Civil War 150

Today marks 150th Anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter and the beginning of the Civil War. The photo above is a close-up of Albany's Soldiers & Sailors Monument.

Located at the northern entrance to Washington Park at Henry Johnson Boulevard, the 1912 memorial is covered with some of the finest Civil War imagery in the area.

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Veterans Day
A Closer Look

A Closer Look

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the northern entrance to Washington Park facing Henry Johnson Boulevard is one of Albany's most recognizable pieces of public statuary. I, for one, have passed it at least once a week for much of my life and written about it in a previous post.

But, like so many familiar sights, there are many details lost to the casual observer.

It took a closer look on a recent gray morning for me to notice some of those details such as the star on the statue's sash and the figures sculpted on the sword's scabbard.

This monument, by the way, was the work of Hermon Atkins McNeil, best known to coin collectors for designing the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter.

Veterans Day

Most Albany residents are familiar with the monument at the Henry Johnson Boulevard (formerly Northern Boulevard, but renamed to honor a WWI hero) entrance to Washington Park.

The most common view of the monument is from the front - a bronze maiden holding a sheathed sword, her arms laden with palm branches. But that view doesn't show the handsome details of the marble base, such as the Union soldiers shown above.

While it's commonly called the Soldiers & Sailors Monument, its official name - according to a nearby plaque - is the Albany Veterans Memorial. Dedicated on October 12, 1912, it was rededicated in 1986 as part of Albany's Tricentennial celebrations.