Confederate Women’s Monument

This bronze statue honoring the women of the Confederacy was sculpted in 1926 by Nashville artist Belle Kinney. The statue depicts Fame in the center with a wounded Confederate soldier at her left side. On her right, Fame places a wreath on the head of a southern woman. Women played a key role in the wartime South, from assisting with wounded soldiers on battlefields to keeping the farms and plantations running when the men were off to fight. The statue was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). The UDC was started in Nashville in 1894 for the purpose of honoring “the memory of those who served and fell in the service to the Confederate States.” 

The UDC, and other groups, initiated a Confederate monument-building campaign across the South in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The American Historical Association explains this phenomenon in a 2017 statement: Monuments and memorials “commemorated not just the Confederacy but were also part and parcel of the initiation of legally mandated segregation and widespread disenfranchisement across the South. Memorials to the Confederacy were intended, in part, to obscure the terrorism required to overthrow Reconstruction, and to intimidate African Americans politically and isolate them from the mainstream of public life.”

The Confederate Women’s Monument is located in War Memorial Plaza next to the War Memorial Auditorium. The entrance to the Military Branch of the Tennessee State Museum is next to the UDC memorial on the bottom level of the War Memorial building. This small museum is worth a visit, and it’s free. However, it does not focus on the Civil War but rather international conflicts—from the Spanish-American War to the Vietnam War. The Military Branch museum is generally open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Just a heads up, the last stop on this tour will be the Tennessee State Museum, and that features many Civil War artifacts and exhibits. So if you’re looking for more Civil War memorabilia and stories, you’re almost there. But before we get to the museum, let’s visit the State Capitol.

Walk away from the museum and turn LEFT to walk across the rest of War Memorial Plaza. To learn more about the plaza and War Memorial Auditorium, visit our Civic and Public Spaces tour. When you reach Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, cross to reach the Motlow Tunnel and the State Capitol. You can view the capitol from the street, or climb the stairs above the tunnel and walk around the Capitol grounds.