Confederate Defenders Statue – White Point Gardens & the Battery
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Flat Abby and Grandmother Starmer visit the H. A. MacNeil statue in Battery park, Charleston, South Carolina in 2004.
This interesting photo of a MacNeil sculpture surfaced in a recent internet search. Grandmother Starmer and her little friend ‘Flat Abby’ are pictured visiting MacNeil’s “Confererate Defenders of Charleston” monument. No photo of this sculpture has been previously posted on this website. Located in Charleston, South Carolina, this statue was completed in 1931 and dedicated in October 1932. At that time surviving Civil War Veterans would have been over 80 years of age. The location at White Point Gardens and the Battery was first used as a public garden in 1837. With the outbreak of the Civil War, it became a fortification for the city, a Battery. Today, you will also find an impressive display of weaponry used to shell and defend the city.
On a more light hearted note, We have the statue pictured with “Flat Abby” some 143 years later. According to Grandmother’s blog, “Flat Abby arrived in Charleston, SC to visit us, Grandmother and Grandfather Starmer, in late October 2004, just in time for Halloween.” The posting, they tell me, was a ‘fun project’ done six years ago for their granddaughter, Abby. The blog continues with a historical tour of Beauregard House, antebellum home of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and other delightful sites of the city. Grandfather and Grandmother Starmer offer a wonderful travelers guide for young and old alike in their ‘Adventures with Flat Abby’. (It is amazing what ‘grandparenting’ does to otherwise, regular human beings. – including this Webmaster). For more details and history see their blog at: http://frank.itlab.us/flat_abby/
We thank Abby’s ‘Grandfather’ (Frank Starmer) and Grandmother for permission to use their 2004 photo of this MacNeil piece. (Hermon would have smiled too!)
In coming weeks the webmaster will post another photo of this work as it was first displayed in H. A. MacNeil’s studio at College Point, Long Island, New York in 1931. More later.
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