The Silent Sentinel:

Carrollton isn’t the only town that has a Confederate monument. Let me tell you what I know about the Silent Sentinels.

Perched atop a tall pedestal, sometimes reaching fifteen feet in the air, a Silent Sentinel is typically a six-foot stone depiction of a soldier, his rifle in front of him at parade rest.

The base is usually made of stone, and some are marble, and if the statue was made of Italian marble, it wouldn’t have been cheap. In the 1920s, it could have run into the thousands of dollars to construct.

In some poorer communities in the South, many of the monuments are made of cheaper bronze, and almost all of those look alike. They were most likely made on an assembly line in northern states foundries. One must admit the irony; the Yanks beat the Rebels in the war, and then sold war memorials to them. Towns could order them out of a catalog for five hundred dollars.

Once installed, the Silent Sentinel faces northwest, keeping an eternal gaze in the direction of what would have been the advancing enemy. But since the South surrendered the war, the Silent Sentinel is not allowed to have a cartridge box. He couldn’t fire a shot if he wanted to.

In the 1920s, more than fifty years after the Civil War, it seemed Southerners felt some need to regain self-esteem. White people in northern states were definitely better off and probably empathized with their pitiful kindred in the southern states. That’s how they tolerated all these revisions of the past and supported all sorts of glorified Confederate remembrances. Most of the monuments constructed at the time still stand today.

The new generation of agitators wants the old Rebel guard and the flagpole removed, but I have a better idea. I’ll tell you about it in my reminiscence.