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Fame Preservation Group

A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Charity Organization,

and a Confederate Historical Society

Learn More

Fame Preservation Group

A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Charity Organization,

and a Confederate Historical Society

Learn More

FAME CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

Gloria Victis and our mission moving forward

The Fame Confederate Monument, called Gloria Victis, is a bronze grouping statue which stands at 23 feet tall on a Salisbury Pink Granite pedestal with inscriptions on each side of the stone dedicating the War Memorial to the thousands of Confederate Veterans of Rowan County in North Carolina. The Constitutional founding principles of the United States are referenced twice on this Monument for the intention of the Confederacy and its desire to self-governance. The statue itself is estimated to stand at 12 feet tall.

Depicting an ascending Angel carrying a fallen soldier to the Kingdom of Heaven, Lieutenant Henry Howe Cook of the Tennessee Confederate Provisional Army is featured in the grouping bearing a CSA belt buckle and a broken rifle. The depiction was obtained from a photograph of Cook that was later used by sculptor Frederick Wellington Ruckstühl to cast the bronze statue in Brussels, Belgium in 1891 as sentiment to the war.

First displayed in the streets of Paris, France the same year, the French people resonated well with the art installation giving praise to the attention to detail and reference to the revolutionary nature of the piece for France's assistance to the Confederacy in its desire for sovereign independence.

Gloria Victis was then transported to New York City in 1901 to be displayed in yankeedom within an art museum where it was then purchased by the Robert F Hoke Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Salisbury, NC. Through fundraising efforts organized by the Daughters, $10,000 was raised for the grouping to be obtained and an additional $1,500 for the pedestal from local Balfour Quarry. It wouldn't be until May 10th, 1909 that the Monument would be dedicated to 160 Confederate Veterans at the intersection of Church and West Innes Streets in downtown Salisbury accompanied by Mary Anna Jackson, the widow of Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in addition to an estimated 40,000 other attendees present.

Despite being called Gloria Victis he nickname for the Monument, Fame, originated from the left inscription stating "Fame has given you an impressionable crown" referencing the many Confederate Veterans of Rowan County.

The statue was taken down in 1991 by the UDC Chapter to restore the condition of the bronze grouping by shipping it to Karkadoulias Bronze Art Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio for $14,000. Prior to its restoration, Fame was compared to that of the Statue of Liberty for its oxidized green corrosive appearance.

In the wake of an anti-Confederate movement in the nation fueled by civil rights and combatting police brutality, the Monument was first targeted in 2018 after being vandalized with white paint, then again in 2019 on the same day. By the wake of the George Floyd protests nationwide, Fame was again targeted and eventually removed for public safety concerns after protestors clashed where a gun was fired.

The Monument was officially removed on July 6h, 2020 after negotiations concluded between the City of Salisbury and the United Daughters of the Confederacy to move Fame to a private storage facility until a proper relocation plan could be organized and executed.

The City of Salisbury estimated it cost $89,000 to remove, store and relocate the statue. An additional $65,000 was privately raised to cover the costs of maintenance and site amenities including security cameras and an 8 foot fence around Fame at its new location in Old Lutheran Cemetery.

Fame was installed in its new reinforced plot within Salisbury's Old Lutheran Cemetery on July 23rd, 2021 accompanied by an estimated crowd of 20 spectators and news media crews in front of 176 Confederate Veterans markers belonging to a mass grave site in the same location. The property that Fame stands on now is privately deeded to the United Daughters of the Confederacy as well.

Fame Preservation Group, Inc was established to preserve the historical fact of the Fame Confederate Monument and the many different Confederate Veterans and families that it represents in response to the growing hostilities mounting against its existence from political adversaries and vandals that would seek to remove, destroy and cover up the historical value behind a Monument representing the revolutionary ideals instilled into the American people. Perhaps that why the French loved Fame so much.

FUTURE PROJECTS

QR Code Signage

Historical Markers

Our administr is currently researching how to effectively incorporate QR code technology into a self-guiding tour for visitors of historic sites to be able to scan these with their smartphones and have access to individual explanations of historical context and contributions made by historical figures unique to that site.

Historical Markers

Our organization is actively researching new ways to incorporate and fundraise towards the installation of new roadside historical markers for historical sites throughout Rowan County in North Carolina including mustering grounds, battle locations and preserved properties for the local tourism of Rowan's Confederate History as our Southern History.

New Headstones

Historical Markers

Memorial Benches

Fame Preservation Group, Inc, in the future intends to use existing acquired information to locate and honor unmarked graves of Confederate Veterans from Rowan County with new military headstones either through the Veterans Affairs administration or private means in order to pay tribute to their contributions and respect their families back at home.

Memorial Benches

Jefferson Davis Trail

Memorial Benches

FPG plans to finance the installation of two memorial benches on each side of the Fame Confederate Monument under the maple trees for visitors to enjoy and rest on as they reflect on the artistic beauty of the statue and memorialize the presence of 175 military headstones positioned in rows of five. The benches would contribute to all visitors of the Fame Confederate Monument.

Walking Tours

Jefferson Davis Trail

The Events Committee of Fame Preservation Group aims to conduct regular walking tours throughout Downtown Salisbury to touch on key historical locations relative to Southern History and the eventual production of the Fame Confederate Monument in its original 1909 location for the betterment and education of the residents of the city and the promotion of local tourism.

Jefferson Davis Trail

One of our main longterm goals as an organization is to establish a Jefferson Davis Trail historical marker detailing the stop he made in Salisbury, NC in the retreat of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from Richmond, VA following the sacking of the capitol and fleeing of the Confederate government through North Carolina and onward to where he was captured in Georgia.

Fame Fest

Memorial Park

The ongoing establishment of Fame Fest as our signiture fundraising community event continues to grow as a truly historically driven festival with living history, a vendor fair, live entertainment, and a memorial service for our fallen right next to the Fame Confederate Monument. With so much potential. we intend to continue to work towards improving this to become what best honors Fame for all that it represents.

Memorial Park

Fame Preservation Group intends to establish a memorial park of some sort in the future to honor and memorialize the deeds of Southern men and women who devoted their lives and their fortunes to the wellness of the common good for North Carolina and her desire for a more perfect Union through the Confederacy and its refined vision of what the founders of the American Nation intended.

Museum Space

Memorial Park

Museum Space

Fame Preservation Group as a historical society upholds full regard to the preservation of historical artifacts that have been aquired and donated to our organization for their protection, preservation, and educational value to the full representation of the Southern History captured within each piece. Those irreplaceable items belong in a museum which is ecactly what we intned to do.

Fame Preservation Group

Fame Preservation Group