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This occasional series of blog posts will highlight the most important of the outdoor sculptures in New York City and provide some historical and art-historical context. To read other blog posts in this series and on outdoor sculpture in New York City, click on the New York City Sculpture tag. For photos of all outdoor sculptures in New York City in chronological order, see my Instagram page (in progress since August 2019).

This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/Az2vAhWBUtA.

The Civil War

In April 1861, the debate over slavery came to a head when South Carolina militia fired on U.S. troops in Fort Sumter. Within months, armies of tens of thousands were taking the field for the Union and for the Confederacy. Three million men fought in the Civil War. Over 600,000 of them died: a whole generation of young men. Of those, about 50,000 were New Yorkers.

Not surprisingly, little sculpture was created or dedicated during the war years, but in the decades after the war, numerous memorials were erected to Union soldiers and military leaders.

1866

The earliest of the memorials was the Civil War Soldiers’ Monument by Daniel Draddy, in Cavalry Cemetery in Queens. The obelisk shape is reminiscent of the Worth Monument, but it’s far more elaborate, with life-size figures of four soldiers at the base and an allegorical figure on top.

Unfortunately I don’t have close-up shots of this monument, but the figures are apparently the same as those on the Civil War monument by Draddy in the Green-Wood Cemetery.

1869

The Civil War Soldiers’ Monument at the Green-Wood Cemetery is by the same artist as the monument in Queens. The life-size figures at the corners here are made of zinc, a less-expensive alternative to bronze. I wonder if the pillar was topped by a sculpture that’s now missing, or if it always had that odd pointed roof?

The handsome, life-size figures are a vivid visual reminder of the men who fought – not as they appeared in their death throes, but as they were when alive. (I mention this because within sixty years, the way soldiers are shown on war memorials will change drastically.)

1869

In terms of influence, the most important of the Civil War monuments dedicated in the 1860s was John Quincy Adams Ward’s Seventh Regiment Memorial. The Seventh Regiment of the New York State Militia, a.k.a. the “Silk Stocking Brigade,” usually dealt with local problems, but they also fought in the Civil War, losing 58 members. This monument in Central Park represents a young, handsome soldier standing at ease (with his weight on one foot) and holding a rifle.

More or less similar copies of this figure were mass-produced and sold via mail-order catalogues for Civil War memorials across the United States. Few towns could boast a general, but all had lost sons, fathers, and brothers. See three of them in this post (near the end.)

John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910) assisted Henry Kirke Brown on the Washington in Union Square (see last week’s post). Ward never studied abroad: he firmly believed American sculptors should be trained in America and present American ideas and subjects. For fifty-odd years, he was the leading sculptor in the United States. Eleven of Ward’s works stand outdoors in New York City – more than any other sculptor’s. We’ll see a few of them later in this series.

Abraham Lincoln, 1869 and 1870

Three days after General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, President Lincoln was assassinated. New York City has two monuments to Lincoln. Both are by Henry Kirke Brown, who created the Washington in Union Square. As works of art, the Lincolns by Saint Gaudens (1887) and Daniel Chester French (1920) are far more famous and far better … but Brown’s Lincolns have the virtue of having been erected much earlier, in 1869 and 1870.

Other Civil War Memorials outdoors in NYC

Fifteen other memorials to the Civil War stand outdoors in New York. A few of these are important as works of art, and will appear later in this series of posts. To see them all, click the links below or see Appendix 3 of From Portraits to Puddles, which includes images and annotations.

• Admiral Farragut (1880)
• Bronx River Soldier (1890)
• General Warren (1896)
• General Grant (1896)
• Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1896, Queens)
• Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch (1901, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn)
• Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument (1902, Manhattan)
• General Porter (1902)
• General Fowler (1902)
• John Ericsson (1903)
• General Sherman (1903)
• General Slocum (1905)
• General Sigel (1907)
• General Webb (1917)
• General Butterfield (1917)

It should come as no surprise that the Civil War memorials ended when the Great War (a.k.a. World War I) began.

Next week: back to sculptures that are not military.

More

• On the progression of war memorials in New York City, see From Portraits to Puddles: New York Memorials from the CIvil War to the World Trade Center Memorial.
• My Instagram account shows every outdoor sculpture in New York City, since in chronological order, with a short blurb on the subject and/or artist of each.
• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and my Patreon page (free or by subscription): details here.