Sculptor Donald H. De Lue (1897 - 1988)
​and his works at Gettysburg

Donald H. De Lue

Donald De Lue has three sculptures at Gettysburg all representing the South. These are located along Confederate Avenue.

The Soldiers and Sailors of the Confederacy.

Soldiers and Sailors of the Confederacy: Dedicated August 25, 1965. The design represented the spirit of the military forces of the Confederate States of America. The fourteen-sided base bears the names of Eleven states of the Confederacy and the three border states.

Louisiana State Memorial

Louisiana State Memorial, Peace and Memory: Dedicated June 11, 1971. De Lue would comment about the monument "the great symbolic figure representing the Spiritual idea of Peace and Memory, also a resurgent Confederacy, strong, confident and prosperous, flies of the battlefield blowing a long, shrill clarion call on the trumpet over long forgotten shallow graves of the Confederate dead. It is taps for the heroic dead at Gettysburg."

Mississippi State Memorial

Mississippi State Memorial: Dedicated October 19, 1973. The design shows two soldiers of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade in the midst of furious battle on July 2, 1863. During the dedication ceremonies Sen. James O. Eastland would say "Though fewer in number than their comrades from other states, "the Mississippi units" advanced farther than any others in this bloody battle."  

De Lue's conceptual layout giving dimensions for the Louisiana Memorial.

The Louisiana Memorial's clay maquette with proposed finished memorial dimensions. The original thought was to include an artillery rammer. This was removed as the memorial was to represent all branches of Louisiana troops at Gettysburg.

De Lue overlaid a photo of the maquette at the proposed memorials location on the Gettysburg battlefield. The photo is dated October 17, 1968.

Naomi, the wife of Donald De Lue stands next to the full size clay of "Spirit Triumphant.".

De Lue notes the the proposed location and why this location was selected for the memorial.

The concept maquette, 36" in height, was viewed by the Mississippi Memorial Commission and was approved in April 1970.

De Lue's second maquette measuring approximately 5-1/2' in height.

Sculptor Donald De Lue (left) stands with Mississippi Governor William Waller in front of the Mississippi State Memorial.

De Lue's "Spirit of American Youth" standing inside the pavilion at the St. Laurent Cemetery in Normandy France.

"Spirit of American Youth"

De Lue working on the full-sized model in 1953.

One of my De Lue favorites!
On a trip to the Normandy beaches I toured the St. Laurent Cemetery located near there. I had the opportunity to see the magnificent "Spirt of American Youth" standing nearly twenty-two feet in height.  José Garcia Mazas  wrote: "In the Spirit of American Youth, De Lue was able to lend eloquence of expression to his masterpiece, from the feet, which surge from the froth of a wave, to the moving shape of the head of the young giant. The arms express the idea of limitless flight into the blue. This entire endeavor is a hymn of resurrection which is exactly what triumph should signify to those who died in Normandy."
​De Lue would also design and sculpt the four urns located in the pavilion surrounding "Spirt of American Youth."              
​A very moving memorial in a very moving place!