On September 22, 1899, the Society of the Ninth Regiment installed a bronze statue in the Public Garden. of Civil War leader Colonel Thomas Cass, commander of the 9th Regiment.
Several thousand people attended the ceremony, including Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy along with Mrs. C. B. Craib, the daughter of Colonel Cass, who unveiled the statue to great applause. Major Daniel G McNamara, a member of the 9th who served with Cass in the 9th Regiment, was the orator for the day.
The bronze statue by sculptor Richard Edwin Brooks was hailed as a brilliant and fitting depicting of Cass, a larger-than-life leader who was beloved by his men. Mayor Quincy called the sculpture "a work of art as well as a memorial to the brave colonel, and must be considered by all as such." The statue, Quincy said, had already won an award at the Paris Exposition by the time it was unveiled.
Brooks' statue replaced an inferior granite model that had been installed on November 12, 1889; the circumstances of the original piece proved to be controversial from the start.
The original granite sculpture was created by Irish-born sculptor Stephen J. O’Kelly under the direction of J.J. Horgan of Cambridgeport, who did the pedestal. The piece was actually a work-in-progress, and was initially intended as a decorative piece at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, where Cass was buried in 1862 after being killed at Malvern Hills, VA during the war.
But some where along the line, members of the Society of the Ninth saw the piece and decided to present it to city officials. But even O’Kelly was reluctant to see his granite piece, knowing that it would dimmish his reputation as an artist. Nevertheless, the statue was presented to the city of Boston, and officials accepted it.
According to the Boston Daily Globe, "The city officials were between the devil and the deep blue sea. A statue of a brave and noble Irish commander had been offered to Boston. If they refused it they might be accused of race prejudice. If they accepted it they might be accused of having no artistic sense."
Almost immediately, city officials, art critics, Cass family members and the 9th Regiment Society realized the grave mistake of having this statue as a representation of Casa and by extension, the officers and soldiers of the 9th Regiment.
In 1894, according to the Boston Pilot, Mayor Quincy recommended that the City Council should “appropriate the necessary sum for erecting a suitable monument to Colonel Cass, in place of the present statue on the Public Garden. Every lover of art, as well as admirers of the patriotic soldier, will be glad to see this good work accomplished as the Mayor suggests.” The City Council agreed and encumbered the funds for the new statue.
At the 1899 ceremony, McNamara said, “Col. Thomas Cass, like 90 % of his officers and men, was born in Ireland. His youth and manhood were spent in Boston, the city of his adoption. His military training won for him the respect and confidence necessary for a man engaged in recruiting and organizing a volunteer regiment.”
McNamara continued, "Of the 1,700 men that belonged to this regiment during the Civil War only 153 are alive today, and most of them bear traces of the sufferings they endured in the course of their services in defense of the flag."
Born in Farmleigh, County Laois, Ireland in 1821, Thomas Cass emigrated with his family to Boston when he was nine months old, where they settled in the North End. He worked with his father and eventually became successful businessman, and also a prominent member of the Boston School Committee. He lived on North Bennet Street.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers to defend the Union. Cass immediately offered to raise a regiment of Massachusetts Irish volunteers to fight for the Union. Governor Andrew commissioned Cass to lead the Fighting Irish 9th, as it was called, and the Regiment was permitted to carry its own Irish flag, which was donated by Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis.
The 9th Regiment included companies from Milford, Salem, Marlboro and Stoughton along with the Boston companies. The regiment was organized May 3, 1861, and mustered into the Ninth Massachusetts on June 11, 1861, for three years.
The Thomas Cass statue is part of Boston's Irish Heritage Trail, which highlights public memorials in Boston and its neighborhoods.
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