19-Year Wait for Lee-Jackson Statue Due to End This Month

Long anticipated and the subject of almost a generation of critical discussion, the Lee-Jackson equestrian statue will arrive here-either late on October 22 or early on October 23, W. J. Casey, treasurer of the Municipal Art Society and administrator of a $100,000 fund for the monument, announced yesterday.

Since 1928, when the late J. Henry Ferguson, banker and sports-man, left a fund for the monument to two of the South’s Civil War leaders, Baltimore has awaited the fulfillment of his will.

A pedestal for the figures has been standing since 1939 near the Wyman Park approach to the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Will Be Loaded October 20

Now, more than eleven years after the commission was given to Mrs. Laura Gardin Fraser, Mr. Casey has learned that the completed bronze monument will be put aboard a truck in Providence, R.I., on October 20, and may be expected to arrive on October 22 or 23.

Mrs. Fraser, the sculptress-artist whose model won committee approval above five other contestants, will reach Baltimore by train late on October 22, Mr. Casey said, but no formal ceremonies in her honor are expected at that time.

With Richard Murphy, who superintended the erection of the pedestal which for so long has stood alone, Mrs. Fraser will watch the moving of the completed bronze from the truck to its permanent place, Mr. Casey said.

The mechanics of the transfer will require no more than two days, Mr. Casey said, but the formal acceptance of the monument will not take place until May 1, 1948, the eighty-fifth anniversary of the eve of the Battle of Chancellorsville.

The monument shows Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson at the moment of their parting before that battle—a battle which cost the life of General Jackson.

Robert E. Lee Marshall, whose father, the late Col. Charles Mar-shall, was military secretary to General Lee through the years of the Civil War, is chairman of the committee which will arrange formal acceptance ceremonies next May.

Important To South

Mr. Marshall explained that the monument is important not only to Baltimore but to all the South, and that a purely local program would be inadequate.

“Many organizations wish to participate in the ceremonies formally dedicating this memorial,” Mr. Marshall explained,

“Ceremonies planned here and now would exclude many out-of-State groups,” he said. “On the other hand, even a few weeks of delay brings us up to the hazard of severe winter weather.

“For this reason, as well as for historical reasons, we have decided to wait until May 1 for the formal ceremonies.”

Mr. Marshall said his committee had thought of concealing the statue beneath tarpaulins before the acceptance date, but added:

“We are afraid that would be an invitation to vandalism.”

Thus, once the long-awaited monument is in place, it will be open to public view, while plans for the formal ceremonies are developing.

In a statement issued yesterday. Mr. Marshall said:

“It was the conclusion of the committee that the bequest of Mr. Ferguson … really established the date for the celebration.

Acceptance Speaker Picked

“There has come to our attention the desire of a number of groups to participate. Among these are the Daughters of the Confederacy, both in Maryland and throughout the South; the Maryland Historical Society, the Virginia Military Institute, where General Jackson was once a member of the faculty, and other groups devoted to the historical significance of these two men.”

The only definite detail of the acceptance program as announced yesterday by Mr. Casey and Mr.Marshall was the fact that Dr. Douglas Freeman, of Richmond, Va., author of a biography of General Lee and equally familiar with the life of General Jackson, will make the acceptance address.

Besides Mr. Marshall and Mr. Casey, members of the committee which will arrange for the ceremonies are:

A. W. Machen, Jr.                 S. Sterett McKim

Geo, L. Radcliffe                  Howard Bruce

Douglas H. Gordon              Hooper S. Miles

R. E. Lee Taylor                   Francis M. Jencks

Thos. B. McAdams              W. L. Marbury

B. Jackson Darneille is executive secretary.

When Mrs. Fraser’s model of the two figures on horseback first won committee approval, many individuals claimed that the forage cap worn by General Jackson and the campaign hat worn by General Lee were not authentic. There were other complaints about the fact that General Jackson was to the right rather than to the left of his commanding officer.