BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC) -- The Lost Cause: Myths, Monuments, & Murals (Four Seasons of the Confederacy Mural)

VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC) -- The Lost Cause: Myths, Monuments, & Murals (Four Seasons of the Confederacy Mural):

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.17.154.171 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

[1] VHS4SE_200102_002_STITCH.JPG

[2] VHS4SE_200102_003_STITCH.JPG

[3] VHS4SE_200102_004_STITCH.JPG

[4] VHS4SE_200102_005_STITCH.JPG

[5] VHS4SE_200102_006.JPG	[6] VHS4SE_200102_016.JPG	[7] VHS4SE_200102_018.JPG
[8] VHS4SE_200102_020.JPG	[9] VHS4SE_200102_025.JPG	[10] VHS4SE_200102_028.JPG
[11] VHS4SE_200102_030.JPG	[12] VHS4SE_200102_034.JPG	[13] VHS4SE_200102_036.JPG
[14] VHS4SE_200102_039.JPG	[15] VHS4SE_200102_041.JPG	[16] VHS4SE_200102_044.JPG
[17] VHS4SE_200102_047.JPG	[18] VHS4SE_200102_049.JPG	[19] VHS4SE_200102_053.JPG
[20] VHS4SE_200102_056.JPG	[21] VHS4SE_200102_058.JPG	[22] VHS4SE_200102_060.JPG
[23] VHS4SE_200102_062.JPG	[24] VHS4SE_200102_065.JPG	[25] VHS4SE_200102_067.JPG
[26] VHS4SE_200102_070.JPG	[27] VHS4SE_200102_074.JPG	[28] VHS4SE_200102_076.JPG
[29] VHS4SE_200102_079.JPG	[30] VHS4SE_200102_081.JPG	[31] VHS4SE_200102_084.JPG
[32] VHS4SE_200102_086.JPG	[33] VHS4SE_200102_089.JPG	[34] VHS4SE_200102_092.JPG
[35] VHS4SE_200102_095.JPG	[36] VHS4SE_200102_098.JPG	[37] VHS4SE_200102_101.JPG
[38] VHS4SE_200102_104.JPG	[39] VHS4SE_200102_107.JPG	[40] VHS4SE_200102_110.JPG
[41] VHS4SE_200102_114.JPG	[42] VHS4SE_200102_116.JPG	[43] VHS4SE_200102_118.JPG
[44] VHS4SE_200102_120.JPG	[45] VHS4SE_200102_123.JPG	[46] VHS4SE_200102_125.JPG
[47] VHS4SE_200102_127.JPG	[48] VHS4SE_200102_130.JPG	[49] VHS4SE_200102_132.JPG
[50] VHS4SE_200102_134.JPG	[51] VHS4SE_200102_136.JPG	[52] VHS4SE_200102_140.JPG
[53] VHS4SE_200102_143.JPG	[54] VHS4SE_200102_146.JPG	[55] VHS4SE_200102_149.JPG
[56] VHS4SE_200102_150.JPG	[57] VHS4SE_200102_154.JPG	[58] VHS4SE_200102_158.JPG
[59] VHS4SE_200102_161.JPG	[60] VHS4SE_200102_164.JPG	[61] VHS4SE_200102_167.JPG
[62] VHS4SE_200102_171.JPG	[63] VHS4SE_200102_172.JPG	[64] VHS4SE_200102_176.JPG
[65] VHS4SE_200102_179.JPG	[66] VHS4SE_200102_181.JPG	[67] VHS4SE_200102_184.JPG
[68] VHS4SE_200102_186.JPG	[69] VHS4SE_200102_189.JPG	[70] VHS4SE_200102_190.JPG
[71] VHS4SE_200102_193.JPG	[72] VHS4SE_200102_196.JPG	[73] VHS4SE_200102_198.JPG
[74] VHS4SE_200102_201.JPG	[75] VHS4SE_200102_205.JPG	[76] VHS4SE_200102_207.JPG
[77] VHS4SE_200102_210.JPG	[78] VHS4SE_200102_213.JPG	[79] VHS4SE_200102_215.JPG
[80] VHS4SE_200102_220.JPG	[81] VHS4SE_200102_221.JPG	[82] VHS4SE_200102_225.JPG
[83] VHS4SE_200102_229.JPG	[84] VHS4SE_200102_232.JPG	[85] VHS4SE_200102_234.JPG
[86] VHS4SE_200102_237.JPG	[87] VHS4SE_200102_239.JPG	[88] VHS4SE_200102_242.JPG
[89] VHS4SE_200102_244.JPG	[90] VHS4SE_200102_248.JPG	[91] VHS4SE_200102_250.JPG
[92] VHS4SE_200102_257.JPG	[93] VHS4SE_200102_261.JPG	[94] VHS4SE_200102_267.JPG
[95] VHS4SE_200102_270.JPG	[96] VHS4SE_200102_273.JPG	[97] VHS4SE_200102_274.JPG
[98] VHS4SE_200102_278.JPG	[99] VHS4SE_200102_281.JPG	[100] VHS4SE_200102_282.JPG
[101] VHS4SE_200102_285.JPG	[102] VHS4SE_200102_289.JPG	[103] VHS4SE_200102_296.JPG
[104] VHS4SE_200102_299.JPG	[105] VHS4SE_200102_301.JPG	[106] VHS4SE_200102_304.JPG
[107] VHS4SE_200102_306.JPG	[108] VHS4SE_200102_309.JPG	[109] VHS4SE_200102_315.JPG
[110] VHS4SE_200102_322.JPG	[111] VHS4SE_200102_325.JPG	[112] VHS4SE_200102_329.JPG
