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"The [Civil War] Soldiers and Sailors Monument is on the hill in Boston Common
near the Frog Pond. It was designed by Martin Milmore, and dedicated on
September 17th, 1877, when the entire militia force of the State paraded in
Boston, and was reviewed by the President of the United States.
The platform is thirty-eight feet square, and rests on a mass of
subterranean masonry sixteen feet deep. Four projecting pedestals sustain
four bronze statues [presumably stolen], each eight feet high, representing Peace, a female
figure bearing an olive-branch and looking to the South; the Sailor, a
picturesque mariner carrying a drawn cutlass, and looking seaward; History,
a graceful female figure, in Greek costume, holding a tablet and stylus, and
looking upward; and the Soldier, perhaps the best statue on the monument,
representing a Federal infantryman standing at ease, and bearing the face of
a citizen-soldier rather than that of a professional warrior.
Between these pedestals are four large bronze reliefs. In the front is "The
Departure for the War," with a regiment marching by the
State House steps, the mounted officers,
from left to right, being Colonels Lowell and
Shaw, both of whom were killed, Colonel Cass, General Benjamin F.
Butler, and Quartermaster General Reed. On the steps are the Revs. Turner
Sargent, A. H. Vinton, Phillips Brooks, and Archbishop Williams; Governor
Andrew, shorter than the others; Wendell
Phillips, Mr. Whitmore, the poet Longfellow, and others.
The second bas-relief shows the work of the Sanitary Commission, the
left-hand group being on duty in the field, with the Rev. E. E. Hale at its
head; and in the other group the seven gentlemen are E. R. Mudge, A. H.
Rice, James Russell Lowell, Rev. Dr. Gannett, George Ticknor, W. W. Clapp,
and Marshall P. Wilder (from left to right).
"The Return from the War" is the most elaborate of the reliefs, and contains
forty figures. The veterans are marching by the State House, and are
surrendering their flags to Governor Andrew, while joyful wives and children
break the ranks of the regiment. The mounted officers are Generals Bartlett,
Underwood, Banks, and Devens (from left to right); the civilians are Dr.
Reynolds, Governor Andrew, Senator Wilson, Governor Claflin, Mayor
Shurtleff,
Judge Putnam, Charles Sumner, C. W. Slack, James Redpath, and J. B. Smith.
The fourth relief represents the departure of the sailors from home (on the
left), and an engagement between a Federal man-of-war and monitor and a
massive Confederate fortress.
The main shaft of the monument, an ornate Roman-Doric column of white
granite, rises from the pedestal between the statues; and at its base are
four allegorical figures, in alto-relievo, and eight feet high, representing
the North, South, East, and West. On top of the capital are four marble
eagles.
The crowning glory of the monument is the statue of America, eleven feet
high, symbolized by a majestic and mourning woman, clad in classic costume,
and crowned with thirteen stars. In one hand she holds the American flag, in
the other a drawn sword and wreaths of laurel; and she faces the south.
The bronzes were cast at Chicopee, Mass., and at Philadelphia; and the stone
is white granite from Hallowell. The monument bears the following
inscription, written by the President of Harvard College:
TO THE MEN OF BOSTON
WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
ON LAND AND SEA
IN THE WAR WHICH KEPT THE UNION WHOLE
DESTROYED SLAVERY
AND MAINTAINED THE CONSTITUTION
THE GRATEFUL CITY HAS BUILT THIS MONUMENT
THAT THEIR EXAMPLE MAY SPEAK
TO COMING GENERATIONS
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