The Civil War Memorial - Peoria, Illinois - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

Information from nearby plaques:

Soldier and Sailor Monument
1899

Sculptor:  Frederick "Fritz" Triebel (1865-1944)

Dedicated: October 6, 1899, by President William McKinley.

Bronze figures cast in Pistojo, Italy, in 1898.

Granite base & shaft quarried in New England.

Height: 68 feet.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

The idea for the 1899 "Soldiers and Sailors Monument" began in 1892 with the Ladies Memorial Day Association.  As the Civil War veteran's ranks grew thinner and the passion of patriotism seemed to be waning, Association president Lucie B. Tyng wrote, "It came into the hearts of those who were left to build a soldier's monument in our city which would last for all time, and tell our children and children's children our loving gratitude to these brave men who took their lives in their hands and went forth to vindicate and sustain our Government in its hour of peril."

Fritz Triebel, internationally-recognized native Peorian, was contacted at his studio in Rome, Italy, and commissioned to create the monument in 1893.   He also served as Superintendent of Sculpture at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago that year.

The Ladies Memorial Day Association raised $40,000 from various picnic fund-raisers, children's penny drives, the Peoria County Board of Supervisors, the City of Peoria, and the Martin Kingman Plow Company.

This site was chosen because it was where the famous Abraham Lincoln & Stephen Douglas encounter occurred in October 1854, and where Peoria's 1866 War Memorial once stood.

Defense of the Flag

Triebel named his sculpture "Defense of the Flag" and wrote in 1896:

• Defense of the Flag has six figures with the central figure being the captain cheering his companions and holding high the union colors after a successful battle.
• The cruel ball wounds the lieutenant who falls on the arm of his captain.
• The drummer boy gently protects with one hand his wounded officer while the other has drawn his pistol ready to fire on the fleeing enemy.
• Back of the drummer boy is an infantry-man ready to shoot while the trumpeter gives the signal to repose arms as the battle is won.
• The other figure is the wounded artilleryman.

At the southern facade stands the classic heroic figure of a woman with her pen poised writing "We write on page of granite what they wrought on the field of battle." Named "History," but popularly known as "Columbia," the draped figure was posed for by Triebel's wife, Santina.  The title of the statue is "History Writing the Scroll of Fame."  A second casting of her can be found on the Mississippi State War Memorial Monument in Vicksburg.

An American bald eagle with an eleven-foot wing spread is perched atop a globe at the tip of the granite shaft.  A tin box containing 1890s artifacts was placed in the globe and a copper box of similar items was buried in the granite base.

TITLE: The Civil War Memorial ARTIST(S): Frederick Ernst Triebel DATE: Dedicated 1899. MEDIUM: Figures, eagle and wreath: bronze; Pedestal: Deer Island Maine granite. CONTROL NUMBER: IAS 77006438 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: Courthouse Plaza Main & Adams Street Peoria, Illinois DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: None noted

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Date Logged Log   10/22/2010 adgorn visited it