[113] VHS4SE_200102_332.JPG	[114] VHS4SE_200102_336.JPG	[115] VHS4SE_200102_339.JPG
[116] VHS4SE_200102_342.JPG	[117] VHS4SE_200102_345.JPG	[118] VHS4SE_200102_347.JPG
[119] VHS4SE_200102_349.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. VHS4SE_200102_006.JPG: The Memorial Military Murals by Charles Hoffbauer Painted more than fifty years after the American Civil War (1861-1865), the murals in this gallery illustrate how former Confederates wanted the war to be remembered. Commissioned by the Confederate Memorial Association and completed in 1920, the Memorial Military Murals were intended to honor the soldiers, sailors, and civilians who supported the Confederate cause and to memorialize those who died. These murals are evidence of the widespread postwar effort by former Confederates to justify and glorify the Confederacy known as the Lost Cause. This influential ideology suggested that the war was fought out of noble impulses to preserve states' rights, but it intentionally denied the central role of slavery as a cause of the conflict, the enduring emotional scars resulting from unprecedented slaughter, and the deliberate suppression of black civil rights through subjugation, disenfranchisement, and threats of violence. As with most monuments and memorials, these paintings tell us more about the intentions and values of the people who created them than about the historical subjects they depict.
2. VHS4SE_200102_016.JPG: The Memorial Military Murals by Charles Hoffbauer
3. VHS4SE_200102_018.JPG: The murals in this gallery were commissioned by the Confederate Memorial Association and painted between 1913 and 1920. For nearly a century, they were referred to as "The Four Seasons of the Confederacy," but recent research suggests that the artist intended each to be a tribute to a major branch of Confederate military service. The plaque above the doorway refers to the three men whose efforts were most responsible for the creation of the murals. Beautiful and inspiring, the murals are also a reminder of a time when white Americans united around a narrative that our civil war had been fought out of noble impulses on both sides. Trouble realities like the loss of more than 750,000 lives or the unfulfilled promises to more than four million formerly enslaved African Americans were pushed from the collective memory for nearly a century after Appomattox.
4. VHS4SE_200102_020.JPG: Thomas Fortune Ryan The mural paintings were made possible by a donation of $20,000 from Thomas Fortune Ryan. Born in Nelson County, Ryan left Virginia and eventually secured a job on Wall Street. He founded a Manhattan streetcar company in 1883 and expanded his holdings to include coal mines, banks, public utilities, tobacco, and railroads. He was a generous philanthropist who funded the construction of a number of Catholic churches in the Richmond area. He was the tenth richest man in the United States when he died in 1928.
5. VHS4SE_200102_025.JPG: Charles Hoffbauer Hoffbauer was the artist commissioned by Ellyson to produce the Memorial Military Murals. Hoffbauer was born in Paris in 1875 and was a well-known artist even before his commission from the Confederate Memorial Association in 1913. After the outbreak of World War I, Hoffbauer left the mural project and enlisted as a private in the 274th Infantry Regiment. He returned to Richmond in May 1919 to complete the murals, which were unveiled in January 1921.
