Connecticut's Civil War Monuments

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Hillside Cemetery
56 North Main Street
Terryville in Plymouth, CT

Dedicated: Date unknown, perhaps early
Type: Stone obelisk with bronze plaques covering pedestal
Height: Approximately 19'

SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Hillside Cemetery, Terryville in Plymouth, is significant historically because of its possible early date as a Civil War monument. It may be one of the three or four earliest Civil War monuments in the state. No information on its origins is known, but in local tradition it vies with nearby SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Bristol, 1866, as to which came first. The date of 1865 which appears on the 1983 bronze plaque is an approximation. In 1983 bronze plaques were mounted to replace and cover the original lettering in the stone, which became illegible.

SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Terryville in Plymouth, is significant artistically because of its simplicity, suggesting that it is of an early date. Its configuration of pedestal with lettering and obelisk is similar to that of SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Kensington in Berlin, 1863, and MONUMENT, Northfield in Litchfield, 1866.

SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Terryville in Plymouth, is located on the highest hill in the gently rolling 10-acre landscape of Hillside Cemetery. A companion steel flagpole is 10 feet to the northeast. Terryville men who died in the Civil War are memorialized.

A well-proportioned plinth supports the base of the pedestal. Ogee moldings facilitate the transition to the dado, on which the 33 1/2" x 30 1/2" bronze plaques from 1983 are mounted. Ogee and scotia moldings carry the transition to the obelisk shaft, which has a low pyramidal top.

The origin of the stone is not known. The plinth is gray granite while the pedestal and obelisk appear to be a relatively soft speckled tan/pink stone with some characteristics of marble, perhaps conducive to the deterioration in legibility of lettering which prompted the 1983 bronze plaques.

A number of related graves surround the monument. To the southeast is a row of six flush granite stones, 12" x 24", each with name, unit, the words CIVIL WAR, and year of death. At least one name is the same as on the dado. To the northeast are 12 similar stones identified as WORLD WAR, GOLD STAR MOTHER, WIFE. To the northwest are 11 more CIVIL WAR graves. The similarity of the stones for both Civil War and World War suggests that all stones (not necessarily the graves) were put in place after World War I. Use of the term Civil War also suggests a 20th-century date.

Front (southwest) face of pedestal base, raised caps:

    Above, dado, bronze plaque:

Southeast dado face:

Northeast:

     Northwest pedestal base, bronze plaque, raised caps:

    Above, dado:

Matthew Malley, Plymouth Municipal Historian, and Terry T. Baldwin, Keeper of Cemeteries, interviews, November 5, 1993.

Francis J. Ryan, Plymouth, Conn., 1776-1976 (privately printed, 1976), p. 97