Keene's Civil War Monument

Soldiers’ Monument, Keene, N.H.

In the "city" of Keene, N.H., the city honors its Civil War veterans with a monument erected in 1871 on the southern end of the town’s Central Square.

The monument features an infantry soldier standing on a granite base with rifle in hand. A dedication plaque on the monument’s front (south) face reads, “Keene will cherish in perpetual honor the memory of her sons who fought for liberty and the integrity of the Republic, 1861-1865. The honor of the heroic dead is the inspiration of posterity.”

The monument was created by sculptor Martin Milmore, an Irish-born artist whose is also the sculptor of the "Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument" on Boston Common.

Created at the Ames Manufacturing Company in Chicopee, Mass., which was also the foundry for many other New England monuments. According to research done by others on the web, the Keene monument received an extensive cleaning and restoration during the late 1990s, with the removal of the green patina, exposing the beauty of the bronze infantryman.

Heroes Tribute by Wayne D. King


#1 This image was used for the creation of three different posters with quotes from Abraham Lincoln.

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves;
and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

#2 "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

#3 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

Cards and Posters with these three quotes, click here.