The James Oglethorpe Monument is a public monument in Chippewa Square, Savannah, Georgia, United States. The monument honors James Oglethorpe, the founder of the Province of Georgia, who established the city of Savannah in 1733. Efforts towards the monument's erection began in 1901 and were led by members of several patriotic groups in the city, who secured government funding for the monument. The monument consists of a bronze statue of Oglethorpe, designed by Daniel Chester French, atop a large granite pedestal designed by Henry Bacon. It was dedicated in 1910, in a ceremony that attracted several thousand spectators and was attended by several notable government officials.
History
Background
James Oglethorpe was a soldier and philanthropist who founded the Province of Georgia in 1732, after a charter was granted by the Parliament of Great Britain to the Georgia Trustees. In November of that year, Oglethorpe and a group of over a hundred people set sail from England to colonize the new province, and on February 12, 1733, these settlers established the city of Savannah, Georgia, at Yamacraw Bluff on the Savannah River. Oglethorpe was directly involved in the colony's growth over the next several years, and he led the colony's defenses during the War of Jenkins' Ear against the Spanish Empire, which began in 1739. In 1742, forces under Oglethorpe's command successfully repelled the Spanish invasion of Georgia, and the following year, Oglethorpe led an unsuccessful attack on the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine. Following this, Oglethorpe was called to return to England, where he eventually died in 1785.
Erection
On May 18, 1901, the Oglethorpe Monument Association was granted a charter by the Superior Court of Chatham County. The association was founded with the goal of raising funds and coordinating efforts between several patriotic groups for the erection of a monument honoring Oglethorpe in Savannah. The association was made up of six representatives each from four patriotic groups: The Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of America, the Sons of the Revolution, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars. The association held its first meeting on November 28, 1902, and by 1905, it had raised approximately $5,000.
That summer, the president of the Colonial Dames urged state representatives from Chatham County to secure aid for the monument from the Georgia General Assembly, and on July 12, they introduced a joint resolution to the Georgia House of Representatives to provide for the erection of the monument. On August 10, the resolution passed through the appropriations committee recommending $15,000 to be allocated for the monument's erection. The resolution was voted down and reconsidered several times into the next year in the General Assembly. Finally, on August 13, an amended version of the bill was approved by the House of Representatives, and was approved by the Georgia State Senate two days later. The resolution was then signed into law by Georgia Governor Joseph M. Terrell. An amendment added to the resolution on August 2, 1906, stipulated that the monument would be erected in Chippewa Square, which was state property. The state government appropriated the $15,000 allocation in half increments between 1907 and 1908.
Following the resolution's passage, the governor assembled a commission of seven people to oversee the project. In fall 1906, the commission selected sculptor Daniel Chester French, who at the time was associated with the architect Henry Bacon, to design the monument. French designed the statue of Oglethorpe, while Bacon was responsible for the design of the pedestal. Several years later, the two would collaborate to design the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In designing the statue, French decided to portray Oglethorpe as a military commander, and he drew on many portraits of Oglethorpe to ensure an accurate portrayal. On May 10, 1909, several commission members appeared before the city government of Savannah and petitioned for $15,000 in additional funding for the monument, having realized shortly before that the cost for the monument could not be covered by then-available funds. The government approved the request and additional funds were raised by the patriotic groups. The total cost of the monument was $38,000. In 1910, two busts of Confederate States Army generals Francis S. Bartow and Lafayette McLaws were removed from Chippewa Square to make way for the Oglethorpe monument. These busts were relocated to near the Confederate Monument (now the Civil War Memorial) in Forsyth Park.