George Williams and Materiality
Memorial Cenotaphs
Memorial cenotaphs are gravesites that do not contain physical bodies. There are memorial cenotaphs all over the world that serve as remembrances to those who died fighting while in battle. These memorials aren’t around in cemeteries, public squares and other public spaces to lay these soldiers to rest but rather they glorify these deaths and uphold the myth that if you are fighting for a just cause, war is justified.
George Williams the Civil War Veteran
George Williams was an African American Civil War corporal in Company H of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. This was an all African American Volunteer Infantry created because the Union was desperate for soldiers. This Infantry was created after the Emancipation Proclamation which forced the Union to acknowledge that the Civil War was about more than keeping the Union together. There are two gravestones memorializing George Williams. One is a cenotaph at Hope Cemetery in Galesburg, Illinois. The other is a gravesite in Beaufort, South Carolina at Beaufort National Cemetery where his body is buried.
George Williams the Myth
George Williams was not from Galesburg, but from Chicago. A memorial cenotaph was placed at Hope Cemetery as a physical reminder of the anti-slavery ideology that Galesburg was founded upon. The story we tell ourselves is that this object shows Galesburg’s abolitionist roots. The problem with this story is not the object itself, but that it allows us to talk about Galesburg as a progressive town without talking about the stolen Indigenous land. By telling only this story as the core identity of the town, it silences the experiences of Indigenous people who were murdered and displaced.