Huntington History

Early in the morning of July 16, in the midst of a nationwide debate about whether Confederate monuments should be removed, a statue of a Union soldier in Saratoga Springs, NY was knocked down and broken (read about it here). Officials are mystified as to why the statue was vandalized.

It is unlikely that a statue in upstate New York would be confused for a Confederate memorial; although statues in the north and south often looked the same because they were made by the same companies.  Union or Confederate?

There is a legend that all Civil War statues in the north face south and those in the south face north. Maybe that’s one way to tell them apart. It should be noted, however, that Huntington’s Civil War statue faces west.

Huntington’s Civil War Statue

In fact, Huntington’s Civil War Soldier was the subject of some speculation 65 years after it was dedicated. The Long-Islander asserted that “the granite soldier’s statue outside the former Huntington Library on Main St. cannot be identified as representing either side of the Civil War.” (August 11, 1960, page 5). The article concludes, “The case remains a mystery.” Why it was even a question is the real mystery. Why would Huntington’s Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Association, the organization that built the namesake building and had the statue erected, have a memorial to a Confederate soldier?

The statue was installed three years after the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building was constructed. It was supplied by A. Klaber, described as “chief among the high-class marble workers” in New York City. The Association appointed Temple Prime, Thomas Young, and Joseph Irwin as a committee to purchase a statue to be placed in front of the new library building. The granite statue, which cost $1,300 (plus $69.47 to David S. Ireland for the foundation), was dedicated on Memorial Day 1895.

Twenty five years later, shortly after the end of World War I, a proposal was made to replace the granite statue with a bronze statue; presumably the new statue would be of a World War I soldier rather than a Civil War soldier. That proposal went nowhere.

A rendering of the memorial flagpole proposed to replace the statue

Another proposal, to replace the soldier with a memorial flagpole, was presented by five residents of Huntington to the trustees of the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Association at their January 6, 1920 meeting. The reported reason for the change was to have “something more aesthetic;” although one wonders if, in the aftermath of the devastation of the Great War, the proposal was spurred by a desire for something that was less militaristic, something that perhaps did not glorify war as much as a statue of a soldier. The proposal included a watercolor rendering of the flagpole.

As recorded in the Association’s minutes: “A majority of the members present were opposed to the change.”

And, of course, today the statue remains.