Kinsman Monument - Fairview Cemetery - Council Bluffs, Iowa
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GT.US
N 41° 16.336 W 095° 51.006
15T E 261278 N 4572900
The Kinsman Monument is a Civil War Memorial built to honor Colonel William Kinsman and veterans of the Civil War. Actual Civil War canons are on display.
Waymark Code: WM8E8X
Location: Iowa, United States
Date Posted: 03/21/2010
Views: 7
The monument reads: "By mid-May 1863, the Union forces of Major General Ulysses S. Grant had captured Jackson, Mississippi, and wheeled west to attack and encircle Vicksburg. In the vanguard of the federal assault was the 23d Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel William H. Kinsman of Council Bluffs. On the morning of May 16, 1863, the Twenty-Third led the charge against the Confederate troops, defending the Black River, the last natural barrier protecting the south's remaining vital city on the Mississippi River. Kinsman was fatally wounded as he led the Iowans into a volley of Confederate fire; he died the following morning and was buried at the battle site. In the late 1800's, veterans of Kinsman's command, with the encouragement and help of General Grenville M. Dodge, recovered and returned the Colonel's remains to Council Bluffs. On May 17, 1902, the monument celebrating the Colonel's life, military career, and devotion to the Union was dedicated. General Dodge presided at the ceremony."
In addition, in 1997 the monument and area were renovated and a brick walkway placed leading to the monument. A granite stone was placed at that time which reads: "A project of the Bluffs Arts Council, Council Bluffs, Iowa, November 11, 1997. Funded by a gift in memory of James A. Fox, 102nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of Peder Pederson, 46th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of James H. Jordan, 9th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of Charles Jordan, 17th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and of William Robinson, of the Ship's Company USS Thomas A. Benton, an ironclad of the Mississippi River Flotilla. 'The Union Forever'."
The website at (
visit link) tells us in part:
At the northern part of the Fairview Cemetery, on the highest point, is the soldiers' burial place, in the center of which is the Kinsman monument, surrounded by the graves of his comrades. The Kinsman monument is a large granite monument with a bronze relief/bust of Colonel William H. Kinsman, born July 11, 1832, in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, killed in Battle of Black River Bayou, May 17, 1863.