The Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Lafayette Square
Buffalo, New York

On this page, below:

Neighbors

Statues

Drum

Dedication and Gettysburg Address

Paul Massing, McKinley Square

The Monument and Its Neighbors Tishman Building                    Rand Building                Lafayette Square 2007 photo                  Tishman Building                Rand Building 2007 photo            Liberty Bank Building / Liberty Building               City Hall                         Western Savings Bank 2007 photo                       Liberty Bank Building / Liberty Building 2007 photo            Lafayette Hotel and Brisbane Building 2007 photo            Buffalo and Erie County Public Library               Lafayette Hotel 2002 photo               Buffalo and Erie County Public Library

The Monument - Statues  Nameless stone lady, "emblematic of Buffalo," sits atop the 85-foot column                 Note crown, sword, two laurel leaf wreathes, shield with City of Buffalo seal (details below:)   Note similarities to earlier (1876 VS 1883) "Justice" on the Old County Hall 2016 photo Two laurel leaf wreathes                   City of Buffalo seal                Wreath is similar to earlier (1876 VS 1883) "Mechanical Arts" on the Old County Hall   2016 photo 2017 photo According to the Maine Granite Industry Historical Society (online August 2014), the monument is made of Hallowell granite Note City of Buffalo seal  on medallion  (Detail below:) City of Buffalo seal 2007 photo                Four 8-foot-tall statues representing members of the infantry, cavalry, artillery, and navy           The round frieze has scenes of American life during the Civil War 2007 photo               Center statue represents members of the Navy Four 8-foot-tall statues representing members of the Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and Navy. 2007 photo             Eight-foot-tall statue represents members of the Navy Navy Navy 2007 photo                Eight-foot-tall statue represents members of the Infantry Infantry 2007 photo              Cavalry Cavalry 2007 photo               Artillery Artillery 2007 photo                     Artillery

The Drum 2007 photo             Pres. Abraham Lincoln with his original cabinet. The rolled document is the President's call for 75,000 volunteers.            Lincoln with his original cabinet. From left to right, in varying degrees of relief, are depicted Treasury Sec'y Salmon P Chase, Sec'y of State Wm. H Seward, Attorney-General Edward Bates, Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair, Lincoln, Interior Sec'y Caleb Smith, Navy Sec'y Gideon Welles, Major General Winfield Scott, and War Secretary Simon Cameron. 2007 photo               Off to War              Note zouves (pronounced zoo AHV; light infantry regiments of the French army serving between 1830and 1962 and linked to French North Africa; during the Civil War, numerous zouave regiments were organized from soldiers of the US who adopted the name and the North African-inspired uniforms; the Union army had more than 70 volunteer zouave regiments throughout the conflict, while the Confederates fielded about 25 companies 2007 photo               Off to War Left center: zouave and a drummer boy                Rolled document in Seward's hand is the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln with his original cabinet. From left to right, in varying degrees of relief, are depicted Treasury Sec'y Salmon P Chase, Sec'y of State Wm. H Seward, Attorney-General Edward Bates, Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair, Lincoln, Interior Sec'y Caleb Smith, Navy Sec'y Gideon Welles, Major General Winfield Scott, and War Secretary Simon Cameron. Zouave (zoo ahv): A class of light infantry regiments of the  French Army and other units modeled on it, which served between 1830 and 1962. and served in French North Africa.   They wore a brilliant uniform and conducted a quick spirited drill.  The Union army had more than 70 volunteer zouave regiments, who adopted the name and uniform, throughout the conflict, while the Confederates fielded about 25 zouave companies.  For photos, see Wikipedia: Zouave (online May 2025) A newsboy sells papers while a blacksmith and a baker read one. Center drum: Two cavalrymen, one of them a bugler, tangle with their mounts.

Dedication of the monument Gettysburg  Address - November 19, 1863 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- 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 government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Gettysburg  Address - November 19, 1863

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