Brandon Vermont Civil War Monument: Solitary Soldier Stands Guard

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon Vermont Civil War Monument: Solitary Soldier Stands Guard 

by Samuel D. Gruber

I've posted several examples (from Detroit & Troy) of a the big "wedding cake" type Civil War monuments popular in cities in the late 19th century.  More common, of course, are the many smaller monuments to found in almost every town in new England and Upstate New York - and throughout, I am sure, all of the Union states.

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

These monuments are memorials to the fallen as much a celebrations of any victory.  For the most part they were erected a generation after the war, when many of the soldiers who fought had reached maturity, and now occupied leading positions in government and business.  During the sometime disillusioning decades of Reconstruction, these monuments affirmed the value of sacrifice.  A good recent article by Nancy Price Graff discusses the ubiquity and similarity of Civil War monuments in Vermont - where one sixth of all Vermonter who fought in the conflict died on the battlefield or of wounds and disease.

The monuments tend to be sober and often somber.  The monument of Brandon, Vermont (where I recently visited friends) is a good example.  An an important intersection in the town a single uniformed, mustachioed, Union soldier stands on sentinel duty - guarding the town so to speak - and perpetuating the memory of his fallen comrades, the 54 men of Brandon how died in the war.  (This type of memorial is timeless, and recalls to me especially (albeit dressed) the steady repeated pose of Greek kouroi, possibly set up - at least sometimes - as funerary monuments.

The Brandon monument was inaugurated in 1886.  It is made by the White Bros. of Barre, Vermont granite. The sculptor is unknown, but this particular model of Civil War soldier is frequently found on monuments across the country.   

The memory of the Civil War lasted long after the fighting stopped.  In fact, the war remained a vivid part of family and civic culture for decades, really until the generation that experienced the fighting and loss was gone.  Though the country's last union soldier (Albert Woolsen) did not die until 1956,  the major generational passing took place after fifty years, just in time for a new set of memories - those of World War I - to take center stage in public life (and monuments).

 You can see pictures of many other Vermont Civil war monuments here.

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Like its contemporaries in Detroit and Troy, the smaller Brandon monument plays an important role in the townscape.  It is immediately visible upon entry to the town from the south (Route 7 from Rutland), and stands of the junction of several important roads and streets, especially Park Street, with its many fines houses four the 1830s and following.  Like similar monuments, it is hub around which this part of town revolves.

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Names of the dead. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013

Brandon, Vermont. Civil War Monument, 1886. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2013