Letters from Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis entombed in Confederate monument in Macon

The marble statue of an anonymous Civil War soldier at the foot of Cotton Avenue in Macon is more than Confederate monument. It is also a time capsule, one whose hidden-away contents may surprise locals and war buffs alike.

The statue, at the center of a clash over whether it and at least one other Confederate marker in downtown should be moved to less-visible locales, was erected a decade after the War between the States.

Concealed in its base, inside a copper box at the triangular intersection of Cotton Avenue and Second Streets, are documents and artifacts from the years soon after the war. Among them: an 1878 letter from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, ahead of the monument’s dedication, to members of the Ladies Memorial Association.

The monument was moved to its present site from the intersection of Second and Mulberry streets in 1956 to make way for better traffic flows near the county courthouse. When it was relocated, the copper box beneath the monument was unsealed for the first time since the statue’s completion in 1879.

The Telegraph reported the unsealing in a front-page article that said the contents, “still white and crisp after their long stay under the monument,” had been packed in Georgia cotton, “which has remained pure white for 77 years.”

Along with the letter from Davis, the box contained “copies of newspapers, several pictures, two city directories, examples of currency, coins and bonds of the Confederacy,” the newspaper reported.

There was also a roll of honor bearing the names of Confederate soldiers buried at Rose Hill Cemetery and what was described as “a circular order on recruiting regiments” by Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson.

Copies of the items were made, and the originals were returned to the box and resealed in the monument after its move to Cotton Street. It was then that a photocopy of a letter from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was included.

The letter, sent to the president of Mercer University, is Lee’s acceptance of the school’s honorary law degree. The letter is dated July 18, 1866, a year and three months after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

Three thousand or so people flocked to Macon City Hall to view the Confederate materials before they were again entombed in the monument.

The Joseph N. Neel post of the American Legion then ceremoniously welcomed the recently relocated soldier statue into its ranks.

“For over three-quarters of a century,” the Legionnaires declared in a resolution at an April 1956 gathering, “this indomitable soldier of the Storm-Cradled Nation that fell has maintained his ceaseless vigil.”

Legion members also noted that there had been controversy — “turmoil and furor” — over the monument’s move to its present site about 75 yards to the south.

The monument soldier’s “short march to the southward,” they proclaimed, “can in no way be considered a retreat.”

This story was originally published August 16, 2017 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Letters from Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis entombed in Confederate monument in Macon."