(May 2006) LEESBURG, Va. - A prominent bronze statue of a Confederate soldier in Leesburg's courthouse square is about to undergo a first-ever restoration after nearly a century.

Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Loudoun County is sponsoring the $15,000 project. The statue is "an integral part of Loudoun County history," explained chapter president Becky Fleming.

The bronze, mounted on a tall stone base, is by Frederick William Sievers, whose best-known work is the large Virginia Memorial at Gettysburg. That 1910 memorial, topped by a statue of Robert E. Lee on Traveler, captures Lee watching across the fields for the success of his men on July 3, 1863, in the ill-fated assault that would forever be known as Pickett's Charge.

The Leesburg statue was erected May 28, 1908, to honor Loudoun's Confederate soldiers.

Fleming said her 42-member group determined to undertake the project after finding that the bronze was corroding. Conservator Nick Veloz of Alexandria will "scrub" the metal and apply a protective coating. The statue's longstanding green patina will switch to dark brown, Fleming said.

The chapter has raised close to $10,000 of the $15,000 total, according to Fleming, and hopes to have the conservation done this spring. The local Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) camp has been a major donor, and the UDC has held yard sales and food sales.

According to Fleming, it was the UDC back at the turn of the century that initiated the drive for the statue, joining with the SCV in raising funds. Loudoun County chipped in $500.

Sievers, born in Indiana in 1877, moved to Richmond as a young man. His other Confederate monuments include two on Monument Avenue in Richmond: one to Stonewall Jackson, in 1919, and one to Matthew Fontaine Maury, in 1929. Sievers died in 1966.

Donations to support refurbishing the Confederate monument in Leesburg may be sent to Confederate Monument Restoration, care of United Daughters of the Confederacy, 17765 Lakefield Rd., Round Hill, VA 20141.

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