The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society.
With people all over the country discussing Confederate monuments, it’s an appropriate time to consider the statue of the Civil War soldier that stands in front of the Anson County Courthouse. It was modeled after John Randall Richardson of Ansonville. He traveled to Charlotte in 1904 to model for it and the statue was erected in January 1906 at the location of the old courthouse building, which was where the current gazebo is located. The current courthouse was built in 1912 and the statue was moved to its present location in 1915.
The Messenger-Intelligencer newspaper on Thursday, Dec. 20, 1906, reported: “Mr. John Randall Richardson died about 9 p.m. on Sunday night at his home in Ansonville NC. He was about 62 years old. The cause of death was Bright’s disease (kidney failure). Mr. Richardson’s health had been failing for some time and last Thursday he took to his bed from which time he gradually grew worse until the end.
“John Randall Richardson was a native of Ansonville Township and in 1861 when he was just a boy, volunteered in the War Between the States as an Anson Ellis Rifleman which was Doctor Harlee’s Company. It was said that he was a model soldier and never missed a roll call or shirked a duty and he was so well thought of as a soldier by his comrades in arms that the bronze figure of a Confederate private which surmounts THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT WAS MADE IN HIS LIKENESS. He was modest, courageous, and the soul of honor.
“On the 3rd day of July in 1863 while lying down he was struck in the shoulder by a minnie ball. The ball ranged down his back, lodging just underneath the skin near the spinal column. Mr. Richardson would never allow the ball to be cut out but after his death the ball was removed by Dr. J.M. Dunlap at the special request of Mr. Amos Richardson of Mississippi who was the only brother of the deceased. He was buried at Bethlehem Cemetery outside of Ansonville NC on Highway 52 North.”
Several years ago, the Anson Record ran a story about one man’s effort to have the statue at the Anson County courthouse removed. You can find it here.