The Wounded Color Sergeant (Topsfield, Massachusetts)
Union
Prominently located on Veteran Memorial Green, near an elementary school, library and town common, this monument was designed by the well-known female sculptor Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, who created a number of monuments to Union and Confederate troops throughout the early twentieth century. The monument is unusual, depicting a fallen standard-bearer handing a shattered Union flat to a sergeant who raises it up in his right hand, a rifle in his left. The monument was recently refurbished, and an inscription, funded in part by the League of Women Voters, was added to acknowledge Kitson's role in the monument's creation.
Monument type:
Statue - standing soldier
Artist:
Theo A. Ruggles Kitson; Alphonso T. Merrill
Dedication Date:
5320-01-01
Address:
Topsfield
Essex
Massachusetts
USA
Inscription:
IN MEMORY OF THE MEN OF TOPSFIELD WHO ENLISTED IN DEFENSE OF THEIR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT REBELLION OF 1861-1865
THE BEQUEST OF /JUSTIN ALLEN M.D. /A PRACTICING PHYSICIAN IN THE TOWN FOR OVER FORTY YEARS
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Conception Date:
Opening Date:
Material:
Bronze
Size:
0m x 0m x 0m
Creator:
Alphonso T. Merrill
Cost / Value:
$8,000
Erected by:
Funded by:
Statue funded by Dr. Justin Allen, physician in Topsfield and former Topsfield Historical Society president. Refurbished in 2006 with remnants of Justin Allen's funds by Historical Society. Donations to add inscription with Kitson's name in 2010 came from from Topsfield Main Street Foundation; the League of Women Voters of Topsfield, Boxford and Middleton and others. In 2013 was refurbished with $2,350 from a grant program developed by the Massachusetts Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Run by:
Topsfield Historical Society
Indigenous Land
Organization/Curator:
Data Sources:
Read below for one of our contributor’s reflections on this monument