Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

A Civil War memorial on Public Square, with all 9,000 Cuyahoga veterans named

Address 3 Public Square

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument is the southeast corner of Public Square — a 125-foot granite column topped by a bronze figure representing Liberty, dedicated in 1894 to the men of Cuyahoga County who fought in the Civil War. The column is encircled by four bronze sculptural groups depicting each branch of the Union forces.

The interior chamber, which is open to visitors free of charge, holds the bronze "tablets of memory" inscribed with all 9,000 county veterans' names. The atmosphere is unexpectedly moving — quiet, dimly lit, intricately worked. A handful of artefacts from the period are displayed in glass cases.

Open daily; admission free.

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Inside the granite chamber under the column, every one of the 9,000 men from Cuyahoga County who served in the Civil War is named on the bronze walls — including a depiction of Abraham Lincoln in which the President is shown holding the Emancipation Proclamation and, very unusually, a sword: thought to be the only public sculpture in the United States to show Lincoln armed.

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