Q A friend recently gave me something he said is from the Civil War. The top is the shape of a four-arm iron cross and is 14 inches high and 14 inches wide. The letters ”C,” ”S,” and ”A” are on three of the arms. There are two rows of stars cross in the middle on one side and the words ”Deo Vindice” and the years 1861 and 1865 on the other side. It’s made of lead and weighs about 20 pounds. I think it might be a grave stone marker or some type of service marker. The rod that would hold it in the ground is 18 inches long.

A You have a Confederate grave marker. The cross represents the Southern Cross of Honor and the letters ”CSA” stand for Confederated States of America. The motto, ”Deo Vindice,” stands for ”with God as our vindicator” and was used on the Great Seal of the Confederacy. The dates are the years the Civil War was fought. These grave markers were made for United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group founded in 1894, and mark the graves of Confederate soldiers. One sold recently for $165.

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