Spirit of the American Doughboy - Americus, Georgia - Viquesney's Spirit of the Doughboy Statues on Waymarking.com

This statue bears a copper copywrite plate which reads:
Copyrighted.
E. M. Viquesney, Sculptor
Americus, Georgia


AMERICUS, GEORGIA
(where Viquesney created the Doughboy)

The inscription on the plaque reads:

SUMTER COUNTY
AFFECTIONATELY REMEMBERS
HER SONS WHO DIED, AND THOSE
WHO OFFERED THEMSELVES, AS
WILLING SACRIFICES IN THE
CAUSE OF OUR COUNTRY.
1917 WORLD WAR 1918

Originally dedicated November 11, 1921, on a tall ornate pedestal with different memorial engravings, accompanied by four light columns and four drinking fountains, in the downtown intersection of Lee and Lamar. Viquesney was present but had no role in the ceremony. It was moved to Rees Park in the 1940s. It isn't the original Doughboy; that one was placed at Nashville, Georgia in July or August 1921, and it isn't the first to be permanently placed on public display; that one was dedicated on the Furman University campus at Greenville, South Carolina June 7, 1921.

The left hand, rifle and bayonet were replaced in a 1995 project to refurbish Rees Park memorials, but had been dislodged again in 1999. They were replaced again by March 2004.

The statue stood almost directly in the path of the devastating F3 tornado that struck Americus on March 1, 2007. Miraculously, it survived unscathed, while foot-thick trees around it were snapped in half like toothpicks.


(visit link)

Where is this statue located?: Public Park Which branch of the Military does this statue depict?: Army

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Date Logged Log   12/04/2010 Sprinterman visited it