Connecticut's Civil War Monuments

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Connecticut's Monuments: an essay
Purpose of Monuments

Purpose of Monuments || Monument Designs || Artists & Sculptors || Dedication Ceremonies || Conclusion

Even before the Civil War, the James G. Batterson firm in Hartford, primarily in the cemetery monument business, was producing monuments of the concept and scale that would dominate the Civil War monument field. Batterson's 1854 work for the American School for the Deaf, Hartford, was a marble pedestal and obelisk with surmounting sphere. (See SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT, West Haven, for a similar sphere finial.) The dado was embellished with a bas-relief. The obelisk was marked midway by a horizontal band that was to be adopted as the standard location for battle names in many Civil War monuments. In 1857 Batterson supplied the Worth monument at Broadway and 5th Street, New York City, a major work. His ca.1864 Samuel Colt Monument, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, consisted of a granite die, granite column, and bronze figure sculpted by Randolph Rogers, the whole being 40-odd feet high. With this experience, Batterson was well-positioned to capitalize on the unprecedented demand throughout the state in the decades following the Civil War for monuments of such size and artistic ambition.

James Goodwin Batterson (1823-1901) grew up in the community of New Preston in the Town of Washington, Connecticut, where his father owned a marble yard. Washington was the location of marble quarries in an area of the state known as "Marble Valley." At age 23 James G. Batterson established himself in Hartford as proprietor of a stoneyard producing cemetery monuments and as an importer and dealer in stone. In addition to operating his prosperous monument and stone supply businesses, Batterson was a building contractor. His most famous project was the Connecticut State Capitol of 1873-1878. In his European travels as a stone importer, Batterson observed the practice of selling life insurance along with railroad tickets. He adapted the idea to the United States by establishing, in 1864, Travelers Insurance Company, of which he was president for many years. He was also president of Hartford Silver Plating Company. Batterson was active in politics as a leader in the Republican party. Altogether, he was a powerful and successful figure in the world of business and public affairs.

Batterson's stonecutting shop at Hartford, CT. Charles Conrads is second from the right. Courtesy of The Connecticut Historical Society

So far as concerns Batterson's stone company, city directories show that the names and Hartford addresses over the years were as follows:

• 1846 - James G. Batterson, marble manufacturer, 323 Main Street
• 1847 - 323 & 335 Main Street
• 1854 - Batterson's Steam Marble Works, 335 Main Street
• 1856 - Batterson's Monumental Works, 650 Main Street
• 1870 - Batterson & Canfield Company, ¹⁹ 650 Main Street
• 1875 - New England Granite Works, successors to Batterson & Canfield Company [New England Granite Works was the best known and most used name. The company was incorporated June 16, 1871, listed in the Hartford directories through 1901, and dissolved June 16, 1926, 55 years to the day after it was formed.] ²⁰
• 1901- New England Granite Works, 1260 Main Street (change in street numbers) [General manager, Westerly]
• 1902 - New England Granite Works [Removed to New York City]

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Batterson brought to Hartford from New York City a young architect and Irish immigrant, George Keller (1842-1935), as designer of cemetery and other monuments. ²¹ Keller designed the monuments for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (1865-1869), and Antietam, Maryland (1867-1880), among many others, for the Batterson firm. He also drew plans, under the name of Batterson & Keller, for entry in the architectural competition for the Connecticut State Capitol. Keller opened his own office in 1872 to become Hartford's leading 19th-century architect. He designed Civil War monuments at Manchester, New Hampshire (1878-1879); Buffalo, New York (1882-1884); Hartford (1884-1886); Brooklyn, New York (project, 1888); and Utica, New York (1891); and for MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK, Cornwall Hollow in Cornwall, Connecticut (1900). His most famous monument was Garfield National Memorial, Cleveland, Ohio (1884-1890).

