Even while war still waged, Ohioans began to build monuments. In 1863, the citizens of Bristolville, Trumbull County, erected a monument to honor thirteen local men who were "Defenders of the Union from Bristol, Ohio." The square-shaped stone monument is topped with a funerary urn and decorated with crossed swords, cannon and rifles. Also in 1863, Cincinnatians contributed funds for a suitable monument. Randolph Rogers received the commission in 1864. His statue of a Union soldier on guard, "The Sentinel," was installed in Spring Grove Cemetery in 1865.

Between the end of the Civil War and 1869, eight Ohio cities and towns erected monuments to their valiant soldiers. Seven of the eight were located in northeast Ohio, the home of Ohio's most vocal and active abolitionists. Seven of these early monuments have eagles as their decorative element-four with wings spread as if in flight and three with wings closed. Howard Brigden carved the marble eagle that tops the 1867 monument in Mesopotamia, Trumbull Co.

On May 30, 1870, the Union Soldiers Monument of Clark County was dedicated in Memorial Park in Springfield. Henry H. Lovie of Philadelphia cast the bronze statue in 1869. The Clark County monument does not show the soldier at parade rest. Instead the soldier is depicted stand on arms, reversed -- the musket is muzzle down and his hands crossed over the butt-plate. From 1870 until 1931, soldiers were the most popular monument design with the soldier at parade rest figure by far the most common. There are 120 soldier monuments and 89 of these are soldier at parade rest. This number does not include the monument bases in Oregon and Wellston that are missing their soldier at parade rest statues.

Other Monument Designs
First eagles and then soldiers dominated Civil War monuments in Ohio but there were other popular designs. The simple obelisk, a four-sided monument that tapers to a point, is found in New Castle, Sandusky, Oregon and Toledo. Several monuments consist of artillery pieces and flagpoles. There are examples of these in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati (1907); Doanville in Athens County; and Franklin, Warren County (1903). New Lexington has the only monument in the shape of a cross (1876).

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War president, is well represented with monuments in Ohio. The statehouse in Ohio contains the earliest. On January 19, 1870, the Lincoln-Vicksburg Memorial was dedicated. The memorial includes a marble bust of Abraham and a relief of the surrender of the Confederate Army at Vicksburg. Cincinnati has two statues of Lincoln while Cleveland, Alliance, and Wooster have one statue each.

Mansfield has a granite monument to Lincoln that evidently perpetuates a hoax. The monument reads: "The first public and official endorsement of Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for President of the United States was given him in Mansfield at a county convention held November 5, 1858. Erected by the Richland County Lincoln Association/Sep. 22, 1925." According to a Mansfield newspaper article from March 10, 1946, there was no county convention held on that date in 1858. The newspaper notice that served as the basis for the monument was the work of pro-Lincoln David Ross Locke, a reporter who gained fame with his satirical letters written using the penname Petroleum V. Nasby.

On display on the capitol grounds in Columbus is a large monument called "These are My Jewels," designed by Levi Scofield. The monument has heroic-size figures of William Tecumseh Sherman, U.S. Grant, Salmon P. Chase, James A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, Edwin Stanton and Phillip Sheridan. The monument was first exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and then installed on the capitol grounds in 1894. Although Ulysses Grant is remembered in other ways in Ohio, the figure of Grant in the "Jewels" monument is the only statue of him.

Abolitionists
Although most Civil War monuments in Ohio remember the valor of soldiers, there are some that commemorate abolition and the fight to end slavery. In 1860 residents of Oberlin erected an obelisk to honor three African Americans who fought and died with John Brown at Harpers Ferry. The grave monument for Edwin Coppock in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Salem notes that he was "A martyr to the cause of Liberty." Also with John Brown at Harpers Ferry, Coppock was hanged on December 16, 1859.

Akron built a monument to John Brown in 1901. In 1912 Ripley dedicated a monument to "The Men Who Wrought for Liberty." The bronze plaque located on the bank of the Ohio River lists 13 men who "were the leaders of a large host of men who co-operated in the abolition movement."

Two soldier monuments include inscriptions about the abolition of slavery. The 1877 monument in the Mt. Vernon town square states "they laid down their own lives that the life of the Nation might be preserved and shared in the glory of securing to every dweller in the land a heritage of human freedom." There is a 1910 monument for the "Brave boys of Southington" who fought "for the preservation of our national union and the abolition of human slavery."

Two soldier monuments include inscriptions that recognize the role of women. The 1897 monument in Wood reads "To the patriotic women of 1861-1865 whose noble virtues and loyal deeds are ably perpetuated by the Ladies Neibling Relief Corps." The 1909 soldier at parade rest monument in Delphos is "Dedicated to our country's defenders and preservers, the men and women of 1861-1865."

