Bronze and granite rise over Washington Square Park: the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. This huge memorial, designed by Leonard Wells Volk and erected in 1892, weighed 140 tons when it arrived — a heft moved into place by the Hilbert Truck Company, co-owned by Rochester's George F. Roth. Look upward: at the top of the 42-foot monument a bronze Abraham Lincoln sits astride a granite shaft, a calm sentinel over the park.
Around the shaft four bronze figures stand for infantry, cavalry, marines and artillery. The carved panels here tell the story of the Civil War: land battles at Fort Sumter, Gettysburg and Appomattox, and the naval engagement between the USS Monitor and the CSA Virginia. The whole work cost $26,000 and was dedicated on May 30, 1892, before a parade of 10,000 people that included war veterans and schoolboys.
Speeches that day came from U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, New York Governor Roswell P. Flower and reformer Frederick Douglass; state Senator Cornelius R. Parsons, Rochester Mayor Richard J. Curran and the president of the University of Rochester were also present. Harrison's dedication speech emphasized unity. The carved panels recall Fort Sumter, Gettysburg and Appomattox, and the duel of USS Monitor and CSA Virginia beneath your Lincoln.