Menu
Civil War monument restoration undertaking lagging at Forest Hill
Restoration work on the Civil War Memorial in Greencastle’s Forest Hill Cemetery continues, but unfortunately more slowly then initially scheduled.
One of the primary hold-ups is approving the font size to be used for the inscription of the fallen soldiers’ names, the Heritage Preservation Society of Putnam County reports.
The letters need to be large enough to match as closely as possible the spacing of the original hand engraving, especially since not all of the old inscribed blocks will be replaced.
Each of the three submissions has been an improvement over the previous, and, hopefully, one will be approved soon.
As a result, plans for the rededication of the soldiers monument -- once thought to perhaps take place on the original dedication anniversary date of July 2 -- have been put on hold.
Blakley Corp., Indianapolis, began work in late April on what was expected to be a month-long restoration project.
The 29-foot-tall monument stands as a memorial to Putnam County soldiers who fought in the epic War Between the States. But pieces of the historic structure are crumbling and cracks are appearing as the monument nears its 147th anniversary.
In all, 56 stones are being replaced. Only six stone sections (all on the east side of the structure) bearing names of the 321 Putnam County soldiers killed in the Civil War will be reused. The rest are being refabricated because of deterioration.
Titled “Western Soldier on Guard” and sculpted by Thomas David Jones (who erected basically a twin statue in Pomeroy, Ohio), the monument is a three-tiered structure with the bottom portion made of Indiana limestone from Oolitic in Lawrence County, while the upper section appears to be a variety of sandstone. The center area is made of Berea sandstone, quarried from an area of Ohio that no longer provides such material.
The monument was formally dedicated to great fanfare in July 1870 before a crowd estimated at 8,000 people --- an amazing number considering that at the time, fewer than half that many people actually lived in Greencastle.