6. VHS4SE_200102_028.JPG: The Navy Mural Hoffbauer depicts the March 8, 1962, battle in which the world's first ironclad ship, CSS Virginia, sank two wooden-hulled U.S. warships -- USS Cumberland and USS Congress -- at Hampton Roads, proving that wooden vessels were obsolete. The next day the Union's first ironclad -- USS Monitor -- fought the CSS Virginia to a draw, ensuring the safety of the Union blockade fleet.
7. VHS4SE_200102_030.JPG: This ultraviolent fluorescence image of the ship's rigging taken during conservation revealed additional pulleys that Hoffbauer painted over as he reworked his composition.
8. VHS4SE_200102_034.JPG: War at Sea The Confederate States Navy could never be as large as the U.S. Navy, so it used technological innovation -- ironclads, submarines, torpedo boats, and naval mines -- to try to gain an advantage. In February 1861, the Confederate navy had thirty ships and eventually grew to 101 vessels. Commerce raiders were also used to disrupt Union merchant shipping.
9. VHS4SE_200102_036.JPG: Confederate troops march through Frederick, Maryland, 1862 The only known photograph if the Army of Northern Virginia on campaign was taken in September 1862. Notice that the men march four abreast -- typical of the period -- and the prevalence of civilian headwear and rolled blankets slung over the shoulder.
10. VHS4SE_200102_039.JPG: Infantry (Spring) Mural In this mural, an infantry column advances into battle somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley during the spring of 1862. Confederate general Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (mounted at right) stoically looks on as an officer salutes Jackson with his cap as the head of the column passes. Divided into regiments of 1,012 men, the infantry made up 80 percent of a Civil War army. Here, Hoffbauer celebrates their contribution to Confederate successes during the early years of the war at Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, in the Shenandoah Valley, and around Richmond.
11. VHS4SE_200102_041.JPG: "They have no uniforms, but are all well armed and equipped, and have become so inured to hardships that they care but little for any of the comforts of civilization." -- A citizen of Frederick, Maryland, September 1862
12. VHS4SE_200102_044.JPG: The Valley Campaign As the spring of 1862 arrived, former Virginia Military Institute professor Thomas J. Jackson received orders to drive federal fores from the agriculturally rich Shenandoah Valley. Jackson skillfully maneuvered his 17,000 men against larger but dispersed Union forces. He defeated portions of three armies and tied up nearly 60,000 Union troops that otherwise might have moved against Richmond. Federal commanders were stunned by the speed of Jackson's "foot cavalry," which marched a remarkable 646 miles in forty-eight days.
13. VHS4SE_200102_047.JPG: The model for the elderly nurse was Edward Valentine's aunt -- a librarian for the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Thousands of black and white women volunteered or worked in military hospitals during the war. The model for the wounded soldier was Julian Garthright. He lived nearby on Patterson Avenue in Richmond and died at the age of 95. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
14. VHS4SE_200102_049.JPG: The model for the African American man was a bellhop recruited from Richmond's Jefferson Hotel. Enslaved and free blacks were frequently forced into Confederate service as laborers, teamsters, and hospital stewards. The model for the man wearing the hat on the far right was well-known Richmond sculptor Edward Virginius Valentine, one-time president of the Virginia Historical Society.
15. VHS4SE_200102_053.JPG: Hospital Train Mural This panel shows the arrival of Confederate wounded at an unidentified Virginia railroad station. Richmond, Lynchburg, Petersburg, and Charlottesville became centers for the receipt, treatment, and transportation of military casualties. Richmond alone was home to more than fifty military hospitals.
16. VHS4SE_200102_056.JPG: Lee and His Generals (Summer) Mural Hoffbauer's imaginary grouping of more than a dozen of the most famous southern commanders -- men never all together in the field -- was conceived as appropriate imagery to mark the middle years of the war, when the Confederacy was at its greatest strength. For the figure of Robert E. Lee, the most photographed and celebrated of the Confederate leaders, the public expected a depiction that would both resemble his best-known images and match his exalted reputation. Hoffbauer developed an impressive figure who dominates not only this mural but also the entire room. The artist included more officers in the final mural to satisfy the advisory committee of the Confederate Memorial Association.
