From Boston Illustrated:
The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, on the hill near the Frog Pond, was designed by Martin Milmore, and dedicated on September 17th, 1877, when the entire militia force of the State paraded in Boston, and was reviewed by the President of the United States. The platform is thirty-eight feet square, and rests on a mass of subterranean masonry sixteen feet deep.
Four projecting pedestals sustain four bronze statues, each eight feet high, representing Peace, a female figure bearing an olive-branch and looking to the South; the Sailor, a picturesque mariner carrying a drawn cutlass, and looking seaward; History, a graceful female figure, in Greek costume, holding a tablet and stylus, and looking upward; and the Soldier, perhaps the best statue on the monument, representing a Federal infantryman standing at ease, and bearing the face of a citizen-soldier rather than that of a professional warrior.
Note: After vandalism in 2004, one of the statues was damaged. As far as I remember (my last visit was 28 February), all the statues were missing. They may have returned by now - I'm not sure.
Between these pedestals are four large bronze reliefs. In the front is “The Departure for the War,” with a regiment marching by the State-House steps, the mounted officers, from left to right, being Colonels Lowell and Shaw, both of whom were killed, Colonel Cass, General B. F. Butler, and Quartermaster-Gen. Reed. On the steps are the Revs. Turner Sargent, A. H. Vinton, Phillips Brooks and Arch-bishop Williams; Governor Andrew, shorter than the others; Wendell Phillips, Mr. Whitmore, the poet Longfellow, and others. The second bas-relief shows the work of the Sanitary Commission, the left-hand group being on duty in the field, with the Rev. E. E. Hale at its head; and in the other group the seven gentlemen are E. R. Mudge, A. H. Rice, James Russell Lowell, Rev. Dr. Gannett, George Ticknor, W. W. Clapp, and Marshall P. Wilder (from left to right). “The Return from the War” is the most elaborate of the reliefs, and contains forty figures. The veterans are marching by the State House, and are surrendering their flags to Governor Andrew, while joyful wives and children break the ranks of the regiment. The mounted officers arc Generals Bartlett, Underwood, Banks, and Devens (from left to right); the civilians are Dr. Reynolds, Governor Andrew, Senator Wilson, Governor Claflin, Mayor Shurtleff, Judge Putnam, Charles Sumner, C. W. Slack, James Redpath, and J. B. Smith. The fourth relief represents the departure of the sailors from home (on the left) and an engagement between a Federal man-of-war and monitor and a massive Confederate fortress.
The main shaft of the monument, a Roman-Doric column of white granite, rises from the pedestal between the statues; and at its base are four allegorical figures, in high relief and eight feet high, representing the North, South, East, and West. On top of the capital are four marble eagles. The most prominent feature of the monument is the statue of America, eleven feet high, symbolized by a female figure, clad in classic costume, and crowned with thirteen stars. In one hand she holds the American flag, in the other a drawn sword and wreaths of laurel; and she faces the south.
The bronzes were cast at Chicopee, Mass., and at Philadelphia; and the stone is white granite from Hallowell. The monument bears the following inscription, written by the President of Harvard College:
TO THE MEN OF BOSTON
WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
ON LAND AND SEA IN THE WAR
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.