The Illinois Memorial (also known as the Illinois State Memorial and the Illinois Monument) is a public

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

located at

Vicksburg National Military Park Vicksburg National Military Park preserves the site of the American Civil War Battle of Vicksburg, waged from March 29 to July 4, 1863. The park, located in Vicksburg, Mississippi (flanking the Mississippi River), also commemorates the greater ...

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vic ...

, United States. Dedicated in 1906, it honors the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

soldiers from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

who fought in the

siege of Vicksburg The siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Missis ...

during the

Vicksburg campaign The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi Riv ...

of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. It was designed by architect

William Le Baron Jenney William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884. In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ran ...

and sculptor

Charles Mulligan Charles J. Mulligan (September 28, 1866 – March 25, 1916) was an American sculptor. Born in Riverdale, Ireland, Riverdale, County Tyrone, Ireland, Mulligan immigrated to America at the age of 17 and found work as a stone cutter in Pullma ...

. It is known to the locals as Echo Hall or the Hollar House.

History

Background

During the

, 36,325 Illinoisans served in the

under general

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

in the

. This large number of troops represented approximately 20% of the Union Army's forces during the campaign. The campaign culminated in the

, which ended in a Union victory on July 4, 1863, and ultimately led to U.S. control of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The victory, coming a day after the Union victory at the

battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

, is sometimes considered a

turning point of the American Civil War There is widespread disagreement among historians about the turning point of the American Civil War. A turning point in this context is an event that occurred during the conflict after which most modern scholars would agree that the eventual outc ...

. In 1904, the

government of Illinois The Government of Illinois, under Illinois' Constitution, has three branches of government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The State's executive branch is split into several statewide elected offices, with the Governor as chief executive a ...

appropriated over $190,000 (20% of their budget for that year) for the erection of a monument on the battlefield, now known as the

. The monument was designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and sculptor

. Jenney had previously served in the Union Army during the war and was later honored with a monument on the battlefield that was unveiled in 1911. The construction was carried out by the Culver Construction Company, with William B. Mundie serving as the

general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

. An additional sculpture in the memorial was designed by

Frederick Hibbard Frederick Cleveland Hibbard (June 15, 1881 – December 12, 1950) was an American sculptor based in Chicago. Hibbard is best remembered for his Civil War memorials, produced to commemorate both the Union and Confederate causes. Born and raised i ...

, who would later design an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...

of Grant in the park. Construction began in mid-1906 and was completed by October of that year. The total cost for the memorial, paid for by the state of Illinois, was $194,423.92.

Dedication and later history

The memorial was dedicated on October 26, 1906, in a ceremony attended by several thousand spectators, with many Illinois veterans travelling to the site via the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

. A large parade through the park was held as part of the event. A band performed several musical numbers, including "

Tenting on the Old Camp Ground "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (also known as Tenting Tonight) was a popular song during the American Civil War. A particular favorite of enlisted men in the Union army, it was written in 1863 by Walter Kittredge and first performed in that yea ...

", "

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cover ...

", "

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

", and "

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...

Illinois Governor The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

Charles S. Deneen Charles Samuel Deneen (May 4, 1863 – February 5, 1940) was an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 23rd Governor of Illinois, from 1905 to 1913. He was the first Illinois governor to serve two consecutive terms totalli ...

transferred ownership of the memorial to the U.S. government, and it was accepted by J. S. Schofield of the

U.S. Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...

. In the 1980s, the memorial underwent some restoration that included

repointing Repointing is the process of renewing the pointing, which is the external part of mortar joints, in masonry construction. Over time, weathering and decay cause voids in the joints between masonry units, usually in bricks, allowing the undesirable e ...

and cleaning in the interior. In 1996, members of the

Illinois Army National Guard The Illinois Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. With the Illinois Air National Guard it forms the Illinois National Guard. National coordination of various state National Guard unit ...

and

Mississippi Army National Guard The Mississippi Army National Guard is the Army National Guard component of the Mississippi National Guard. It was originally formed in 1798. It is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. It is managed by the ...

participated in a joint activity near the memorial called the Blue and Gray Staff Ride, where they reenacted part of an assault on the location and held a wreath laying ceremony at the memorial. That same year, the statue of an eagle on the memorial was regilded, and several years later, additional gilding work was performed to the memorial. On October 28, 2006, a rededication ceremony was held on the 100th anniversary of the memorial.

Design

The memorial's design was based on that of the

Roman Pantheon The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts (see ''interpretatio graeca''), integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin litera ...

. The base and stairway is made of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

quarried from

Stone Mountain Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome Inselberg, monadnock and the site of Stone Mountain Park, east of Atlanta, Georgia. Outside the park is the small city of Stone Mountain, Georgia. The park is the most visited tourist site in the state o ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, while the remainder of the structure is made of

Georgia marble Creole marble, also called Georgia creole or Georgia marble, is a marble from quarry, quarries in Pickens County, Georgia, United States. It is coarse-grained, displays a white or gray background while veins or clouds are black or dark blue. Based ...

. It is the largest memorial on the battlefield. According to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, " device indicative of war" is featured in the memorial, which was specified by the commission that oversaw its creation. Sixty

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

tablets line the interior of the memorial and bear the names of all 36,325 Illinois soldiers who participated in the campaign. A bronze statue of a bald eagle, sculpted by Hibbard, sits atop the memorial. It was gilded in the 1990s, along with lettering and other details on the interior. The stairway consists of 47 steps, one for each day of the siege. It is located near the Shirley House on the battlefield, along Jackson Road.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Official website, 1=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=103991, name=Historical Marker Database 1906 establishments in Mississippi 1906 sculptures Bronze sculptures in the United States Buildings and structures in Vicksburg, Mississippi Granite sculptures in the United States Illinois in the American Civil War Marble sculptures in the United States Outdoor sculptures in Mississippi Statues in Mississippi Union (American Civil War) monuments and memorials in Mississippi Vicksburg National Military Park