At one end of Washington Square, the Confederate Memorial rises, and just beside it a historical marker notes that this was the site of the last cabinet meeting held by CSA President Jefferson Davis. It's the kind of pairing you expect to find in a Georgia courthouse square, but it was nice to see a counterbalance at the opposite end, a monument honoring the Black patriots who fought in the Continental Army. The two ends of the square speak to very different chapters of American memory, and walking between them on a quiet Sunday morning gives you time to take that in.
The simple bust represents Austin Dabney, the best‑known Black patriot associated with Georgia. Dabney and his owner, Richard Aycock, moved from North Carolina to Wilkes County in the late 1770s, and to avoid service himself, Aycock sent Dabney to fight in his place. Dabney was present at the Battle of Kettle Creek on 14 February 1779, one of Georgia's most important engagements of the war. In recognition of his service, he was granted his freedom, land in Wilkes County, and a pension. Because no contemporary image of Dabney survives, sculptor Kinzey Branham used the likeness of James Armistead Lafayette, another African‑American patriot who gained his freedom after the war.
It's not the only memorial I've seen in the South that honors Black Americans who served in the Civil War era. In Hertford, North Carolina, there's the US Colored Troops Monument, a reminder that these stories are finally being carved into public spaces after generations of being overlooked. So while this monument in Washington isn't unique, it still feels meaningful in a square long dominated by Confederate memory.
As we move from the 19th century to the 21st, I expect to see more of these monuments appear across the South, each one adding a little more balance to the landscape and giving visitors a fuller sense of who actually shaped the country.
[Review 263 of 2026 - 954 in Georgia - 25452 overall] read more