When Keller arrived in Hartford, he found already in the employ of Batterson as house sculptor Charles (sometimes called Carl) Conrads (1839-1920), for whom Keller eventually designed a house. ²² Born in Breisig, Germany, Conrads earned a diploma from the Koeniglich Bayerische Akademie der Bildenden Kunste ²³ before coming to New York City in 1860. After serving in the Union Army from March 3, 1861, to June 1, 1863, Conrads was brought to Hartford at the end of the war by Batterson, as was Keller, as part of the firm's preparation for participation in the postwar demand for cemetery and other monuments. Conrads modeled statues of Alexander Hamilton, Central Park, New York City, and General Sylvanus Thayer, West Point, New York; a medallion of Daniel Webster for the west entrance of the National Capitol, Washington, D.C.; and figures of Daniel Webster and Horace Bushnell for the Connecticut State Capitol. Conrads worked for Batterson from 1866 to 1903.

In one transaction that was out of the ordinary because it involved another granite company, Conrads modeled a female allegorical figure, Morality, that was cut by Hallowell Granite Company, Hallowell, Maine. It was for the National Monument to the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, dedicated August 1, 1889. A bas-relief marble plaque, Embarkation, was part of the monument which was modelled by Conrads and cut by New England Granite Company. ²⁴

Conrads' seminal figure for the Antietam soldier was pictured in the catalog of the 1876 centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and was referred to in the accompanying text as the ponderous

'Antietam Soldier,' in granite, of which we give a steel engraving. Like the nation he defends, this colossus is in the bloom of youth, and like it he is hard and firm though alert....He is twenty-one feet six inches in height....Something rocky, rude and large-grained is obvious still in this stalwart American; his head, with its masculine chin and moustache of barbaric proportions, is rather like the Vatican 'Dacian' than like the Vatican 'Genius.' But whatever may be thought of the artistic delicacy of the model, Mr. Conrads' 'Soldier' presents the image of a sentinel not to be trifled with.... ²⁵

Having assembled the design staff he needed, Batterson addressed the question of assuring a steady source of raw material by acquiring granite quarries in Westerly, Rhode Island, and Concord, New Hampshire. ²⁶ Beginning in 1867 and continuing to the early 1870s, Batterson bought quarry properties in Westerly in association with a Westerly man, George Ledward, who had acquired land east of the quarries from the family of Orlando Smith. This enterprise became the Rhode Island Granite Works and was folded into New England Granite Works. Smith Granite Company continued in operation at the adjacent quarry and eventually, in 1924, bought the Batterson property. ²⁷

The Westerly quarries gave Batterson a good granite for monumental work. Fine-grained, hard, and tough, it was a light tan color, with variations or shades of tan such as those known in the trade as blue and red. The three shades may be seen in SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT, New London. Having acquired granite quarries, Batterson thereafter seldom supplied a monument of brownstone. ²⁸

In his other quarry acquisition, at Concord, New Hampshire, Batterson came into possession of a different stone, fine and light-colored, which he used primarily as a material for constructing buildings, rather than making monuments.

New England Granite Company began quarrying stone in Concord in 1889 by leasing from Sargent & Sullivan a quarry which it bought the following year. In the 1892 atlas, two New England Granite Company quarries (the second being the former Fuller quarry) show on the east side of Concord's Rattlesnake Hill; it was the largest quarry operation in the region. ²⁹ Stone from the two quarries, Concord and Westerly, sometimes was mixed on a job, for instance in the construction of the Providence, Rhode Island, City Hall, and Concord granite was often cut at Westerly. ³⁰ New England Granite Company sold its Concord real estate to Granite State Quarries Company in 1923. ³¹

Another chief source of monumental granite was the region of Barre, Vermont, which produced a light gray, almost white, stone of fine grain used primarily for cemetery and monument work. It was popular for Civil War monuments and was much used by other Connecticut firms, including Maslen, McGovern, Fox-Becker, and Phillips, as noted below. Batterson apparently never used Barre stone. Other sources were the quarries at Quincy, Massachusetts, for a darker gray color; Munson, Massachusets, for an intense dark gray color; and Stony Greek, Connecticut, for a speckled red granite.

Batterson had stonecutting shops in both Hartford and Westerly. (Figures 5 and 6) Quarries often shipped finished work, that is, pieces with all the stone cutting, especially figures, done at the quarry, except for lettering. Lettering, mostly for cemetery monuments, was done at local shops. It may be that Batterson's Hartford shop did more shaping of stone and creation of figures than most.

