Note: This site is presently closed for restoration until 2024. I will give a report on the current state of repair in a future post.
I visited the second largest Civil War monument in New York. Grand Army Plaza is a massive memorial series covering 11 acres at the entrance to Prospect Park. Prospect Park, designed by Central Park’s Frederick Law Olmstead, is one of the most outstanding urban parks in the United States.
Olmstead designed the original Prospect Park Plaza as an ornate entrance to the park. It opened in 1867 and two years later a statue of Lincoln was placed in the Park. In 1885, Brooklyn’s mayor, Seth Low of First Unitartian Church fame, began the process to erect the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. After the arch was completed in 1892, famed architect Stanford White redesigned the plaza. The Lincoln statue was moved elsewhere in Prospect Park.
Here is a view from the park of the 80 foot high arch. Its architect was John Duncan, who also designed Grant’s Tomb. The cars give a sense of the scale.
The ornate arch is topped by allegorical statues. The central one is Lady Columbia, representing the United States flanked by what are interpreted as Winged Victories. On either side of the arch are depictions of soldiers and sailors. The Spirit of the Army is on the left and The Spirit of the Navy is on the right.
The underside of the arch is extremely ornate and decorated in the Roman style.
There are two bas relief winged figures on the front of the arch. The one on the right carries the Constitution and the fascis, representing law and power in the republic.
Here is the one on the left.
The inscription above the bas relief dedicated the arch “TO THE DEFENDERS OF THE UNION”.
Here are two views of the Spirit of the Army group on the left side of the arch. Some of the figures appear to be USCT.
The Spirit of the Navy group includes barechested seamen and an African American kneeling next to a mortar with a pistol.
Here is another view of the same group.
Looking through the arch you can see the Bailey Fountain in the background. My girlfriend Michele is on the right.
Inside the arch are two reliefs. This one is of Lincoln. Interestingly Lincoln was sculpted by one artist and his horse was by another. Lincoln was sculpted by William O’Donovan and his horse is by the famous artist Thomas Eakins. I like that Lincoln’s hat is hollow.
Grant was sculpted by the same duo:
A support column for the arch:
There are four doric victory columns topped by eagles across the street from the arch.
A closeup of one of the columns:
The sides of the arch are decorated with the badges of army corps that Brooklynites served in. This is the badge of the II Corps, which included New York’s Irish Brigade regiments as well as the Garibaldi Guards.
Here is the badge of the III Corps, which included the all-NY Excelsior Brigade.
Here is the badge of the 5th Corps
The badge of the VI Corps:
The First Corps:
The 8th Corps:
9th Corps with its nautical theme recalling service on the Carolina Coast.
10th Corps:
There is also a badge honoring the navy:
The plaza also has statues of two Union Generals on either side of it. On the right side is General Slocum. This is a large impressive equestrian statue in its own small park. On top of a hill, it is significantly above street level. Unfortunately, a low hurricane fence separated it from the public.
On the left side of the arch is General Warren in Little Round Top pose. In fact the pedestal incorporates rock from Little Round Top.
As you can see, he has the iconic field glasses in his hand.
This view shows on of the drawbacks of the plaza. It is Brooklyn’s busiest traffic circle. The statuary is on four different islands. We had to cross roads six times to see the whole thing. If you go and observe the good cross/don’t cross lights, you will be fine, but be careful.
There is some politics in the Warren plaque. It informs readers that Warren “made victory decisive” at Five Forks. Of course that was the battle where Warren was removed from command.
The inscription tells us that with Warren, “everything…was subordinated to duty.”
Across from the Arch is the Brooklyn Public Library, built in 1938 in the shape of an open book.
Behind the Arch. on the same island, is the Bailey Fountain. It is a beautiful fountain, and while it ostensibly has nothing to do with the Civil War, I like to think of it as “Soldier out on a date.”
Here are more of my pics of the fountain:
Michele took this picture of me with General Warren:
I headed back to Brooklyn today to see the Lincoln Statue in Prospect Park. I will write more about this in a separate thread, but this statue was originally in Grant Army Plaza where the Arch is today. It was erected in 1869 and was the first statue of Lincoln to be placed as a permanent public installation. Michele took the photo of me photographing the statue. You get a sense of the scale of this work:
The statue is now at nearly the opposite end of Propect Park from its original position. Here is an 1880 photo of the statue in its original position in Grand Army Plaza:
Here is a nice shot of Lincoln from Michele. You can see that Lincoln is now in a wonderfully shaded area called “Lincoln Plaza.” It overlooks the park’s Lake and concerts take place a few hundred feet behind Lincoln.
I went by the Arch last week. Here it is from the stoplight on Eastern Parkway:
Great post! When I was a little kid, I lived almost around the corner from the monument. The Lincoln statue is the only one of him on horseback. Also, the sculptor, William O’Donovan, was the sculptor of the Irish Brigade Monument at Gettysburg. At the battle of Gettysburg, O’Donovan was a Confederate corporal in Jubal Early’s Division.