The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a war monument in Monument Square, at Broadway and 2nd Street in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

, United States. It honors those from

Rensselaer County Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the ...

who served in the Revolutionary War, the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

and the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. The monument is a contributing object in

Central Troy Historic District The Central Troy Historic District is an irregularly shaped, area of downtown Troy, New York, United States. It has been described as "one of the most perfectly preserved 19th-century downtowns in the ountry with nearly 700 properties in a v ...

Description

The monument features a 50-foot granite column crowned by ''The Call to Arms'', a 17-foot bronze statue of the Goddess Columbia. She stands facing north, with her foot on a cannon ball, a sword in one hand and a trumpet in the other. The granite base is designed in a vigorous

Neo-Grec Néo-Grec was a Neoclassical Revival style of the mid-to-late 19th century that was popularized in architecture, the decorative arts, and in painting during France's Second Empire, the reign of Napoleon III (1852–1870). The Néo-Grec vogue ...

style. Architectural elements such as scrolls,

acroterion An acroterion, acroterium, (pl. akroteria) is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed ...

s and

guttae A gutta (Latin pl. guttae, "drops") is a small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used near the top of the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture. At the top of the architrave blocks, a row of six ''guttae'' below the narr ...

are recognizable, but abstracted. Instead of traditional piers, four buttresses form attached arches that are supported by compressed

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

columns. Four slightly-projecting gables support the great column. Three are adorned with a carved laurel wreath encircling a date – "1776," "1812," "1861-65" – and the fourth features the monument's dedication: "''To the Men from Rensselaer County who fought for Their Country on Land and Sea.''" Bronze relief panels on the base depict battle scenes of the Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery. The Navy is represented by a sea battle between

ironclad warship An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The firs ...

s – ''The Monitor and The Merrimack''. This has a local connection, the iron plates that covered the USS ''Monitor'' were forged in Troy. Bronze plaques list the names of major battles from each war. The monument was designed by the architectural firm of Fuller & Wheeler (1883–1897) of

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

.T. Robins Brown, "Albert W. Fuller," in Diana S. Waite, ed., ''Architects in Albany'', (Mount Ida Press, 2009

/ref> The stone was quarried and fabricated by Frederick & Field of

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

. The bronze figure of ''Columbia'' was modeled by James E. Kelly, and the bronze relief panels were modeled by

Caspar Buberl Caspar Buberl (1834 – August 22, 1899) was an American sculptor. He is best known for his American Civil War, Civil War monuments, for the terra cotta relief panels on the James A. Garfield Memorial, Garfield Memorial in Cleveland, Ohio (d ...

. The sculpture was cast by the Henri-Bonnard Bronze Company of New York City. The monument was rededicated in September 1991. TroyMonumentSquare

References

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External links

* "The Rensselaer Co. Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Troy, N.Y.," ''The Monumental News'', vol. 4, no. 1 (January 1892), p. 1
Soldiers and Sailors Monument
from SIRIS, Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
The Monument in Monument Square
- All Over Albany Buildings and structures in Troy, New York Buildings and structures completed in 1891 Union (American Civil War) monuments and memorials in New York (state) Sculptures of musical instruments