George Washington and the Civil War

(jazz music)

- [Narrator 1] We're in Richmond, Virginia

atop a large hill with the State Capitol.

Just beside it is this
extraordinary sculptural confection

with George Washington
mounted on a steed at its top.

- [Narrator 2] This
sculpture of Washington

was made by Thomas Crawford.

Crawford begins the commission in 1850.

Crawford dies in '57.

This is not completed until
1869 by Randolph Rogers.

- [Narrator 1] And the idea of having

an equestrian sculpture is significant.

- [Narrator 2] Crawford bases
his design of this sculpture

on a famous Roman sculpture
of Marcus Aurelius.

So we have Washington
pointing up slightly,

as if to say, the nation is moving west.

- [Narrator 1] But Crawford is known

for more than this sculpture.

- [Narrator 2] Crawford was proposing

and designing a Statue of Freedom,

which now sits atop he U.S. Capitol dome,

roughly concurrent with when he's making

this sculpture in Richmond.

And Crawford first conceived
the Statue of Freedom

as wearing a phrygian cap.

That was a cap worn by

former Roman slaves who had been freed

to indicate that they were freedmen.

A Senator in the U.S. Senate objected

to such a symbol of individual freedom

in the context of a
formerly enslaved person

being atop the U.S. Capital dome.

That objecting Senator
was Jefferson Davis.

- [Narrator 1] I think it's
impossible to overstate

the tensions that existed

in the years immediately
before the Civil War

between the North and the South.

This period that we call
the antebellum period.

- [Narrator 2] This sculpture
is an argument about

what North and South agree upon.

And what both halves

of America's ideological
argument agree upon

is republicanism.

Not only do we have Washington represented

in a manner recalling Marcus Aurelius,

a Roman emperor, but a Republican.

But he is surrounded by signifiers

of Roman liberty and triumph,

such as the laurel wreaths
around the plinths.

Thomas Jefferson, which
is one of the figures

carved by Crawford,

is wearing a cloaky garment
that recalls a Roman toga.

The allegorical figures at
the base of the monument,

all created by Randolph Rogers,

are wearing garments that can also be read

as referencing Rome.

This confectionary plinth arrangement

references how sculptures
would've been installed

in Republican Rome.

- [Narrator 1] What I
find successful about

the sculptural representation
of Washington and this horse

is its sense of dynamism.

Almost every part of
the animal is in motion,

and yet Washington seems steady.

He seems as if he is in
complete control of his troops.

- [Narrator 2] The first
thing that strikes me

about this sculpture is the horse's tail.

It is flowing.

We see the movement in the tail

extended through the saddle blanket

that rests across the horse.

We see movement in the horse's mane.

We see movement in the horse's eyes.

- [Narrator 1] Here, this is Washington

as a military genius.

And this Marshall representation

is quite different from
the famous sculpture

that exists just a few yards away

inside the Capitol building,

which was a late 18th century sculpture

of George Washington by
the French artist Houdon,

where Washington has taken off his sword

and is holding now a walking stick.

Washington is shown having
relinquished his military power

and is returning to his
role as a country gentleman.

So what does it mean in 1850

to re-emphasize the military
career of George Washington

as opposed to George
Washington as either statesmen

or as country gentlemen?

- [Narrator 2] In the
1850s, one of the ways

in which Washington was
considered remarkable

is that he was a Southerner

who was empowered by Northerners

to lead the army that brought to fruition

New England ideas about liberty.

Washington as a uniter.

- [Narrator 1] And importantly,
each of the standing figures

that were chosen for
the base of the monument

are themselves Virginians.

But the meaning of this work changes.

In this sculpture, there is such a lag

between its inception in 1850
that is before the Civil War,

and its completion in 1869,

after the Civil War has concluded.

- [Narrator 2] In between
1850 when Crawford starts

and 1869 when Rogers
finishes, this sculpture

is the site of Jefferson
Davis' second inauguration

as the President of the Confederacy.

So, while for the North
and South across the 1850s,

Washington is a symbol

of how the two sides can work together.

In 1862,

Davis realizes that this
sculpture being in Richmond

provides him with an
opportunity to make an argument

for Washington as the Southern leader.

This monument is enormously
important to both Virginia

and then to what will
become the Confederacy.

For example, the Confederacy

will use the Washington of this monument,

Washington on a horse, on
the Confederate state seal.

This is a period during which
Confederates, Southerners,

are extending an argument
they made in the late 1850s

that if the 13 colonies

could declare their
independence from Britain,

why couldn't the South
declare its independence

from, effectively, the North?

- [Narrator 1] So, Washington as a symbol

is being reclaimed by the
South as their native son

and that the South is the inheritor

of the true republicanism
of the revolutionary period.

- [Narrator 2] The North
and South in this period

have different ideas

of what republicanism and liberty mean.

For the North, freedom and republicanism

are about valuing the whole

more than an individual's
own self-interest.

And in the South, freedom
was about property.

And of course, that property
was enslaved humans.

(jazz music)