Three Distinctive Civil War Memorials in Boston and Cambridge

A number of Irish immigrants and Irish-American sculptors created some of the most distinctive Civil War Monuments of the 19th Century.

Here are three of their monuments in Boston and Cambridge worth visiting:

The Shaw Memorial, atop Boston Common and facing the Massachusetts State House, was officially unveiled on May 31, 1897, a homage to the 54th Black Infantry Regiment of Boston. It is considered one of America’s most significant Civil War memorials, and was the first public monument to accurately depict black soldiers in military uniform. The memorial was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), who was born in Dublin Ireland on March 1, 1848, to a French father and Irish mother. They landed in Boston in September 1848, fleeing the Irish famine, and later moved to New York. It took Augustus 14 years to complete the monument.

The Twin Lions in the foyer of the Boston Public Library in Boston's Back Bay were unveiled in 1891, a tribute to two Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiments - the Second and the Twentieth - that fought bravely in the Civil War. It was created by sculptor Louis St. Gaudens (1854-1913), younger brother of Augustus, who was born in New York City after the family came to America. Louis used an abbreviated spelling of his last name to differentiate him from his more famous brother. Although St. Gaudens intended to polish the Siena marble before the memorial was unveiled, the regiment members were so delighted with the unpolished, raw look of the statues, that they asked the artist to leave it as is.

The Sphinx Monument at Mt.Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was unveiled in August 1872. It was created by Irish immigrant sculptors Martin Milmore and his brother Joseph, who arrived in Boston in 1851 with their widowed mother and three other brothers, Patrick, Charles and James. According to records, Martin did the artwork and modeling of the Sphinx and Joseph did the carving. The monument was conceived of and funded by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, a physician at Mass General Hospital, who helped to create Mt. Auburn Cemetery in 1830, and who was an enthusiastic Egyptologist. The Milmores used a 70 ton piece of granite from Hallowell, ME, which they chiseled into a 25 ton masterpiece.

Read more about the work of Irish and Irish American sculptors in Irish America Magazine. Visit the Irish Heritage Trail to learn more about the Irish-American experience in Boston and Massachusetts.

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin

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