This monument is composed a large, square piece of granite. It bears a color inlay of North Carolina’s flag of 1861, ratified just after the state seceded from the Union. The inscription on the front commemorates the service of more than 1,500 Gaston County men who served as soldiers for the Confederacy. The rear of the monument is inscribed with the regiments of Gaston County soldiers and the Latin phrase “DEO VINDICI.” The rallying cry of the Confederacy, this phrase is translated as “God will vindicate us.”
Additional Notes
Despite the general reluctance of the citizens of North Carolina to endorse secession and the Confederacy, Gaston County residents strongly supported the Confederate war effort and sent many men to the war along with neighboring Cleveland County. Dallas was the original county seat for Gaston County from 1846 until 1911 when the county government officially moved to Gastonia. At that time, the historic Gaston County Confederate Soldiers Monument was installed at the front of the new county courthouse in Gastonia. The monument in Dallas is significant as a 21st century commemoration by descendants of Confederate soldiers to their ancestors and the Confederate cause (see also Confederate Soldiers Monument in Stanley, NC.)
The State Flag of North Carolina of 1861 was ratified on June 22, 1861. It bears two dates — the date of May 20, 1775, the date of the alleged revolutionary Mecklenburg Declaration, and the date of May 20, 1861, the date of North Carolina’s secession from the Union.
