General Francis H. Smith Monument - Mary Carson Irvine

The memorial that I decided to use for this blog post is a statue of Major General Francis H. Smith at VMI. Smith was the first superintendent of VMI and held the position for 50 years. VMI's website states that Smith was "born in 1812, graduated from West Point in 1833 and came to Lexington, Virginia in 1839 to lead the newly established Virginia Military Institute." Smith is know as the builder and after the Civil War the rebuilder of VMI. The monument was put on VMI's campus in 1931.

The statue shows Smith with a scroll in his right hand, signifying the act of giving a diploma. In his left hand, he holds a Bible. This is significant because Smith gave each graduating student a Bible with a personal inscription. Today, VMI graduates still receive Bible on the day of graduation. I chose this monument because I think it's very interesting that Smith was the first superintendent of VMI and was the superintendent for so long. I really like the aspect of giving a Bible to each graduate, which also drew me to choose this monument.

Here are a few pictures of the monument. As you can see in the 3rd and 4th pictures, Smith is standing in front of, what looks to me like a podium. It looks like the podium is draped in a blanket. What is on that part of the statue is kind of hard to read but I'm pretty sure it says "Sic Semper Tyrannis" which means "thus always to tyrants."Although Smith is relatively far away from the barracks, he is still facing the barracks. To me, this shows him still protective over the institute, watching over it from a distance.  I really enjoyed taking pictures of this monument, and would love to learn more about it.