Ceremonial mace dedicated to the memory of Nathan Bedford Forrest
Item
- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
- Memorial Context
- Memorialized Subject
- Title
- Background and Context
- Physical Description
- Memorial Inscription
- Creator/Participating Person(s)
- Date created, installed or dedicated
- Date Modified
- Historical Period
- Funded by
- Location: Institution, City, State
- Learn More About this Subject
-
Memorial Object
-
Object
-
Forrest, Nathan Bedford
-
Ceremonial mace dedicated to the memory of Nathan Bedford Forrest
-
Louise Claiborne-Armstrong of Apopka, Florida, gave this jewel-encrusted mace to the University of the South in 1965. It is inscribed "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of General Nathan Bedford Forrrest," and decorated with a Confederate battle flag.
From that year until 1997, the president of the Order of Gownsmen (the University's academic honor society whose named was changed to Order of the Gown in 2017) carried the mace in University ceremonies, including commencement.
The mace was blessed on June 3, 1965 (Jefferson Davis's birthday), in a religious ceremony in the University's All Saints' Chapel during a meeting of the University Board of Trustees, the university Chancellor Charles C. J. Carpenter, Episcopal Bishop of Alabama, presiding.
In 1997, the mace was damaged, and the University administration withdrew it from service and deposited it in the University Archives and Special Collections. It has not been repaired.
Claiborne-Armstrong carried the torch for the Confederate general Forrest because, she said, her father had served under him during the Civil War. Claiborne-Armstrong's brother was a graduate of the University's grammar school and undergraduate college.
She also donated windows in 1963 in her home parish, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Apopka, “to the glory of God and in loving memory of members of her family, including Henry Claiborne Armstrong (Forrest’s Cavalry, C.S.A.)” and others.
As part of her gifts to Sewanee, Claiborne-Armstrong also donated to the university her personal collection of furniture, paintings, art objects, and sculpture. Born in 1884 in Kentucky, she died in 1976.
-
A jewel-encrusted mace, inscribed "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of General Nathan Bedford Forrest," and decorated with a Confederate battle flag.
-
To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of General Nathan Bedford Forrrest
-
1965
-
1997
Position: 68 (28 views)