"Fair Florida is Fortunate," read the headline in the February 23, 1896 issue of the Florida Times-Union. The good news had been announced that Charles C. Hemming, a veteran of the Civil War and a storied Jacksonville son, would erect a $20,000 monument to honor the state's Confederate dead. Hemming himself had made the announcement and unveiled a model at the annual reunion of Florida Confederate veterans in Ocala, where "The audience went wild with delight and its joy knew no bounds," the Florida Times-Union article read.
Plans called for a 60-foot tall obelisk anchored on each of its four sides by a base bearing the likenesses of four Confederate generals, including General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson (the citys namesake) sculpted in bronze relief. Atop the granite and bronze structure would stand a Confederate soldier in winter uniform, holding a rifle and gazing ever southward. The front of his cap would bear the initials JLI, for "Jacksonville Light Infantry."
Making a Lasting Impression
The chosen residence for the monument was St. James Park in downtown Jacksonville, a few blocks from Hemming's childhood home. And after considering marble for its aesthetic beauty, Hemming changed his mind, according to a newspaper account:
Of the monument men he asked, "How long will marble last?"
"Six hundred years" was the reply.
"That will not do for me. I want something that will last as near forever as possible." Then he asked, "What will last a million years?"
"He was told that Vermont granite and Austrian bronze were the most enduring of materials. So, he has contracted to have this monument of granite and bronze.
Hemming's Storied Past
By the time of Hemming's grand announcement and the unveiling of his Confederate Monument, he was a respected, high-society gentleman who had made a fortune in Texas banking. But before his trek westward, he had become something of a legend among Civil War soldiers.
He first enlisted in 1861, the day after Florida seceded from the Union, at age 17 and fast became a sergeant-major. Captured by Union forces in the Battle of Misionary Ridge and imprisioned at Rock Island in Illinois in 1863, he was offered release in exchange for information on Confederate troop sizes and movement. He refused and spent three days in the irons. Later, he escaped by feigning sick with such dramatic precision that his sergent excused him from labor. In the days prior, he had friends slip him several articles of Federal clothing and, dressed as a Union soldier, slipped out of the fort unnoticed, hid in a shed for a night, then hopped the first fishing boat on the Mississippi River.
Hiding in Canada, he was offered work spying on Union camps and reportedly took the job on the condition that, "If I am hung, never tell my folks."
Several arrests by U.S. detectives and at at least as many escapes would follow, including one near capture in which he grabbed a random child and hopped a train to slip back into Canada, leaving behind a fellow spy who soon dangled from the gallows. At the war's end, he was sergeant-major of the Third Florida Regiment at just 21 years of age. He and and old friend soon boarded a west-bound train, determined to live out their childhood dream of moving to Texas to fight Indians and kill buffalo. There, he married and made his fortune.
Memorial Sees Historic Events
In 1899, St. James Park was renamed Hemming Plaza in honor of its celebrated benefactor. Throughout the century since, the park has hosted several historic events, including the blaze dubbed the Great Fire of 1901, which destroyed Jacksonville's downtown core, burning 146 city blocks and 2,368 buildings, killing seven and leaving 10,000 homeless. Hemming's Confederate friend stood tall. The monument is one of the few downtown structures that survived.
The Civil Rights Movement brought another dark moment to Hemming Plaza. On August 27, 1960 racial tensions came to a head over sit-in protests by black students asking to be served at whites-only lunch counters in and around the park. Some 200 white men armed with wooden axe handles and baseball bats convened at the park and attacked the protesters conducting the sit-ins.
A young black boy by the name of Nathaniel Glover ran to police for help. Rather than help, Glover says, officers told him to leave town or risk being killed. Numerous accounts say police simply stood by, until a black street gang called the Boomerangs stepped in to help protect the protesters. At that point, police began arresting Boomerang members and other black residents.
That bloody day became know as "Axe Handle Saturday" and later served to generate efforts toward racial peace in Jacksonville. And in 1995, Glover - the young boy told to leave town or risk death - would become Jacksonville's first African American sheriff since Reconstruction, serving two terms as sherrif before being defeated in race for the Mayor's office.
Some may call it providence, or simply irony that a Confederate soldier overlooks a place that has seen such destruction and racial strife, yet led to sincere efforts toward peace. No matter - Hemming's soldier still stands and likely will "as near forever as possible."
Devan Stuart - Devan Stuart is a longtime journalist and five-time Florida Press Association Award winner.
Join the Conversation