17. VHS4SE_200102_058.JPG: The Generals and Their Horses Among the officers shown here, Lee, Johnston, and Beauregard held the highest rank as full generals. Ewell, Longstreet, Jackson, Hampton, Hill, and Hood were among only eighteen Confederate lieutenant generals. Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, Pickett, and Stuart were major generals. All but Hampton and Gordon were educated at West Point. The horses of famous generals became almost as well known as their riders. They quickly carried them to where they were needed on the battlefield -- especially when an officer's appearance could encourage the men.
18. VHS4SE_200102_060.JPG: John Bell Hood 1831-1879 Hood achieved a reputation for aggressive leadership, was severely wounded at Gettysburg, and lost his right leg at Chickamauga, Georgia. In 1864 he nearly led the Army of Tennessee to destruction.
19. VHS4SE_200102_062.JPG: Wade Hampton 1818-1902 A South Carolina planter with no previous military experience, Hampton was an audacious cavalry leader. He was a senior commander under J.E.B. Stuart and assumed command of the Cavalry Corps after Stuart's death in 1864.
20. VHS4SE_200102_065.JPG: Richard Stoddert Ewell 1817-1872 Ewell was a senior commander under Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson. After Jackson's death, he assumed command of the Second Corps. His reputation is clouded by controversial actions at Gettysburg and Spotsylvania Court House.
21. VHS4SE_200102_067.JPG: John Brown Gordon 1832-1904 A lawyer from Georgia, Gordon was wounded five times while defending the "Bloody Lane" at Antietam. In 1864, he was promoted to major general. His men led the last charge of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.
22. VHS4SE_200102_070.JPG: Thomas Jonathan Jackson 1824-1863 A former Virginia Military Institute professor, Jackson was one of the Confederacy's ablest commanders. At Manassas in July 1861, he earned the nickname "Stonewall." He was mortally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville in May 1863.
23. VHS4SE_200102_074.JPG: Fitzhugh Lee 1835-1905 The jovial nephew of Robert E. Lee, "Fitz" was not an innovative tactician, but he served ably as a cavalry commander under J.E.B. Stuart. Lee commanded the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia during the last months of the war.
24. VHS4SE_200102_076.JPG: Ambrose Powell Hill 1825-1865 Known for headlong charges and defensive stands, "Little Powell" was among Robert E. Lee's most trusted men. After Jackson's death, Hill commanded the Third Corps. He was killed outside Petersburg one week before Appomattox.
25. VHS4SE_200102_079.JPG: Robert E. Lee 1807-1870 Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia from June 1862 until its surrender in April 1865. He was a bold tactician and an inspiring leader. By the end of his life, Lee had become a potent symbol of regional pride and dignity in defeat.
26. VHS4SE_200102_081.JPG: James Longstreet 1821-1904 Longstreet was Robert E. Lee's second-in-command for much of the war. A respected figure at war's end, he later became a scapegoat for Lee's failures and the central figure in the mythology developed to explain the loss of the war.
27. VHS4SE_200102_084.JPG: Joseph Eggleston Johnston 1807-1891 The highest-ranking U.S. Army officer to resign his commission, Johnston led Confederate troops to victory at the First Battle of Manassas in July 181, and defended Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862.
28. VHS4SE_200102_086.JPG: George Edward Pickett 1825-1875 Pickett is best remembered for his participation in the assault on the third day at Gettysburg. He ended the war broken and in bad health. His wife rehabilitated his reputation after his death and turned the general into an idealized hero.
29. VHS4SE_200102_089.JPG: Pierre G.T. Beauregard 1818-1893 A native of Louisiana, Beauregard led Confederates to victory at Manassas in July 1861. For much of the war, he commanded armies in the Western Theater but returned to Virginia in 1864 and was responsible for the defense of Petersburg in June.
30. VHS4SE_200102_092.JPG: James Ewell Brown Stuart 1833-1864 Stuart was praised for his ability to gather intelligence and act as Robert E. Lee's "eyes and ears." He cultivated an image as Virginia's mythical Cavalier and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in May 1864.
