G.L. Sanders, Sculptor and Artist
The Passing of Honor
The Making of a Memorial
By Jerry K. Price
Edited by Path Publishing
Back in 1998 at a meeting of the John B. Ingram Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Jackson, Tennessee, Jerry Lessenberry, who was the Commander at the time, brought up the fact that our Camp needed to pursue an idea that had been around for years. That is, to create a State of Tennessee Monument here at Shiloh National Battlefield. I told the members present at that meeting that I had a friend in Pampa, Texas, who was an accomplished sculptor and might be interested in helping us out. I requested permission to contact Mr. Gerald Sanders to see if he would be interested. They took a vote: permission granted.
I called G.L. the next morning and told him about the problems and delays which had been occurring for the last few years in getting a memorial monument erected on Shiloh Battlefield. I told him how the State of Tennessee had passed a bill to give $125,000 to the United Daughters of the Confederacy for a monument at Shiloh and how the project was at a stalemate currently, with little or no activity in a couple of years. The UDC was holding the $125,000, had even raised an additional $30,000 from private sources, yet could not get the U.S. Park Service and the State of Tennessee to approve a design that was in keeping with the existing monuments. I ask G.L., as a friend, if he would get this project off high center so we could move on and get a monument, a memorial in memory of the thousands of Southern soldiers buried unnamed in the seven mass graves at the park. G.L. said he would consider it an honor.
In the early ’80s I had an office in Houston, Texas. One year the Southwestern Bell phonebook was published with a very special cover, to me. “After the Storm,” a powerful representation of a lineman risking his life to keep communications open, brought back a lot of memories of the ice storm of 1952. You see, in 1952 I had just turned 11 years old and was the son of a telephone lineman, John H. Price. On May 6, 2005 a copy of “After the Storm” was placed on loan to the McIvers Grant Library in Dyersburg, Tennessee, as an honor to my father.
In 1952 all the schools were closed for three weeks because of that storm. So I, being a brave lad and wanting some excitement, would go out to the job with my dad. For many cold, miserable hours he and the other linemen hung from poles, day and night, moving among the broken poles and wires to get the toll lines repaired from Memphis to Chicago.
After the Storm
When I looked into the face of that figure on that phonebook, I relived those times. I had the cover framed and placed it on my desk at my Houston office. I cut out the information about the artist, who was a lineman like my dad, and slipped it into my billfold, where I found it eight years later.
In 1991, on a business trip that took me from Ponca City to Amarillo, I had told myself that I should stop in Pampa to visit this lineman-artist. I arrived in Pampa about 3:00 in the afternoon, found Wells Street, and the house at the address on the tattered piece of paper. I spent the next three hours in the studio with G.L. Sanders, never thinking that someday I might be responsible for him being chosen to do a monument.
Over the next few years our friendship was limited to a few cards and letters or an occasional phone call ― until the morning after the SCV meeting. In a few weeks there was to be an reenactment at Shiloh and our SCV Camp thought we should invite G.L. to attend. We called him and he said he would come to Tennessee. The SCV Camp asked him to bring along some of his work and we would make arrangements for him to have a small show at the Art Center in Jackson. Seven of his pieces were shown that night, but the highlight of the evening was a wax model of what he thought the monument should look like, to capture the emotion and reverent mood of the ground where it was to be placed.
His family came to Jackson with him, leaving the wax model at my house so it could be kept cool until Saturday morning, the day of the reenactment. They traveled to Shiloh with me that morning. When we arrived at the visitor center, Mr. Woody Harrell, the park ranger, was coming out of the side entrance of the visitor center just as we drove up. I was taking the wax model out of the vehicle and had set it on the hood of my vehicle. When Mr. Harrell saw what G.L. had in mind for the design, his eyes began to tear and said, “That design is in keeping with the other monuments in this park and the design we need for this park, the people of Tennessee, and this nation.”
This was the start of a battle which would last longer than the Civil War itself. The SCV now had the design but the UDC had most of the money and had paid an artist for a design that the U.S. Park Service did not approve. G.L. and I met with the UDC about three months after the reenactment and by then I had been made chairman of the monument committee. The head of the UDC was shown the wax model and said they would be glad to join with the Jackson SCV Camp since by now their artist’s design had been rejected. However, their artist wanted to retain the copyrights, which was unacceptable since it would belong to the whole country. The monument was, in fact, being placed in a national park. But the UDC wanted the SCV to raise the additional $125,000.
The drawback for the John B. Ingram SCV Camp in Jackson was that we were a small organization, and to raise the additional $125,000 was nearly impossible. I say nearly impossible. Jerry Lessenberry and I started knocking on doors and burning up the phones looking for the funding to get this project off and running.