Batterson was also active in New York City at an early date, establishing a steam marble works there under the name of Batterson & Eisele, perhaps in 1860. ³² The adaptation of steampower to finishing stone made it possible to create smooth polished surfaces economically. (When a polished granite surface is incised with lettering, it is difficult to read, but the process is efficient as contrasted with traditional raised lettering.) Batterson claimed to have invented a lathe for polishing granite columns. ³³ Application of steampower to stone finishing was a great step forward, and was followed at the turn of the century by another important technological advance, the arrival of pneumatic tools, which greatly reduced the labor in stonecutting.

The first New York City address for New England Granite Company was 207 Broadway, the address of Travelers Insurance Company, but by 1882 the granite company was in its own office at 1319 Broadway, with marble yard at 433 Seventh Avenue. From 1888 through 1902 the marble yard was at 425-431 Eleventh Avenue, under the name of New England Monument Company.

The Eisele name appears as late as 1891. As a Hartford connection, the name Charles B. Canfield (1830-1908), of Batterson & Canfield, is used also in 1882. Apparently Canfield continued to work for Batterson in New York City until his death. The 1908 directory lists New England Granite Company at 489 Fifth Avenue. In 1911 James G. Batterson, Jr., and John Eisele reappear at the Times Building and 489 Fifth Avenue. James G. Batterson, granite, was at 489 Fifth Avenue in 1921. The nature and extent of the business conducted in New York City are not clear. Canfield's obituary recounts that he oversaw the putting in place of a sarcophagus of General Ulysses S. Grant at the Riverside Drive tomb in 1897. ³⁴ The presence of a yard suggests the conduct of a retail cemetery monument business. Perhaps more importantly, the New York City office may have had oversight of imports, wholesale transactions to the trade, and sale of building stone.

Batterson started his long and highly successful career in the world of business and affairs in the stone trade. He continued the stone businesss as one of his activities throughout his life, although Travelers Insurance Company became a far larger enterprise. His broad range of interests included artistic and intellectual aspirations as well; for example, he considered himself an Egyptologist. He was a vigorous and perceptive art collector; after his death his paintings became a valuable component of the collections of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

In addition, Batterson thought of himself as a creative artist, a status for which he constantly sought recognition. He frequently described himself as a sculptor and architect. As early as 1850 a Cleveland newspaper announced that "James Batterson, sculptor of Hartford, Conn., will be in town for five days to show his extensive collection of beautiful designs for marble mantles, sepulchral monuments, baptismal fonts, pulpits, etc." ³⁴⁵ At SOLDIER'S MONUMENT, Granby, the figure is signed J.G. Batterson, Sculpt. He submitted drawings for the Connecticut State Capitol building as the work of himself as architect, along with George Keller. Maura Harway says that as a young man Batterson worked in his father's marble yard "as a stone cutter", ³⁶ without giving a source. Donald Martin Reynolds uses glowing terms in referring to Batterson's artistic capabilities, ³⁷ with the unequivocal statement that he designed monuments, again without giving sources.

Despite such references, it seems likely that Batterson's contributions in the artistic fields of sculpture and architecture were primarily entrepreneurial. In George Keller's analysis,

It is a weakness in some men to prefer being considered an authority on subjects of which they possess not a smattering, rather than to be recognized as a leader in their own field of usefulness. Batterson was one of these and seemed to crave being more thought of as a classical scholar and as an art connoisseur than for what he really was, a far seeing business man and organizer of profitable enterprises, with the faculty of selecting those best fitted to assist him in promoting his own ends. ³⁸

However his skills may be defined, there is no doubt that James G. Batterson was the single most important force in the history of Connecticut Civil War monuments.

The properties that Batterson acquired in Westerly from George Ledward were adjacent to the granite quarries discovered on the Babcock farm in 1846 by Orlando Smith (d.1859), a stonecutter of Pawcatuck, a community in the town of Stonington, Connecticut, just across the state line from Westerly. ³⁹ After Smith's death, the quarry business was continued by his estate, during which time part of the property to the northeast was sold to George Ledward, who subsequently sold to Batterson. The Smith family continued in the quarry business for four generations. As was customary, in addition to quarrying the stone, Smith had facilities and skilled artistic personnel to shape and cut the stone into finished figures and monuments. These men and their equivalents at quarries throughout New England were the unsung heroes of the trade. Mostly anonymous, they did the work. The documented history of the Westerly quarry industry, dominated by Smith Granite Company and New England Granite Works, is exceptional in that the names and lives of these men, usually unidentified, were recorded and the record preserved.

