Battlefield Dispatches No. 422 'Silent Sentinel'

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

After the Civil War between 1866 and 1910 thousands of monuments were dedicated in both the north and south in memory of specific individuals, usually "Generals," regiments or companies of soldiers on the battlefields or on the commons area of a town or on or near a county courthouse. Most of these monuments were paid for by private funds that were raised by the survivors or veterans of a specific regiment or veterans organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic in the "northern" states and by the Confederate Veterans or the Daughters of the Confederacy in the southern states. Here in southeastern Kansas there are three almost identical monuments that were sponsored and funded by the Grand Army of the Republic Posts in Baxter Springs, Mound City and Fort Scott. The striking similarity of these monuments is that they are capped by the identical sculpture of a "Union" soldier in uniform, wearing a great coat & cape, gazing straight ahead, holding his musket and standing at the position of "Parade Rest"!

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