View complete article and references at Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina at: https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/133
Description: This large monument consisted of granite arch with a bronze plaque on each pier. The arch, which has since been removed, stood 33 feet high with a width of 28 feet.
Inscription:
Right: Brigadier General William Lee Davidson, / Born 1746, killed in the Battle of Cowan's Ford, / North Carolina, February 1, 1781. / Major, April 15, 1776; Lieut. Colonel, Oct. 4, 1777; Brigadier General, / August 31, 1778. / "On Fame's Eternal Camping Ground."
Left: To the memory of the late Brigadier General Davidson, who commanded the militia of the district of Salisbury in the state of North Carolina, and was killed on the 1st day of February last, fighting gallantly in defense of the liberty and independence of the States.
Dedication date: 7/4/1905
Materials & Techniques: Granite with bronze tablets.
Cost: $The U.S Government erected it at a cost of $10,000.
Subject notes: William Lee Davidson was a North Carolina militia general during the Revolutionary War. He was born in 1746 and died in 1781 at the battle of Cowan's Ford. He did not fight at the Battle of Guilford Court House.
Controversies: Congress authorized Governor Charles Aycock to select the location for the Nash and Davidson arch; there was concern he would choose a different site in North Carolina. However, the Battle Ground Company successively lobbied the Governor to place it in Guilford County.
Former Locations: Originally, the New Garden Road passed through the arch. However the arch was dismantled in 1937. The pieces of the destroyed monument were used along the park roads.
Landscape: The land the arch was built on was required by law to be state owned. As such, the footprint of each arch was transferred to the state.
City: Greensboro
County: Guilford
Subjects: Removed Monuments,Revolutionary War