Soldiers & Sailors Memorial
N 42° 21.322 W 071° 03.983
19T E 329819 N 4691301
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, 1877 is a Civil War memorial by Martin Milmore(1844-1883), an artist born in Sligo, Ireland, that portraits the many Bostonians prominent in the Civil War Period. The monument crowns Flagstaff (formerly Powder House) Hill, site of redoubt during the Revolution. (Most of this text was copeid from a descriptive sign at the Common.)
Waymark Code: WM20J
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 09/28/2005
Views: 113
The brother of sculptor Joseph Milmore, Martin emigrated with his family from Sligo to Boston in 1851, when he was seven. He graduated from the Latin School in 1860, and then took an apprenticeship with local sculptor Thomas Ball of Charlestown. In 1864 he was commissioned to execute statues of Ceres, Flora and Pomona for the front of the old Horticulture Hall on Tremont Street. He got a commission in 1867 to create the Roxbury Soldiers' Monument at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plains. His most famous work is the bronze and granite Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Flag Staff Hill on Boston Common, unveiled in 1877. The day of the unveiling, 25,000 Civil War veterans took part in the ceremony. According to the Boston Art Commission, "Peter Nolan of Post 75, Grand Army of the Republic, marched the entire route on crutches, having lost a leg at the second battle of Bull Run."
Three busts of notable Bostonians created by Milmore are on display at the Boston Public Library: George Ticknor, Governor John A. Andrew and Wendell Phillips. There is also a plaster bust of Ticknor at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.
In Garden of Memories: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills, author Susan Wilson recounts an observation made by Daniel Chester French, a friend and colleague of Milmore's who created the wonderful memorial to the Milmore brothers at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain. "Milmore was a picturesque figure," French wrote, "somewhat of the Edwin Booth type, with long dark hair and large dark eyes. He affected the artistic (as all of us artists used to, more or less), wearing a broad-brimmed soft black hat, and a cloak. His appearance was striking, and he knew it."
(This text was copied from the website listed below.)
Website with background information about this Waymark: [Web Link]
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