31. VHS4SE_200102_095.JPG: Little Sorrel (Unknown-1886) In the spring of 1861, Thomas J. Jackson acquired a small, gaunt horse with remarkable powers of endurance that would become his favorite. After the war, Little Sorrel was sent to the Virginia Military Institute. His bones were buried in 1997, but his mounted hide is still on display at the VMI Museum in Lexington.
32. VHS4SE_200102_098.JPG: Traveller (1857-1871) The horse formerly known as Jeff Davis, was born near the Blue Sulphur Springs, in Greenbrier County. Robert E. Lee purchased him in February 1862, and renamed him Traveller. The two served together throughout the war. On display for nearly one hundred years, Traveller's remains were buried beside the Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University in 1971.
33. VHS4SE_200102_101.JPG: Stuart's Mount: J.E.B. Stuart rode at least ten different horses during the war. The bay horse shown here could be Virginia, My Maryland, Chancellor, or Highfly. The last two were killed in action. Butler: Of Wade Hampton's two known Civil War mounts, Butler was a burley bay horse that carried him into battle at Gettysburg and Trevillian Station and may be the one depicted in the mural.
34. VHS4SE_200102_104.JPG: Partisan Rangers Under the light of a full moon, Confederate partisan ranger, John Singleton Mosby, leads members of the 43rd Cavalry Battalion across a river's ford on their way to disrupt federal operations in Northern Virginia. Partisan rangers operated behind Union lines to cut communications, raid supply trains, and divert federal troops and resources.
35. VHS4SE_200102_107.JPG: Col. John S. Mosby and Some of His Men (Mosby is in the second row, center, in the feathered hat).
36. VHS4SE_200102_110.JPG: Col. John Singleton Mosby Mosby was born in Powhatan County in 1833. He attended the University of Virginia, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and established a law practice in Loudoun County. During the war he served as a cavalry scout before his promotion to command the 43rd Virginia Cavalry in 1863. Mosby and his men disrupted Union operations in Northern Virginia so successfully that the region became known as "Mosby's Confederacy."
37. VHS4SE_200102_114.JPG: Charge! In addition to reconnaissance, horse soldiers served as a mobile strike force that often fought on foot. Although one solider in four was detailed to hold the horses, each trooper armed with a breech-loading carbine that remained on the front line could deliver as much firepower as two infantrymen. Headlong charges -- as shown here -- were dramatic but rare during a war dominated by long range firearms
38. VHS4SE_200102_116.JPG: In an early and unfinished version of the Artillery mural, Hoffbauer included the fallen Confederate soldier at the lower-left. This same soldier eventually appeared in the lower-left corner of the Cavalry mural, but in a Union uniform.
39. VHS4SE_200102_118.JPG: Cavalry (Autumn) Mural With the oranges and yellows of autumn, this mural depicts Confederate cavalry commander James Ewell Brown Stuart waving his signature plumed hat in the air and leading his cavalry -- armed with a variety of sabers, carbines, and pistols -- in a mounted charge. Of all the branches of service, the cavalry offered the greatest chance for glory and adventure -- a reputation fueled, in large part, by its leaders. This image of Stuart encouraging his troopers over a hill is suggestive of the late part of the war, during which the Confederacy suffered numerous defeats but determined to continued what was becoming an uphill struggle.
40. VHS4SE_200102_120.JPG: James Ewell Brown Stuart: Stuart grew his trademark beard after graduating from West Point in 1854. It was said that he was the "only man... [a] beard improved." He resigned from the US army in May 1861, and quickly became a hero to Confederates and a terror to Union forces. He served as the chief of cavalry for the Army of Northern Virginia until he was mortally wounded in May 1864. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. George Washington Custis Lee, James Ewell Brown Stuart, and Stephen Dill Lee, about 1854.
41. VHS4SE_200102_123.JPG: Who's in Command? Early Confederate naval officer uniforms were made dark blue but were later changed to gray. Hoffbauer's inclusion of the gilded strips of lace on the sleeve and the rank insignia on the shoulders of the officer at the bottom center of this mural indicates that the artist intended to portray either a navy commander of an engineer.
42. VHS4SE_200102_125.JPG: This 8-inch Columbiad mounted at Drewry's Bluff on the James River could fire a 50-pound shell over two miles.
