Qualla: Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia)

Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quercus montana, CC BY-SA 4.0. On June 1, 1866, a small group of Romney residents walked through town to Indian Mound Cemetery and decorated the graves of Confederate dead. They were violating, or at least challenging, the spirit of the new West Virginia state constitution, which had disenfranchised former Confederates and barred them from holding office. Several people who had promised to march that day did not. They were afraid of federal reproach. The ones who did march would later raise just over a thousand dollars and erect what the town has long claimed is the first Confederate memorial in the country.

Image: Quercus montana | CC BY-SA 4.0

Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia): A Meeting at Colonel White's House

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quercus montana, Public domain. In early spring of 1866, with the war just a year over, former Confederate Colonel Robert White hosted a meeting at his Romney residence. With him were his brother Christian Streit White, his future sister-in-law Elizabeth Jane Schultze, and his sister Frances Ann White - who wou...

Image: Quercus montana | Public domain

Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia): The Obelisk and Its Inscription

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The memorial is a white marble obelisk twelve feet tall, four square feet at its base, set on a stepped pedestal capped by a sculpted cloth-draped urn. It rises from a raised earthen mound just inside the cemetery's entrance. The inscription chosen by the association reads: The D...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia): The Disputed First

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quercus montana, CC BY-SA 3.0. Romney has long claimed two firsts: the first public decoration of Confederate graves (June 1, 1866) and the first Confederate memorial dedicated to fallen soldiers (September 26, 1867). Both claims are contested. Cheraw, South Carolina, dedicated a monument on July 26, 1867 - tw...

Image: Quercus montana | CC BY-SA 3.0

Confederate Memorial (Romney, West Virginia): Preservation and Reckoning

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quercus montana, CC BY-SA 3.0. The memorial was restored in 1984, when weathering had darkened its surfaces. Workers sanded and resealed the marble, and the restoration's $2,850 cost was raised by donation - the donors' names recorded in the same treasurer's book that had recorded the original 1866 contributio...

Image: Quercus montana | CC BY-SA 3.0