Boston City officials chose September 17, 1877 for the grand unveiling of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Flagstaff Hill on Boston Common, because it was a date rich with historical meaning. Boston was first settled on September 17, 1630. The US Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1789 and the Civil War Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17 1862.
Sculptor Martin Milmore spent 4 1/2 years working on the monument in Rome, Italy, and shipped back portions of the memorial as they were completed.
Courtesy of Boston Atheaeum
At the center of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a 70-foot Roman-Doric column, holding five colossal bronze and four alto relief granite statues, four bas reliefs in bronze, four decorative American eagles and wreaths.
An 11-foot female figure representing the ‘Genius of America’ sits atop the column, holding in her hands a folded American flag, the hilt of a sword and two laurel wreaths. On her head is a liberty cap, studded with 13 stars to represent the original colonies.
Below her are four granite female figures holding shields, representing North, South, East and West, signifying that the nation will be united and protected on all sides.
One pedestal down and closest to the ground are four exquisite bronze figures representing Army, Navy, the Muse of History and Peace.
An inscription by Harvard President Charles W. Eliot reads:
TO THE MEN OF BOSTON
WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
ON LAND AND SEA IN THE WAY
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
At eye level below the four statues are bronze bas reliefs depicting four scenes: Departure for the War, The Navy, The Sanitary Commission and Return from the War. Each of the 112 people, horses, landscapes and seascapes in the reliefs are intricately carved and easily recognizable by Bostonians of the time. They include Governor John Andrew and Archbishop John Williams on the State House steps, abolitionists Charles Sumner and Wendell Phillips, writers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Edgar Allen Poe and the Sisters of Charity aiding wounded soldiers. Two of the five officers on horseback in ‘Departure for War’ were mortally wounded in battle, Colonel Thomas Cass of the 9th Irish Regiment and Colonel Thomas Gould Shaw of the 54th Black Regiment.
On the big day, more than 200,000 people turned out to watch the six-mile, six-hour procession of 25,000 marchers, which included Civil War veterans, Grand Army organizations and state militias from across New England, plus an assortment of Masons, Odd Fellows and Hibernians.
"All nationalities, all colors and conditions of men were represented," reported the New York Times the following day. "The Irish, Scotch, English, Portuguese and others were out in large numbers and carried the blood-stained flags under which they fought. The colored men also turned out in large numbers and stepped as proudly to the strains of martial music as the men who had so enthusiastically take-up the case which led to their freedom."
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The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is part of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail.
Research + Text, Michael Quinlin
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