 Monument Honoring Civil War Veterans Located at Riverside Cemetery
This monument honoring the area’s Civil War veterans of the Union Army and Navy is located in the southern section of Aberdeen’s Riverside Cemetery. It was dedicated on May 30, 1905--the result of a 10-year fundraising effort by Aberdeen’s Women’s Relief Corps of Post #18 of the Grand Army of the Republic, (G.A.R.), an organization of and for Civil War veterans.
The life-sized figure of a Civil War soldier is mounted on a solid granite base which is 11 feet square and four feet deep. The total height of the monument is 21 feet. Aberdeen Granite Company constructed the monument of “Ortonville granite” for a cost of $1,500.00! The ladies were a few dollars short of this amount just prior to the 1905 ceremony, so they operated a soda fountain at a local drug store to earn the addition money.
Nearly 2000 people gathered at the cemetery for the unveiling ceremony which featured speeches, musical selections by area bands and vocal groups, and military rituals. Local veterans of both the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, political figures of the day, and area citizens paraded through the streets of Aberdeen prior to being transported to the cemetery by horse-drawn carriages. The parade re-formed outside the cemetery where the participants marched to the monument area to view the unveiling of this massive statue which bears the inscription “Mustered Out: Liberty has been bought at a great price. The unselfish workers of the country. They are beyond the reach of honors. Dedicated May 30, 1905.”
Today, the monument is surrounded by thirty-five graves of veterans of the Union Army. There are 53 other Civil War veterans buried throughout Riverside Cemetery including one officer from the Confederate States Cavalry.
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