The weirdest monument at the park, this one cost the citizens of Kansas a total of $5000.
When it comes to war memorials, you get what you pay for -- or don't.
Adding to that impression is this tidbit: unlike for every other memorial, no official dedication ceremony was ever held. No politicians, no descendants, no state flags, no speeches, no dignitaries, no nothing. The official state memorial of Kansas was trucked in, uncrated, assembled, and left behind in the woods of Mississippi.
Without disrespecting the men of Kansas who suffered, died, and fought here, our opinion is that this is an underwhelming memorial, and the fighting men of Kansas deserved more... they at least deserved the respect of a monument dedication ceremony.
Blasterz like Kansas and we like Kansans. We KNOW they appreciate their history and the sacrifices of their citizens during the Bleeding Kansas and Civil-War eras. How? Because we have SEEN so many moving and evocative war memorials to Kansas Union soldiers in Kansas with our own eyes. They are everywhere -- every county has at least one. So why erect THIS memorial HERE???
Blasterz looked at this memorial for a while, puzzling over it. We had no idea what this was -- a tornado? Some kind of modernistic expression of the infinite nature of death and short writhing thread of life running through it? Wagon wheels across the prairie interrupted by a vortex of war?
Turns out, we were overthinking the Kansas Memorial, and didn't see ANY of the symbolism alleged to be incorporated in it.
From the National Park Service website: (
visit link)
"KANSAS MEMORIAL
The Kansas State Memorial is located on Grant Avenue. It was erected in Vicksburg National Military Park in June 1960 at a cost to the State of Kansas of $5,000. However, no formal dedication ceremony was ever held.
The text on the plaque placed by the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War reads:
"The bottom circle represents the unity of the pre Civil War Era,
The broken circle in the center represents the Union torn asunder by the war 1861-1865
The perfect circle at the top depicts the regained unity of the post war era
An eagle atop all typifies the glorious majesty of our country."
If they say so.
Blasterz think it looks more like an abstract bicycle parts sculpture than a war memorial, but that's just our opinion.
Others must have had the same opinion, since the monument was installed in 1960, and the EXPLANATORY plaque was installed in 1973 by the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War.