Happy Fall everyone, we are approaching $110,000 raised between online and mailed donations! Thank you for your continued support of the Lee Rides Again project. Our camp was busy this summer setting up at fairs, relic shows, and heritage events to spread the word.

Our sculptor, historical artist Tom Gallo, has been working some changes to the clay model over the summer and fall. Understandably he has also had to take some time for other projects as he is generously donating his time for Lee Rides Again. We will be picking up the model in the next few weeks and plan to update the website as soon as possible with a new photo gallery.

We are also talking with a company that can digitally scan the clay model and produce miniatures of it. Many of you have been patiently waiting for this and we hope to have the model scanned in January, at which point we will be able to give information on sizing, cost, etc. Thank you again for standing with us as we seek to rebuild the monument to one of America’s greatest heroes.

Happy Confederate History month from the Gordonsville Grays! 

The Lee Rides Again monument project is moving forward with almost $95,000 raised in total!  We are looking forward to displaying the model at the SCV Virginia Division Convention in a couple weeks. Our artist, Tom Gallo, has been refining it at his studio the last several months and we will soon have updated photos to show the changes and remarkable detail he has added.

Our next step is to have a foundry digitally photograph and map the clay model into a 3D computer model. We are talking with a couple foundries about this process and both are friendly to our cause. One specifically refused to melt the Charlottesville Lee monument when offered the job. Once the model is mapped, we will have a bronze copy made at its current scale. This will be much easier to transport and display than the clay model and in the future it will be raffled off as a fundraiser. Our goal is to have the bronze model on display at the SCV National Reunion in Charleston this July. Smaller copies of the model are still planned as well for donors to be able to have one of their own.

Once we have the bronze model cast, we will be focused on expanding the campaign to those outside of our immediate heritage organizations. Americans are disgusted at the destruction of our history and want to do something about it. Thank you to everyone who has supported the Lee Rides Again project so far! You are all a part of this critical work to preserve the legacy of General Robert E. Lee for generations to come.

To learn more about our effort to recreate Richmond’s Lee monument, visit our website at www.LeeRidesAgain.com. 

We are now just over $70,000 raised toward the new Lee monument!  (The amount shown on the givesendgo campaign only reflects what has been donated online.)  Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! Our sculptor Tom Gallo has been hard at work on refining the clay model and we will be posting updated photos of his work to our website in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, please read our recent public statement on the destruction of Charlottesville's Lee statue:

“By now you’ve probably heard that Charlottesville’s Lee monument has been melted down. We’ve been told this was necessary for ‘healing’ and ‘reconciliation’. The statue was melted in secret, supposedly out of fear that hate groups would target the foundry. The irony is that the Charlottesville City Council and the Jefferson school were the only hate groups involved in the recent court case and destruction of the monument.

Everything they’ve done has been motivated by a hatred for Robert E Lee and those who admire him. City Council gave the monument to the Jefferson school out of hatred, knowing their plan was to melt it down. They removed it and cut it into small pieces out of hatred. They delayed and obfuscated the court case out of hatred (even hatred for the rule of law). They published photos of Lee’s head in the furnace out of hatred. They’ve chosen the anniversary of the statue’s unveiling to announce the selection of a new design out of hatred. Their campaign has been one of division, vindictiveness, and spite, not healing and reconciliation.

The Gordonsville Grays, however, have never been motivated by hatred. Indeed, we are motivated by more powerful things: love and admiration. Love for our Southern heritage that no professor, no city councilor, and no governor could ever tear down. Love for a tradition of duty, honor, and courage that no foundry could ever destroy. Admiration for a man who sacrificed everything in defense of his home and deeply held principles. Admiration for a brilliant general who preferred to be known simply as a humble Christian.

We have chosen to respond to the hatred directed at General Lee by leading the charge to raise a new monument in his honor. The efforts to crush our spirit and make us angry have only encouraged us that our mission is more vital than ever—it is our responsibility to remember our history.

To date we have raised over $70,000. Thanks to the Stonewall Brigade Camp 1296, we have a spectacular location to raise it at the new Lee Jackson Memorial Park. We have a small scale clay model that was unveiled in April. Sculptor Tom Gallo has been hard at work on refining it for the last several months (new photos coming) and we will soon be taking it on tour to help raise funds.

If you are among the millions of Americans who still hold dear the legacy of Robert E Lee, won’t you stand with us? When your grandchildren ask what you did when they melted down the statue of Lee, what will you tell them? Did you sit idly by or did you make a stand against the destruction of our history? The men of the Gordonsville Grays are making a stand and we encourage you to join us. If you’re able to donate you can mail a check to:

Gordonsville Grays

PO Box 204 Gordonsville, VA 22942

*Please note Lee Rides Again in the memo

Or you can donate online (small fee goes to transaction provider) at givesendgo.com/leeridesagain.

We also need your prayers. Lee’s true greatness was not in his incredible ability to lead men, but in his incredible humility to follow Jesus in all things. We recognize that without God’s blessing we will not succeed. Join us and together we will see to it that Lee rides again!"

Gordonsville Grays

128/23

Our current total raised from online and mailed donations for the Lee Rides Again monument campaign stands at $39,455.21!  Thank you to everyone who is supporting and believing in this project, with your help we will have an equestrian statue of General Lee once more in the Commonwealth of Virginia.