43. VHS4SE_200102_127.JPG: Seacoast Artillery With 2,500 miles of coastline and thousands more of navigable rivers, the Confederacy countered Union naval superiority with networks of forts constructed along rivers and coastal waterways. Concealed behind a sandbag-reinforced earthen wall, cannoneers stripped to their shirt-sleeves load and fire heavy artillery toward an unseen waterborne enemy.
44. VHS4SE_200102_130.JPG: Artillery (Winter) Mural In the most violent of the murals, cannoneers under heavy fire struggle to push their 3-inch Ordnance Rifle through the snow and into position before reloading. Their situation is dire. The limber that tows the gun has been wrecked and many of the horses killed. The drivers of the caisson urge their teams forward up the hill beyond. The artillery was the smallest branch of service during the Civil War, and Virginia organized one hundred independent batteries. Each battery consisted of four to six guns, forty to one hundred men, more than seventy horses, and an assortment of vehicles.
45. VHS4SE_200102_132.JPG: Confederate artillery near Charleston, S.C., in 1861.
46. VHS4SE_200102_134.JPG: The Crew Much like the rifles used by infantrymen, most Civil War artillery was loaded through the muzzle, but an eight-man team operated each gun. Most prominent in the mural is the artillerist wielding the sponge-rammer. His role was to extinguish embers that may remain in the barrel between firing and to ram powder charge and shot down the barrel.
47. VHS4SE_200102_136.JPG: Charles Hoffbauer would have been very familiar with the struggles of horses to pull artillery pieces through snow and mud after his experience on the Western Front during World War I, and he likely used a scene like this as inspiration for the Artillery mural. Horse-drawn artillery caisson passes through the Canal du Nord, France, during World War I.
48. VHS4SE_200102_140.JPG: When the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861, there were nearly 3.4 million horses in the northern states and 1.7 million in the Confederate states. The border states of Missouri and Kentucky had an additional 800,000 horses. More than one million horses and mules were killed during the Civil War. A monument to their sacrifice, The War Horse, stands in front of the Virginia Historical Society. Dead horses of the 9th Massachusetts Battery on the field at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
49. VHS4SE_200102_143.JPG: Study of Confederate cavalryman, about 1920 (reproduction) Charles Hoffbauer Charles Hoffbauer drew numerous studies in pencil and pastels as part of the process of creating the cavalry (autumn) mural. This cavalryman appears largely unchanged at far left of the completed painting behind you.
50. VHS4SE_200102_146.JPG: Study of Confederate infantryman, about 1920 (reproduction) Charles Hoffbauer Charles Hoffbauer drew numerous studies in pencil and pastels as part of the process of creating the infantry (spring) mural. This subject appears at the center of the painting behind you, but details such as the position of his cartridge box, color of his clothing, and the position of his rifle have been altered.
51. VHS4SE_200102_171.JPG: The mural decoration of this room is the gift of Thomas F. Ryan of Oakridge, VA Contributed through the Hon. J. Taylor Ellyson The painting begun in 1913 interrupted by the European War and finished in 1920 is the work of the French artist Charles Hoffbauer
52. VHS4SE_200102_281.JPG: Building the Memory: From Battle Abbey to History Museum
53. VHS4SE_200102_282.JPG: Unveiling of the Lee Monument, Richmond, VA, May 29, 1890 More than 100,00 exuberant white southerners gathered for the dedication of the Robert E. Lee monument in 1890. Addressing the crowd, former Confederate Archer Anderson echoed the Lost Cause narrative by saying it should "stand as the embodiment of a brave and virtuous people's ideal leader." John Mitchell, Jr., the African-American editor of the Richmond Planet, commented that such reverence of Confederate leaders "serves to retard [the South's] progress in the country and forges heavier chains with which to be bound."
54. VHS4SE_200102_285.JPG: Temple for a Lost Causer You are standing in the oldest part of the museum. Built more than a century ago, it was designed by a different institution for a different purpose. Completed in 1921, the Confederate Memorial Institute (also known as the "Battle Abbey") was originally built as a memorial to the more than 250,000 Confederate lives lost during the American Civil War. It was also part of a widespread effort across the South to glorify and justify the Confederacy. Confederate monuments and memorials built during that period furthered the Lost Cause ideology that remembered the Confederate cause as a heroic struggle against great odds to maintain a southern way of life -- including the subjugation of African Americans -- and minimized the central role of slavery in the conflict. These efforts to shape public memory of the Confederacy occurred at a time when black southerners were being stripped of most of the rights they gained during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Public memorials signaled the dominance of white authority to all members of society.