The record is in two forms. First is Macomber's Story of Westerly Granite, which, in addition to summarizing the industry's history, with illustrations, lists names by skills, such as management, architects and designers, stonecutters, clay and plaster modelers, letterers, polishers, blacksmiths, etc. Biographical sketches are included of the chief creative men, the modelers. The 38-page publication gives, so far as is known to this writer, unique insight into the industry and the lives of those associated with quarries.

The second segment of the unusual records of Westerly is the order books dating from 1882 to 1955 in the possession of Isaac Gallup Smith, Jr., great-grandson of Orlando Smith. The order books show for each job the client's name, source of the order, sketch of the piece, dimensions, type of stone, date, price, and names of those who worked on the job. Due to the fact that Smith interests re-acquired the Batterson properties, the records held by Isaac Gallup Smith, Jr., include work turned out by both Smith and Batterson. I.G. Smith, Jr., is creating a computerized data base of information from the order books.

The overall amount of work turned out by Smith was vast. More than 60 Smith Granite Company monuments are on the Gettysburg battlefield alone. At Antietam Smith erected an obelisk to the 16th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, at a cost, to the state, of $1,000 in 1894. ⁴⁰

New England Granite Works and Smith Granite Company were the two principal suppliers of Connecticut Civil War monuments which owned quarries. Contribution from the quarry at Stony Creek, Connecticut, was limited, so far as is known, to a portion of SOLDIER'S MONUMENT, Guilford, while the Waterford quarry simply does not appear in the record. Other Connecticut suppliers were local monument firms which were dealers and stonecutters, mostly of cemetery monuments. The firm in this group with the longest history was Thomas Phillips & Son of New Haven, which was in business from the mid-19th century to ca.1990.

The Phillips records are now at the library of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. As received, the records consisted of more than 30 boxes of orders and correspondence, 10 boxes of index cards, and about two dozen ledgers. Phillips and other firms of the type were stonecutters as well as dealers, but whether they produced in their own shops pieces as large as Civil War monuments is uncertain. Phillips, for example, was a dealer for Smith Granite Company in supplying SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Wallingford, but on the other hand apparently cut the large SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Watertown. The fully detailed drawing for Watertown and the accompanying notes naming the men who executed the various components of the work, and what they were paid, constitute the most complete documentation of the creation of a Connecticut Civil War monument by any of the dealer/stonecutter group of suppliers. SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Watertown, does not have a figure; whether Phillips, or any Connecticut dealer/stonecarver, could have produced a figure is problematical, although Phillips did carve the Governor Theophilus Eaton cenotaph from a 10-ton block of Massachusetts brownstone. ⁴¹

Stephen Maslen (1845-1909) conducted a monument business in Hartford from ca.1870 to about the time of his death. ⁴² The firm was continued by Karl J. Beij (d.1934), whose silent partner was William Williams. John Zito (d.1989) became the owner in 1943, and the company continues as Beij, Williams & Zito. ⁴³ The Maslen records are in possession of the present owners. The Maslen order books show sketches with measurements, prices, and other details for several Connecticut Civil War monuments, including GRIFFIN A. STEDMAN MONUMENT, Barry Square, Hartford. In addition, for STEDMAN, there is a photograph of a model of the monument. It is one of two known models for Connecticut Civil War monuments, the other being model of SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MEMORIAL ARCH, Hartford, at the Harret Beecher Stowe Center library.

The Maslen sketch of SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Suffield, is for the pedestal, without the figure, suggesting that Maslen may have cut the pedestal and bought the figure. Maslen's order book for 1904, page 321, records particulars of his CIVIL WAR MONUMENT, West Hartford. The Maslen records constitute an important primary source of information about Connecticut Civil War monuments.

McGovern Granite Company of Hartford used Barre, Vermont, as an address as well, probably indicating an arrangement with a Barre quarry rather than ownership of a quarry there. McGovern also used the services of a New York City designer, Franklin J. Naylor, with whom there was collaboration on WARREN SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Stafford Springs in Stafford, and WAR MEMORIAL MONUMENT, Newtown. For further details on McGovern, see SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Unionville in Farmington.