The John B. Ingram SCV Camp had just raised $10,000 to be place in a fund for the U.S. Park Service to maintain the Confederate flag that flies 24/7 over one of the burial trenches at Shiloh. So to raise an additional $125,000 on top that might be a problem. However, we found that Senators Thompson and Frisk, Representative Van Hillary, the U.S. Park Service, and the State of Tennessee were all sympathetic with our desire to see this project move forward. These men pushed through a $22,000,000 appropriation for the park.
From this grant, the SCV Camp was able to get the necessary funding to match the amount that the State of Tennessee had given to the UDC and to get the UDC to return the funds to the State of Tennessee. So we had the necessary funds available to go forward with the G.L. Sanders design for the monument at Shiloh!
If it had not been for the desire of the John B. Ingram SCV Camp to see a memorial to those thousands of Confederate dead at Shiloh, and the efforts of G.L. Sanders of Pampa, Texas, this monument would still only be a dream.
The groundbreaking took place on Confederate Veterans Day, June, 2004, with the monument’s molds and “pointing up” (enlarging) completed in Landers, Wyoming. This is where the original model by G.L. was pointed up from 15 inches to 9-1/2 feet. The completed bronze work was soon in route from Wyoming to Shiloh, set on the black granite base on May 25.
Enlarging the wax model into clay
Members of the Tennessee National Guard and volunteers from the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camps stood guard around the monument up until the dedication and unveiling at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3, 2005. The public was invited to the ceremony, where Governor Phil Bredesen presented “Passing of Honor” to the U.S. Park Service.
Governor Phil Bredesen congratulating G.L. Sanders
The members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans John B. Ingram Camp 219, here in Jackson, are proud of this accomplishment, but also of our Riverside cemetery walk through the history of Jackson, Salem Cemetery and Britton Lane Battle Sites in Madison County.
The Passing of Honor, full view
The Camp has also had commemorative coins minted to mark the occasion. These coins are in gold, sliver, and bronze, and are available by contacting the John B. Ingram Camp, Box 10936, Jackson, TN 38308. Or the Confederate States Mint in Ridgeway, South Carolina; their web site is www.confederatestatesmint.com.
The coins have an engraved likeness of the monument, the name of the monument, three stars, and the date June 3, 2005. The reverse side has the Tennessee Seal, the year 1796, and “Shiloh National Military Park Agricultural and Commerce.”
Our Camp is dedicated to preserving Civil War history. Membership is open to sons, grandsons, or great-grandsons who had a relative who fought for the South.
Eagle Spirit ― one of many creations showing the
diversified talents of the sculptor and artist
G.L. Sanders’ Personal History
Born in the small, East Texas town of Krum, and raised in “Cowtown,” the heart of Fort Worth, Gerald Sanders discovered a love for horses, cattle, and cowboys ― along with a genuine respect for the heritage of the West. As a young boy, he became fascinated with whittling, carving, and woodworking. He began carving horses, Indians, and even entire wagon trains from basal wood and any other available material. A piece of stag horn could hold a beautiful heron or a mountain lion. His love of nature and enthusiasm for the Old West are evident in each of his many art pieces.
As a young man, G.L. served his country in the Navy and married Juanita Frances Robertson, who blessed them with three wonderful children. During this time, he found himself venturing further and further into the world of art. He began carving custom inlay gunstocks and doing taxidermy projects for diversified clientele.
Retiring from Bell Telephone after 35 years, Sanders was able to pursue his lifelong ambition ― a career as a professional artist. With the help and encouragement of renowned Western painter and sculptor, Kenneth Wyatt, and the support of his family, friends, and fellow artists, Sanders entered the art circle. Extensive traveling exposed him to a variety of artistic mediums and widened his creative horizons.
Showings in England at Chatsworth Castle and the American Embassy in London honored his artistry. Currently, art lovers from the East coast to the far West own original pieces of Sanders’ work. He is also listed in Contemporary Western Artists and The Texas Cowboy, published by the Texas Cowboy Artists Association. His bronze sculpture, After the Storm, graced the cover of over 14.5 million Southwestern Bell Telephone book covers.
Through his work, he hopes to combine the energy and spirit of the past with vision and hope for the future. G.L. Sanders’ love of nature, people, and the West give him his inspirations, but his talent and success, he affirms, are from “the Man Upstairs.”
To Contact G.L. Sanders
If you have an idea for a commissioned project for the sculptor-artist or wish to send fan mail, write to him at 525 N. Wells, Pampa, Texas 79065.
Gallery 1 Gallery 2 Personal Pages and Church Sites
Artists to See Home Page of Path Publishing
Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. What he does to the web, he does to himself. Chief Seattle, 1852