55. VHS4SE_200102_289.JPG: Building Battle Abbey The idea to build a Confederate memorial was conceived in the 1890s in direct response to the construction of a memorial to Ulysses S. Grant ("Grant's Tomb") in New York City. In 1898, the Confederate Memorial Association (CMA) chose Richmond -- the former Confederate capital -- as the site of its memorial. Even before it was built, the building became known as Battle Abbey in reference to the memorial in East Sussex, England, built to commemorate the 1066 Battle of Hastings. Fundraising for the project faltered until 1910, but renewed interest among white southerners was invigorated by their opposition to the creation of a national memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC. On January 22, 1912, the CMA broke ground on Battle Abbey. The construction process, expected to take a year, was not completed until January 31, 1921.
56. VHS4SE_200102_296.JPG: Constructing the Battle Abbey, facing southwest, 1912. This photograph, taken on May 4, 1912, shows the early stages of constructing the Confederate Memorial Institute, which was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Bissell & Sinkler. Building Battle Abbey The idea to build a Confederate memorial was conceived in the 1890s in direct response to the construction of a memorial to Ulysses S. Grant ("Grant's Tomb") in New York City. In 1898, the Confederate Memorial Association (CMA) chose Richmond -- the former Confederate capital -- as the site of its memorial. Even before it was built, the building became known as Battle Abbey in reference to the memorial in East Sussex, England, built to commemorate the 1066 Battle of Hastings. Fundraising for the project faltered until 1910, but renewed interest among white southerners was invigorated by their opposition to the creation of a national memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC. On January 22, 1912, the CMA broke ground on Battle Abbey. The construction process, expected to take a year, was not completed until January 31, 1921.
57. VHS4SE_200102_299.JPG: Postcard of the Soldiers' Home, about 1910. In the 1880s, the original 1850s farmhouse of the Robinson family (center) became the core of a residential complex for poor and infirm Confederate veterans. Known as R.E. Lee Camp No. 1, it operated until 1941. In 1910 part of its grounds would serve as the site of the Confederate Memorial Institute (Battle Abbey).
58. VHS4SE_200102_304.JPG: A Message for the Future Members of the Confederate Memorial Association (CMA) placed a copper time capsule into a carved niche in the cornerstone of the building in 1912. The box was stuffed with more than 100 items, including newspaper, postcards, Confederate army documents and currency, and materials relating to the creation of the memorial. Through the selection of the items in the box, CMA officials intended to honor both the Confederacy, by including relics from the war, and the City of Richmond and its place as the former capital of the Confederacy.
59. VHS4SE_200102_306.JPG: Cornerstone time capsule box with selected contents In 2012, museum staff removed the one-hundred-year-old time capsule from the cornerstone. Inset, Cornerstone Laying, 1912 Walter Washington Foster On May 20, 1912, a crowd of onlookers watched workmen hoist into place the cornerstone of the Confederate Memorial Institute.
60. VHS4SE_200102_309.JPG: Bust of Charles Broadway Rouss, 1895 M. Buxbaum Before the Civil War, Charles Broadway Rouss (1836-1902) was the most successful storekeeper in Winchester, Virginia. After serving in the 12th Virginia Infantry, he opened a dry good store in New York City. He pledged $100,000 -- half of the amount required -- for the construction of the Battle Abbey. Rouss did not live long enough to see the project completed.
61. VHS4SE_200102_322.JPG: Transformation Today the Battle Abbey forms the historic core of this museum. By the time Battle Abbey opened in 1921, the various Confederate organizations that had taken an interest in it were fast declining. As the original constituency of the Confederate Memorial Association (CMA) deid out, the CMA turned for help to the Virginia Historical Society, then residing in a cramped brick townhouse near Capitol Square. On July 8, 1946, the Virginia Historical Society absorbed the CMA. After another decade, the generosity of Virginia and Alexander Weddell and Paul Mellon gave the historical society the means to enlarge Battle Abbey.
62. VHS4SE_200102_325.JPG: Douglas Southall Freeman, mid-20th century Historian and newspaper editor Douglass Southall Freeman (1886-1953) was the last president of the Confederate Memorial Association. He was instrumental in arranging the transition of the CMA collection to the Virginia Historical Society in 1946.
