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| photo by Alice Lum |
Twenty-three years after the last shot was fired in the
American Revolutionary War, tension between Britain and the newly formed United
States was still strong. When the
British sailed into New York Bay in 1806 claiming the right to seize and search
all American vessels, New Yorkers were outraged. The Seventh Regiment of New York was
organized as a state defense force in response.
The regiment would see action during the War of 1812;
but it was the Astor Place Riots of 1849 that changed the complexion of the
unit. When 20,000 working class
demonstrators mobbed the exclusive residential neighborhood around the Astor
Place Opera House, the Seventh Regiment responded. The grateful upper class would not forget
their champions. The sons of Manhattan’s
millionaires enlisted in force over the decades, resulting in the group’s
popular names “The Silk Stocking Regiment” and “The Dandy Seventh.”
When President Abraham Lincoln called for additional troops
on April 15, 1861 the Seventh Regiment responded. Four days later the men left their Tompkins
Market armory wearing grey uniforms and a sky-blue overcoat. The Third
Annual Report of the Bureau of Military Statistics of the State of New York
later recalled “New Yorkers cheered and applauded as the Silk Stocking Regiment
marched through the city…Thousands upon thousands lined the sidewalks.
“The regiment marched not as on festival days—not as on the
reception of the Prince of Wales—but nobly and sternly, as men who were going
to the war…And so along Broadway and through Cortland street, under its almost
countless flags, the gallant Seventh regiment left the city.”
Although the lower classes complained violently that the
wealthiest New Yorkers had bought their sons’ exemption from military
conscription; the Civil War historian Frederick Phisterer, in 1911, said that did not apply to the Seventh. “The
best blood and most honored names in New York City were prominent in its ranks…Veterans
now hail it as the highest type of the citizen soldiers who went to the front.”
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| The men of the 7th Regiment pose in Washington DC in April 1861--The Photographic History of the Civil War, 1911 (copyright expired) |
Although the unit was originally mustered into service for three
months; it would repeatedly return the South throughout the next two
years. During its service the regiment
would supply 606 officers to the Union army and according to Phisterer the
Seventh lost 185 men in combat—15 officers and 170 enlisted men “of whom 7
enlisted men died in the hands of the enemy.”
New Yorkers welcomed their favorite sons home and a mere
year after the end of the war the Monumental Association was organized to erect
a statue in memory of those who had given their lives. But things did not go smoothly.
Not only was the Association’s planned memorial, in the
opinion of the Regiment, too garish; but after a few years the project seemed to
have ground to a halt. “In their
opinion, the design for the base was extravagant in its proportions, and in the
expenditure required; the site in the Park which had been accepted was too
distant from the city, and was otherwise objectionable; and, finally, the
Regiment, having contributed nearly all the money raised for this purpose, was
dissatisfied that operations had been entirely suspended, and that there was no
prospect of the completion of the work,” according to Colonel Emmons Clark in
1889.
The Regiment launched a coup in 1872 to take over the
Association by nudging out members who “had long since ceased to take any
active part in the matter, and to fill their places with members who fully represented
their views and interests. This was
accordingly done, and at its quarterly meeting in October the Monumental
Association was captured, and a new executive committee, controlled by active
and prominent officers of the Regiment, was appointed, with full power as to
site, base, funds, etc.” remembered Clark.
The first plan of action was to redesign the “extravagant”
base. Clark wrote “a new design for the
base by Mr. [Richard Morris] Hunt, the architect, was approved; and, within six
months from the first meeting of the committee, contracts were signed for the
construction of the base and the completion of the entire work.”
Esteemed sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward would be responsible
for the bronze statue upon Hunt’s granite base.
Victorians were accustomed to the bronze and marble likenesses of statesmen
and military heroes in grand, formal poses. But
Ward headed in the opposite direction. He
chose to depict the common soldier in all his humanness.
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| photo by Alice Lum |
The figure was not of an officer, but a lone sentry. The
Evening World said “It is in the form of a soldier boy in full regimentals
on picket duty.” He vigilantly gazes off
while leaning on his rifle. The relaxed
pose would influence countless Civil War monuments and town squares throughout the country would
erect their own versions of the standing soldier and rifle.
On June 22, 1874 the statue, entitled “The Citizen Soldier,”
was ready for its unveiling. The Civil
War veterans assembled at the armory at 3:00 and the current members of the
Seventh Regiment arrived there an hour later.
The two groups paraded to Central Park on separate routes, meeting up at
Eighth Avenue and 69th Street to enter the Park. “During the march of the regiment the drives
upon its route are to be kept clear of carriages and pedestrians,” The New York
Times warned readers that morning.
Although the ceremony would be carried out with the expected
pomp of a Victorian event—the Seventh Regiment Band played and two stands were
erected for “the accommodation of the distinguished military and civic guests,”
it was a relatively understated ceremony.
Harper’s Weekly called it “simple and impressive.” Nevertheless the Herald would say the
following day “There was never seen at the Central Park at any time since it
has become one of our great public resorts, such an immense crowd as was
gathered there yesterday afternoon to witness the unveiling of the memorial
statue of the Seventh Regiment.”
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| Harper's Weekly depicted the throngs attending the unveiling. July 11, 1874 (copyright expired) |
There were 100 invitations to the press and “Through the
courtesy of the Park Commission, 300 reserved seats were provided expressly for
ladies,” noted The New York Times. The
sculptor himself unveiled the statue
The following morning the Herald wrote “The sight was indeed
one that must have left an impression of utter wonderment upon everybody who
beheld it. In fact, the Park never
before had been witness of anything at once so novel—the dazzle of the muskets
and the golden uniforms blending with the varied colors of the dresses and
attires of the assembled thousands of civilians, rendering the scene positively
enchanting.”
New Yorkers were understandably offended and outraged when
eight years later thieves pried the valuable bronze medallions off the base of
the statue. The men were caught and
tried separately. One of them, Louis
Sigmund, was convicted on August 18, 1882 and sentenced to six months in the
penitentiary.
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| A 19th century stereopticon view captures a workman pausing before the memorial. |
Defacing of a less serious nature came the following
year. On June 7, 1883 the New-York
Tribune reported “The 7th Regiment Memorial Statue in Central Park
has been made a nesting place by a pair of sparrows. Under the bronze cape of the soldier the
birds were weaving long blades of dry grass yesterday, and the effect was both
ornamental and comical.”
The monument would be the yearly pilgrimage site of the
Seventh Regiment veterans every Memorial Day.
On May 31 1895 The Sun described that year’s ceremony, saying the
Veteran Corps “commemorated the memory of their comrades who fell in the civil
war with appropriate exercises…The monument was almost hidden from sight by
wreaths and flowers, as was the ground at its foot.”
Time passes, veterans die, and memories fade. By 1923 when the statue was rededicated it
was more of a Victorian curiosity than a revered memorial. Then in 1927 the dramatic and emotional World War I monument to the Seventh Regiment, now designated the 107th
Infantry, was dedicated. John Quincy
Adams Ward’s moving 19th century tribute to the citizen soldier became
a footnote.
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| 130 years after the first birds nested in the statue, a new family finds a home. photo by Alice Lum |
But not everyone overlooks the statue. As they did in 1883, birds happily construct
their nests today under the bronze cape of the Civil War sentry.
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