LB2012.17.385

LB2012.17.385

Across Atlantic Avenue from the Camden, Maine Public Library and Amphitheatre, a National Historic Place, is Harbor Park, a small park of mature trees and open grassed areas which extends down to Camden Harbor. In the far west corner of the park, immediately east of the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Main Street, stands this monument with the figure of a Union Soldier standing atop. The Full-length figure of a uniformed Union soldier stands atop a tiered base with four-columned pedestal. The figure stands at parade rest and holds his rifle in front of him with both hands around the barrel and the butt on the ground. He wears a long caped coat, cap and moustache. The monument was dedicated Memorial Day 1899 in Monument Square, which seems to no longer exist, and relocated here in 1968. The base and pedestal were created by Thomas J. Lyons of Vinalhaven, while the statue was the work of the Hallowell Granite Company, designer or sculptor unknown. The Camden Soldiers Monument Association, organized ten years prior, had raised the majority of the $1400 total cost of the seventeen foot tall monument. Three of the four faces of the monument list the honored dead plus those who had died since 1865, while the fourth face is inscribed with the following text: Erected in 1899 by the Camden Soldiers Monument Association in honor of the brave men of Camden who gave their lives in defence of their country during the GREAT REBELLION 1861 - 65