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Civil War Monument:
Dedicated: May 30, 1892
Type: Embellished gray granite stele
Designer, fabricator, supplier: Miller & Luce
Height: 14'
The monument weighs 17 tons
A public subscription raised the first money for SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, Bethel, but it was only a few hundred dollars. A town meeting appropriated $1,000. Total cost of the monument and preparing the grounds came to about $17,000. Source of the additional funds is not known. Henry A. Gilbert was chairman of the monument committee and marshal of the dedication parade.
Bethel Cemetary Civil War Monument
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A special train from Danbury helped bring in the crowd of several thousand people on Dedication Day. Houses along the parade's route were decorated with flags and bunting. Danbury's James E. Moore Post, No. 18, Grand Army of the Republic, 75 strong, was followed in the line of march by Sons of Veterans, Bethel Drum Corps, Pavia Council, Knights of Columbus (28 men), and firemen's units. The Reverend Henry L. Slack and the Reverend George F. Waters made speeches. Their remarks praised the patriotism of those who fought, saying that the sons of Bethel were freemen compared to the slaves of Athens, the monument was dedicated to men and ideas rather than trade and barter, and the monument "shall suggest all that was best in the soldier's sacrifice, all that is prophetic in human liberty" (The [Danbury] Evening News, May 31, 1892).
The Monument Dedication Speech contained the following:
The stone was erected at the suggestion of surviving comrades, with the cooperation of the citizens of Bethel. It is intended that it shall commemorate the deeds of our men on land and sea. But the obverse face of the stone bears the names of thirteen men whose graves, so far as known, are unmarked, who were buried in the trench, in prison yards, or without camp. Bethel S. Barnum, Theodore Blackman and Richard B.Taylor fell at Gettysburg; Benedict at Petersburg; Grimm at Newport News; Lane, William Smith and Keeler died in service; Holly and Woodruff in Salesbury Prison. Individual tablets in this and other yards of the town perpetuate the names of Irarmus P. Woodman who fell at Chancellorsville; the gallant color-bearer Leonard D. Smith killed at Cedar Mountain; Dr. Lyon who died at Pt. Hudson, Louisiana; George Starr Ferry, who died while on furlough home; George Northrop mortally wounded on a skirmish line in Virginia.
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