Wilmington is a small city in the north of Delaware. At the time of the Civil War, there were more than 21,000 people living there. In the Census of 1860, there were only 112,000 people living in the state, of whom 1,798 were enslaved.
There is a myth that Delaware was a Northern Slave State. Unlike Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, slaves only made up 2% of the state’s population. On the other hand, when Lincoln met with delegates from Delaware and offered compensation for owners if there was a voluntary ending of slavery in Delaware, he got a negative response.
The monument is at Monument Place at 14th Street and Delaware Ave. in Wilmington, Delaware. The area around the small triangular part is bordered by several building constructed in the 19th Century.
The monument is set on a slight hill in the middle of the city.
The park is small, but it is nicely landscaped and it has benches to sit and contemplate the memorial.
The column was not crafted for this monument. It was a column on the front of the Bank of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. That bank was erected between 1799 and 1801. The bank was one of the foremost financial institutions in the early United States, but it collapsed during the 1857 Financial Panic. The bank building was designed by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. You may have heard that name before in your high school history class. He was the architect for the new United States Capitol Building in Washington.
The building was one of the first Neo-Classical in the United States and was greatly admired at the time. Thomas Jefferson had an image of the building. When the bank was being torn down in 1867-1868, Albert S. Nones, a Delaware Civil War veteran, and Congressman Charles O’Neill of Philadelphia advocated that the bank’s columns be preserved as war memorials for the dead of the Civil War. Several of the columns were put into this commemorative task for monuments throughout the North.
When you visit the monument, the column is more than two hundred years old.
The memorial column was unveiled in 1871. It had been designed by Alfred B. Mullett. The brass used for the monument came from melted down brass cannons donated by the Federal government. The monument is topped by an eagle battling a snake, the Confederacy.
The historical marker at the site says that the monument was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1871.
The keynote at the dedication came from Major General Oliver Otis Howard, commander of the XI Corps, commander of the right wing of Sherman’s March to the Sea, and the head of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
One side of the monument is a “Thank You” to Eli Crozier. What did he do? Well, one of the bills for putting up the monument was not paid and the sheriff was threatening to confiscate it. Crozier paid off the debt and the monument still remains one hundred and sixty years later.
On the other side is the dedication:
Soldiers and Sailors
Monument
In Commemoration of Delaware’s
Patriotic Dead who Sacrificed
Their Lives for their country
During the Rebellion of 1861-65
During the war, Delaware had 12,280 men enlisted in the Union forces. Out of those who enlisted, 882 died.
The eagle is very interesting, with a lot of motion.
Note: All color photos of buildings in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
Sources:
Society of Architectural Historians
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