Monuments of Dinwiddie County

On the way back from AALS, I passed the Pentagon monument to 9/11 -- it's the first time I'd seen it.  Incredibly impressive and beautiful in the November Sunday morning sun.   That put me in the mood for some monument gazing.

I stopped in Dinwiddie County -- just south of Petersburg.  It's where the Confederacy made its last stand, just days before Richmond fell.  I was first in search of Poplar Grove National Cemetery -- but it was an impromptu stop and, of course, I couldn't quite remember the way to it.  Though looking at the Petersburg Battlefield map I now see I was quite close.

Of course there's an antebellum courthouse in Dinwiddie -- and it has a Confederate monument put up in the first decade of the twentieth century (November 1907, I think.)  Because I was driving through in the morning, the sun was in the wrong position for getting a really good picture of the soldier.  But I thought I'd post it now, along with a picture of their antebellum courthouse.  Reminds me that I've got to get back to posting on antebellum buildings -- like law school buildings and courthouses -- as well as Confederate monuments.  I'm acquiring quite a backlog of pictures -- from Athens, Richmond, Chapel Hill, Pittsboro -- basically, all the best places.

But here's the interesting thing, there's another monument put up in 1972 near the early 20th century Confederate monument.  It's a monument, basically, to the "battle" fought there (purporting to be the last victory of the Confederacy's Army of Northern Virginia, though it doesn't sound like it was much of a battle)  -- but this one honors both United States and Confederate States soldiers.  I've copied a photograph of it below.  Click on the monument's image to pull up a larger picture, where you can read the text.

And as long as I'm posting about Dinwiddie, I might as well post a picture of their antebellum courthouse (no longer used as a courthouse).  Again, I was somewhat hampered by the sun, so I couldn't get a good image of the front -- but I hope you might enjoy this side view.  I guess it looks a little less antebellum (it was build around 1851) with that pick up truck in the background, huh?

Comments

[Eric Fink]

What a pretty courthouse. And it is interesting that the 1972 memorial gives equal treatment to both Union and Confederate soldiers. Not something I've seen elsewhere in the South (or North, for that matter), and I wonder how common that is.