Location: Training Green, 65 Sandwich Street, Plymouth
Coordinates: 41°57’12.2″N 70°39’40.1″W
Date dedicated: August 9, 1869
Architect/Sculptor/Manufacturer: Peter Blessington, design and manufacturer
Number of names: 72 men who died in the war
The granite monument on the Training Green in Plymouth consists of a nearly 50-foot victory column on an ornate pedestal, crowned by an eagle with one foot crushing a serpent and the other on a broken chain – potent symbols of the Union’s triumph over rebellion and the destruction of slavery. Its front is inscribed “Memoria in Eterna” and dedicated to “The Soldiers and Sailors of Plymouth who Gave their Lives for their Country in the War of 1861”, followed by the carved names of 72 Plymouth men who died in the conflict.
In total 764 men from Plymouth served in the Civil War – 653 as soldiers in the Union Army and 111 as officers or seamen in the Navy. The town’s first volunteers answered President Lincoln’s initial call in April 1861. They were Plymouth’s local militia company, the Standish Guards, formed in 1818. By 1861, the Standish Guards comprised Company B of the 3rd Massachusetts Militia. They marched off to the train depot to report to Boston on April 16, 1861, only days after Fort Sumter fell. They were among the very first Massachusetts troops to reach the warfront.
The Standish Guards arrived at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on April 20 and joined the U.S. Navy in a daring night mission to destroy the Norfolk Navy Yard to prevent its capture – an early action in Union hands that electrified their hometown. Over the next four years, hundreds more Plymouth men volunteered or were recruited for service. They filled the ranks of dozens of regiments.
Plymouth raised a full company of three-years volunteers known as the “Plymouth Rock Guards,” led by Capt. Samuel H. Doten, which became Company E of the 29th Massachusetts Infantry. This company saw hard service with the Army of the Potomac and later in the western theater – fighting at major battles from the Peninsula Campaign and Antietam to the Siege of Vicksburg and the Petersburg trenches.
Amid this broad participation, a few individuals from Plymouth earned particular distinction. One hometown hero was Coxswain John B. Chandler, a Plymouth mariner who served aboard the USS Richmond in Admiral Farragut’s fleet. Chandler exhibited extraordinary bravery during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 – despite being ill, he left his sickbed to man his post in the heat of battle. For his “coolness and good conduct” under heavy fire, Chandler received the Medal of Honor.
In the Army ranks, Sergeant Samuel C. Wright, who served in Company E of the 29th Massachusetts (the Plymouth Rock Guards), survived multiple wounds (some of them grievous) in combat and later was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor at Antietam. During that bloody 1862 battle, Sgt. Wright volunteered with others for a desperate task. They advanced under intense fire in front of the infamous “Bloody Lane” at Antietam to tear down a fence obstructing a Union charge – a deed for which he was officially recognized decades later with a Medal of Honor.
Plymouth’s units also boasted respected leaders: Capt. Charles C. Doten, commander of the Standish Guards, and his brother Capt. Samuel H. Doten of the Plymouth Rock Guards, are remembered for organizing and leading Plymouth’s first contingents. And not to be forgotten are men like Rev. Edward H. Hall, a clergyman from Plymouth who served as chaplain of the 44th Massachusetts Infantry (a nine-month regiment), ministering to soldiers during campaigns in North Carolina. Each name inscribed on the monument – from John K. Alexander to David R. Williams – tells a story of service.
The Soldiers’ Monument Association of Plymouth was formed soon after the war with the mission to honor these fallen heroes. This was a true grassroots community effort. The Association – composed of local civic leaders, veterans, and bereaved families – raised funds through popular subscription, fundraising fairs, and public lectures. Virtually every segment of the community participated: women’s relief societies held charity bazaars, church groups organized lecture events, and citizens of all ages contributed what they could. In total, approximately $10,000 was raised to build the monument.
In 1869 the Association commissioned Peter Blessington of Boston to design and manufacture the monument. Blessington was a prominent New England stone cutter originally from Ireland, known for his skill in crafting monumental architecture. He maintained a showroom on Cambridge Street in Boston and had already executed other soldiers’ monuments in Massachusetts. In fact, the Plymouth monument’s design closely resembles two sister memorials that Blessington also created: the Danvers Soldiers’ Monument (dedicated 1870) and the Duxbury Soldiers’ Monument (1872). All three feature imposing granite columns quarried from Hallowell, Maine, topped with an eagle and serpent motif, and all bear the same Latin epitaph “Memoria in Eterna” on their pedestals. The iconography of the monument sent a clear civic message that Plymouth acknowledged the Civil War not only as a fight to put down rebellion but also to end the injustice of slavery.
After three years of planning and building, Plymouth’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument was dedicated on August 9, 1869 with great fanfare. The dedication day was treated as a town-wide holiday. Businesses closed and the waterfront town was draped in patriotic bunting as an estimated 5,000 people gathered. The Association, led by its president William T. Davis (the former wartime selectman and dedicated supporter of the soldiers and their families), organized an elaborate program of processions, speeches, music, and military salutes.
The procession to the monument site was a spectacle in itself. Local militia in full dress uniform – including Plymouth’s own Standish Guards (resurrected as a post-war militia company) and the Bay State Guards of nearby Carver – marched as honor guards. They were accompanied by several brass bands. Behind them came a long line of distinguished guests, veterans’ organizations and civic societies. Governor William Claflin of Massachusetts attended in person, as did Governor Onslow Stearns of New Hampshire. And the Governor of Maine, General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, was the orator of the day.
At the monument, William T. Davis opened the ceremonies with some remarks and then introduced General Chamberlain of Maine, one of the Union Army’s acclaimed heroes of Gettysburg fame. His presence drew widespread attention and he did not disappoint the crowd. In a moving oration, Chamberlain paid tribute to the fallen and the cause for which they fought. He began by recounting an anecdote from the Napoleonic Wars: during roll call in a French regiment, a soldier’s name was met with silence. After a pause, one of his comrades stepped forward, solemnly saluted, and declared, “Dead on the field of honor.” Chamberlain went on:
They are poetic words—thrilling words. But standing here to-day and looking upon this scene, they come to me fraught with a soberness and sublimity of meaning such as they scarcely had before. As I give place to the recollections that still throng upon my memory, as I think of the gallant spirits that have not shrunk from the highest test of manhood for the cause of man,as I look on this assembly and think of the dear and venerated forms for which you search in vain, as I gaze upon this monument, and comprehend what all this means, I take up these words; and if you call this sacred roll, if you ask for these seventy-two names from Alexander to William, I advance, I salute you, I answer, ‘Dead on the Field of Honor!'[2]
[1] The Builder, October 9, 1869, volume 27, 809.
[2] “Dedication of Soldiers’ Monument in Plymouth, Mass” New York Herald, August 10, 1869, p. 4