origins, evolution, and significance of Civil War monuments across North Carolina, providing insights into the commemorative efforts that began immediately after the war. He delves into the roles of groups like the Ladies Memorial Associations and the United Daughters of the Confederacy in erecting these monuments, highlighting the grief, honor, and historical memory they represent.

FEATURED TITLE

North Carolina Civil War Monuments: An Illustrated History. McFarland, softcover (2013) ISBN: 9780786468560 

Winner of the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award (2014) 

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DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK

Monuments honoring leaders and victorious armies have been raised throughout history. Following the American Civil War, however, this tradition expanded, and by the early twentieth century, the Confederate dead and surviving veterans, although defeated in battle, ranked among the world’s most commemorated troops. This memorialization, described in North Carolina Civil War Monuments, evolved through a challenging and contentious process accomplished over decades. Prompted by the need to rebury wartime dead, memorialization, led by women, first expressed regional grief and mourning then expanded into a vital aspect of Southern memory. In North Carolina, 109 Civil War monuments—101 honoring Confederate troops and eight commemorating Union forces—were raised prior to the Civil War centennial. Photographs showcase each memorial while committee records, legal documents, and contemporaneous accounts are used to detail the difficult process through which these monuments were erected. Their design, location, and funding reflect not only the period’s sculptural and cultural milieu but also reveal one state’s evolving grief and the forging of public memory.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Douglas Butler is an independent scholar, retired physician, adventure travel writer and award-winning photographer whose hiking, trekking and climbing journeys have taken him to five continents.

OTHER BOOKS BY DOUGLAS

• North Carolina Civil War Monuments: An Evolving History, 1961-2024. McFarland, softcover (not yet published)

• A featured photographer in Photography in Ashe County, North Carolina, McFarland, softcover (2024) Kim Hadley and Doug Munroe. mcfarlandbooks.com/product/photography-in-ashe-county-north-carolina

• A contributor in The Love of Baseball: Essays by Lifelong Fans, McFarland, softcover (2017) edited by Chris Arvidson and Diana Nelson Jones. mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-love-of-baseball

• A Walk Atop America—Fifty State Summits and a Dream to Reach Them All. Parkway Publishers (2007) www.awalkatopamerica.com

• Ashe County—Discovering the Lost Province," Self-published (1992–out of print)

ABOUT MCFARLAND

McFarland, a leading independent publisher of academic and general-interest nonfiction books, is perhaps best known for the serious treatment of popular