The soldier monument in Greenlawn Cemetery in Columbus includes a figure of a boy. Ohio has two drummer boys: a drummer boy on the Hillsboro monument and a statue of Johnny Clem in Newark.

Confederates
Ohio has four memorials that relate to the Confederacy. In 1902, a monument was erected on the site of Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, Columbus, where 2260 Confederate soldiers are buried. The Cincinnati Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument on Johnson Island in Lake Erie, another Confederate prison site, in 1910. There is a bronze plaque in memory of Robert E. Lee in Franklin, Warren County. At the dedication in 1928, the Ohio director of highways accepted the plaque from the Ohio Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The fourth Confederate site is the grave of Confederate Captain William C. Quantrill in Dover, Tuscarawas County. Quantrill died and was buried in Louisville, KY in 1865 but in 1887 his mother had his remains moved to the Fourth Street Cemetery in Dover, the family home.

Two firms built many of the soldier monuments in Ohio. The Monumental Bronze Co. of Bridgeport, CT. specialized in a zinc or white bronze monument. Because the material could be stamped, bases could contain elaborate decorations and inscriptions. The monument at Kipton in Lorain County is a good example. The front of the monument includes the Grand Army of the Republic emblem, a profile of Abraham Lincoln, a list of soldiers, "Lincoln" in large letters and a verse from the poem, "Coat of Blue." The other three sides are similarly embellished. The same zinc soldier can be found in Cardington, Defiance, Grafton, New California, Wauseon, and Windsor. The Monumental Bronze Co. also made the Confederate monument at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus.

The W. H. Mullins Company of Salem, Ohio produced Civil War monuments that were sold across the country, both North and South. In Ohio, there are at least fourteen Mullins figures. The Mullins Company produced a variety of monuments as shown by the soldier at parade rest monuments in Applecreek, Circleville, Delphos, Pickaway, Washington Court House and Wooster; the skirmisher in Eaton and Elyria; the standard bearer in Salem and Wadsworth; and eagles in Ashtabula and Elyria. Mullins also created statues of Abraham Lincoln (Wooster) and John A. Bingham (Cadiz).

Outside Piqua, there is a stone marker for the 94th and 100th Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiments (1906). Otterbein College recognized its Civil War soldiers in 1915 with a bronze plaque on a granite slab. Meigs County features several plaques: one for the Battle of Buffington Island; one for General Daniel McCook (1933); and two 1999 markers for Union and Confederate forces. In Indian Hill, there is a bronze plaque to recognize Camp Dennison (1932).

Structures
Ohioans built structures as memorials to the Civil War. These include a bandstand in Gallipolis (1876); chapels in Akron (1876), Portsmouth (1884) and Marion (1888); memorial halls in Sidney (1877) and Cincinnati (1908); and gazebos in Middleport (1927) and Sandusky (1929). The U.S. Grant Memorial Bridge in Point Pleasant was first constructed in 1927 but then replaced in 1985. The modern bridge incorporates design elements from the original. The inventory also includes the homes of John Parker, John Rankin, the McCooks, William T. Sherman, Benjamin Hanby and three structures associated with U.S. Grant.

Martin Robison Delany, buried in the Massies Creek Cemetery in Wilberforce, served as a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He was commissioned a major, the first African American line field officer in the United States Army in March 1865, and given command of 104th US Colored Troops. Clement Vallandigham was a vocal opponent of Lincoln and the war. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Dayton.

Oberlin added a monument to the Underground Railroad in 1977 and a marker for the Wellington Rescue in 1990. In 2000, Canal Winchester in Fairfield County recognized the heroic act of Private Alfred Cannon. Cannon had been captured in Mississippi and was imprisoned at Andersonville. In an exchange of prisoners determined by lottery, Cannon drew a lucky ticket. Cannon, who was single, gave the ticket to a friend who had a family, saying "Go to your family." Cannon was later transferred to the Confederate Stockade in South Carolina and died of typhoid fever, January 21, 1865.

The size and grandeur of the monuments testify to the impact of the Civil War on even small communities. John T. Wilson spent $5000 on the Adams County soldier at parade rest monument in West Union. Dedicated in 1893, the granite monument soars to a height of 50 feet.

Ohio's Civil War monuments are remarkably well maintained. Many have recently been refurbished, cleaned and restored. Some have been relocated to safer spots. We know of one Civil War statue that has been destroyed--a soldier at parade rest statue that resided in the the town square of Lorain. There are probably others.