63. VHS4SE_200102_329.JPG: Breaking Ground, 1990 From left to right, this photo shows Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia Historical Society president Stuart G. Christian, Jr., and board member A.E. Dick Howard standing on the back lawn of the museum in 1990 at a groundbreaking ceremony to inaugurate the expansion that includes the Joseph Bryan and John Stewart Bryan Reading Room.
64. VHS4SE_200102_336.JPG: The Confederate Memorial Institute (Battle Abbey) was expanded in 1959, 1992, 1998, 2006, and 2015 by the Virginia Historical Society.
65. VHS4SE_200102_342.JPG: The Memorial Military Murals "I have for several years had the ambitious desire to have a collection of mural paintings similar to those to be found in the great gallery at Versailles." -- J. Taylor Ellyson, 1912 The Confederate Memorial Association (CMA) president, J. Taylor Ellyson, secured a $20,000 gift for the creation of a series of memorial murals that would glorify the fighting spirit of the Confederate army. The CMA chose French artist Charles Hoffbauer, who began work on the murals in January 1913. Although nearly completed in the summer of 1914, World War I intervened and Hoffbauer returned to France to enlist in the army. He returned to Richmond in early 1919 with wartime experience and a nuanced perspective. Unsatisfied with the mural already done on the murals, he began a new design. His completed murals were unveiled in January 1921.
66. VHS4SE_200102_345.JPG: Robert E. Lee on Traveller Charles Hoffbauer, pastel on paper Hoffbauer completed hundreds of sketches and rendering of his subjects in charcoal and pencil, as well as ink, crayon, watercolor, and pastel. He transferred and enlarged the images to the wall by using a grid system, which enabled him to systematically transfer images from a small square to a larger corresponding square on the final mural surface.
67. VHS4SE_200102_347.JPG: Charles Hoffbauer in his Paris studio, about 1905
68. VHS4SE_200102_349.JPG: Major donors to the restoration of the Charles Hoffbauer Murals
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Description of Subject Matter: Version through 2021:
Four Seasons of the Confederacy: Murals by Charles Hoffbauer
French mural artist Charles Hoffbauer was commissioned by the Confederate Memorial Association in 1914 to paint a series of Civil War murals for the newly constructed Battle Abbey. With the outbreak of World War I, he interrupted his labors and returned to France, leaving his project half completed. He came back after the war only to obliterate his earlier work, explaining that his front-line experiences had radically changed his view of war. The murals were unveiled in January 1921. Today, his work stands untouched. The murals follow the changing seasons and include the Spring Mural, the Summer Mural, the Autumn Mural, and the Winter Mural.
* The Spring Mural depicts Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson reviewing his troops in the Shenandoah Valley.
* The Summer Mural portrays a fictitious gathering of Confederate commanders.
* The Autumn Mural shows J. E. B. Stuart leading his cavalrymen on a foray through Virginia woods.
* The Winter Mural illustrates the misery of an artillery battery in retreat through the snow, its equipment shattered, its men on the verge of exhaustion.

Version Effective in 2022:
The Lost Cause: Myths, Monuments, & Murals
From May 14, 2022
This exhibition explores the history of the Lost Cause as expressed through a cycle of military murals and a sculpture of Robert E. Lee previously on view at the U.S. Capitol.
Square feet: 1,547
Number of artifacts: 4 murals, 1 sculpture
About the Exhibition: The Lost Cause was a widespread effort by former Confederates after the American Civil War (1861–1865) to justify and glorify the Confederacy. The Lost Cause manifested in different ways over many generations—from history textbooks to street names to various forms of memorialization. As with most of their counterparts, the monument and murals displayed in this gallery, as well as the gallery itself, tell us more about the intentions and values of the people who created them than about the historical subjects they depict.
About the Artifacts:
* Commissioned by the Confederate Memorial Association and executed by Charles Hoffbauer, the Confederate Memorial Military Murals were unveiled at the Confederate Memorial Institute in 1921. The Virginia Historical Society acquired them when it acquired the CMA in 1946 as its new home. The murals have remained on exhibit in the south wing of the former CMI building until the present time.
* The Edward Valentine sculpture of Lee stood as one of Virginia’s entries in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol from 1909 until 2020, when it was given to the VMHC by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].