Middletown's Fox-Becker Granite Company also did stonecutting, employed designers (Frank Swanson of Manchester was one), and claimed a Barre address, but whether the firm cut its Civil War monuments in Middletown is unclear, and probably unlikely. The business is continued today as Fox-Becker-Sterry Monuments. The statement is made that old records have been preserved, but thus far nothing has been made available for research. Fox-Becker printed a leaflet describing and picturing some of its work, with letters from satisfied customers, notably the committee for SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Seymour. Phillips prepared a similar brochure, which featured its SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Watertown, along with many cemetery monuments. These advertising pieces are the closest items to "catalogs" to be identified. There are 20th-century references to 19th-century selection of Civil War monuments from catalogs, but there are no 19th-century references to such catalogs, and no catalog is known to exist.

Monumental Bronze Company, Bridgeport, was neither a quarry nor a stone dealer, but rather a foundry. Its specialty was casting zinc, to which it applied the name white bronze. A history of its operations is given at SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, Stratford. White bronze as an alternate to stone for monumental use was an oddity. The product has stood up well over the years, except in the largest examples, such as Stratford, where the weight of the metal seems to exceed the weight the metal can support; the compression strength of the wall is inadequate to hold up the weight of the structure above. In addition to zinc, Monumental Bronze Company also cast bronze. ⁴⁴

Castings made in Bridgeport were shipped to subsidiaries elsewhere in the Northeast and Canada, where they were assembled. The surface of the metal received a proprietary treatment, still unidentified, which gave the gray zinc an effective and permanent stone-like appearance and texture. Monumental Bronze Company made a variety of art objects of various sizes. See JOHN BENSON MARKER, Stratford, for a small grave marker embossed with the standard soldier at parade rest and the term (colored).

Monumental Bronze Company was the only known Connecticut foundry to supply castings for Connecticut Civil War monuments, but Ames Bronze Foundry in Chicopee, Massachusetts, was, like Smith Granite Company, nearby. Ames was represented by the sculptor Melzar H. Mosman, whose career in association with the foundry is outlined at SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Bridgeport, and SOLDIER'S MONUMENT, Union Park, Middletown. Other identified foundries are nationally known firms, including Gorham Company of Providence and New York City, Maurice J. Power and Henry-Bonnard of New York City, and Albert Russell & Sons of Newburyport, Massachusets. An occasional figure is unidentified, as WILCOX SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Madison, and most plaques do not carry a founder's name. In any event, bronze as a material in Connecticut Civil War monuments was secondary to granite.

In some instances the architect or sculptor held the contract to supply a Civil War monument, but such details are not always spelled out. It appears that Moffit & Doyle were the contractors for SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, East Rock Park, New Haven, and George E. Bissell was the contractor for SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Waterbury, the sculptors sub-contracting the stone and foundry work. George Keller was the contractor for some of his monuments. What the arrangement was at WINCHESTER SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Crown Street, Winsted in Winchester, where Bissell was the sculptor and Robert W. Hill the architect, is not clear; the records are not available. At SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, New Britain, on the other hand, the record is quite clear: the committee kept control, recording the amount it paid to architect Ernest Flagg, the stone contractor, and others. Melzar H. Mosman at SOLDIER'S MONUMENT, Middletown, and SOLDIERS MONUMENT, Bridgeport, had a different situation, since in addition to being a sculptor, he also represented the foundry. Presumably he sublet the stone work.

Marble for use as a material in Connecticut Civil War monuments was even less of a factor than bronze. GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON MONUMENT, Eastford, tellingly demonstrates the reasons not to use marble outdoors. The stone is discolored, crumbling, sugaring, covered with bacteriological growth, etc. Presumably some marbles are harder than others and this is a soft specimen, but, in addition, the immediate site must be considered. LYON is in a setting of heavy vegetation surrounded by nearby trees, a circumstance conducive of high moisture that, combined with neglect, bodes ill for a soft stone. RETURNED SOLDIER, Rocky Hill, which has received care over the years, is a more successful use of marble, with its edges reasonably crisp and surfaces fairly sound after a century and a quarter, but perhaps now it should be moved indoors as a conservation measure. PRO PATRIA, Litchfield, is an example midway between the other two.

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