The Soldiers' Monument of Douglas, MA

      The Soldiers’ Monument is a casted monument created by the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, CT. It is located in the Town of Douglas’ common, which is the town’s small public park, along Route 16. The site was unveiled and dedicated on September 19^th, 1908. And its importance stems from being dedicated to all the unknown soldiers who lost their lives in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. The inscription on the base of the monument reads, “In memory of the Unknown Dead Union Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines of the Wars of 1776, 1861-1865, 1898.” The monument depicts a union soldier in an at ease pose, holding a flag. This monument was funded by the Sons of Union Veterans.

  The site is significant because of its uniqueness amongst all the Douglas monuments. All the other monuments are dedicated to a specific war and list all the specific people they are dedicating it to. While the Soldiers’ Monument is for all those whose names will never be known. Its purpose is very similar to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Fort Myers, Virginia. It is in essence; Douglas’ own little thank you to all the unknown soldiers of the United States who laid down their lives and were never identified. The monument is not huge, the base stands at six feet tall and the Union soldier stands at twelve feet tall, it serves a stoic reminder of all those who lost their lives. The Monument was rededicated on Veterans Day, 2014, with multiple “three inch Griffin Rifles that flank the monument” (Town of Douglas). William A. Emerson, a Douglas native and Historian wrote on the eve of the Civil War, “From the beginning of our national history, the elements of a most intolerant aristocracy have found constant nutriment in the system of slavery, which, permitted to exist in our midst merely be sufferance at the outset, continually grew by what it fed upon, until it ripened into an open menace of our very existence as a government.” (William A. Emerson).

           The Soldiers’ Monument holds great importance to the town of Douglas because of its location and what it stands for. The eighteen foot tall zinc statue of a Union Flag bearer stands for all the men and women of America. The monument still shines a bright white to this day and is cleaned pretty often. Flanked by the three inch griffin guns on either side. The monument is beautifully done and adds to the center of town.

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