PITTSBORO — Every spring, since its placement atop a pedestal at the Chatham County Courthouse in 1907, the statue of a Confederate soldier has been adorned with a wreath at its base in honor of Confederate Memorial Day.
Despite attention drawn in recent months to the local statue, whose future as a Pittsboro centerpiece is being debated publicly and awaits a pending decision by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, this year was no different.
Last Thursday morning, a day before the May 10 observance in North Carolina of Confederate Memorial Day, Barbara Pugh, president of the local Winnie Davis Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, accompanied by two other members of the small group, placed a wreath of flowers and greenery at the monument.
Pugh acknowledges this year’s observance — conducted quietly, and without controversy — could be the last, at least at the statue’s present location.
“We’ve done this for so many years, and we’ve heard no serious objection,” said Pugh.
Of the ongoing polarization of opinion around the “Our Confederate Heroes” monument, Pugh has some thoughts.
“I don’t know what the answer is,” she said.
But she hopes it isn’t removed.
“I would like to see it stay there,” she said of the 7-foot-tall copper soldier, “because it represents history. It’s a historical monument. That’s all it is. I don’t think removing the statue will do anything to change anybody’s opinion.”
Now numbering membership less than 20, the local Winnie Davis chapter was organized in October 1898. The statue, for which the group raised funds, was unveiled in Pittsboro on Aug. 23, 1907. Pugh said the organization (“we’re not a high-profile group,” she said, though they are distinct in being, she claims, the oldest women’s group in Chatham County) historically raised funds for a variety of uses, including pensions for Confederate veterans, homes for old soldiers and their widows and, in modern times, money for the Veterans Administration in Durham, among other things.
Once, there was fanfare around their annual placement of a wreath.
Members of the local Winnie Davis Chapter, many years ago, would meet at Hall-London House on Hillsboro Street and, in procession, walk to the statue to place their wreath. Today, the observance is less ostentatious.
“There’s no fanfare or procession going up the street now,” said Pugh. “We’re not that noticeable.”
But they have been consistent in their annual honoring of Chatham County’s Confederate veterans, even placing a wreath on the monument after the historic county courthouse was gutted by fire in March 2010.
“We put it up that year, too,” said Pugh. who, like others, now awaits a decision — expected when the Chatham County Board of Commissioners meets on May 20 — on the statue’s future.
The wreath is expected to remain in place — as it traditionally has — through the wider-encompassing Memorial Day, observed on May 27.
Randall Rigsbee may be reached at rigsbee@chathamnr.com.