Myth Immortalized in Stone: Maine’s Legendary War Monument

Jillian Dorazio

While the York Village Soldiers’ monument seems mundane, it carries a legacy of fascination and mystery. Nestled in the center of the triangular intersection of Route 1-A and Long Sands Road, a twentieth century style infantryman stands atop a base of granite, seemingly supervising the rather complicated traffic pattern. Etched into the base of Massachusetts granite reads a principal inscription, detailing the year the statue was erected, 1906. Its dedication is addressed to the “sons of York who served their country in Army and Navy for preservation of the Union 1861-1865” (“Maine’s Civil War Monuments”). However, nearly 120 years after its dedication, conflicting reports, an ambiguous recorded history, and a general lack of historical understanding have pushed the war monument into conspiratorial intrigue, boosting the small-town memorial into national curiosity.

Aside from its complex and ambiguous history, the monument is impressive and visually striking. Gazing at the polished, well-kept stone, spectators are typically oblivious to the age and muddled controversy surrounding the memorial. The creation and approval of the York Village’s Soldiers’ Monument can be traced back to the early twentieth century. A group of Civil War veterans known as the York, Maine Soldiers’ Monument Committee ordered a monument to be serviced in 1905. The project is a product of the Frederick Barnicoat Workshop in Quincy, Massachusetts. Its sculptor, after receiving fifty dollars, set the statue upon its foundation of Medium Quincy Granite. The memorial features three bases going up the monument to its statue of the soldier.

The York Village Soldiers’ Monument, 2018. Courtesy Michael Dow.

Competing information from experts, like Tony Horwitz, Michael Dow, and Luthor Hanson, has confused the public’s understanding of the monument and created conflicting reports about the soldier’s identity. Upon his visit to the South Carolinian town Kingstree in the 1990s, Horwitz unraveled New England’s own Confederate controversy. Horwitz cited local newspapers writing of an “AWOL soldier found deep behind enemy lines” (107). Essentially, Kingstree residents argued that their monument bore a closer resemblance to “Billy Yank,” the archetype of the Union soldier. Conversely, the paper continued by highlighting the small seacoast community of York, Maine. Residents of the New England town allegedly reported that their soldiers’ monument looked similar to a Confederate Colonel; Horwitz, after inspecting the Southern memorial, noted the peculiarity of the soldier’s “short hair and trim mustache,” as well as his cap held by his side and his knapsack on his back (109). The Northern monument, in contrast, features a soldier in a slouch hat, haversack strewn over his shoulder, as well as longer facial hair, deemed a “textbook Confederate” (109). The uniform of the York monument is unfamiliar to the untrained eye; given the memorial’s inscription that explicitly references the American Civil War, townsfolk have concluded that the attire of the infantryman must be modeled after Civil War era uniforms. Because of this generalization, the public believes that the soldier more closely resembles a Rebel.

Ultimately, the legend goes that the York monument had been switched with a Confederate statue after a shipping error, and that neither had been returned to its rightful owner. Horwitz even writes that a York resident had attempted a “friendly exchange” of their monument for the statue in Kingstree, described as the “last two prisoners of war.” A Daughter of the Confederacy declines, expressing a fondness of Kingstree’s alleged “Yankee friend” (112). 

Michael Dow provides an alternative and more realistic explanation to the mystery: a vague recollection of history. Inconsistent records and transcripts during the monument’s creation and dedication keep rumors abundant in the tight-knit community of York. Colonel Charles Edward Banks, a historian capturing details of York in the 1930s, cited only one York resident survivor of the Civil War: Captain John Dennett. The elderly man kept the records detailing the monument’s historical information, leading Dow to consider the possibility that he could not correct Banks’ incorrect interpretation of the soldier’s uniform, given his age and rather unfortunate lack of vision. As a result, Dennett’s records may have falsely indicated that the statue specifically depicted a Union soldier, causing Banks to misinform the public in his historical account of York. 

While appropriate at the time, the contemporary design for the soldiers’ uniform has spurned historical fascination but also modern fallacies. A third source debunks  Horwitz’ theory of the two statues being switched at birth, while also supporting Dow’s belief of an honest mistake. The curator for the US Army Quartermaster Museum, Luthor Hanson, explains that York’s infantryman wears a uniform common during the most recent conflict at the time, the Spanish-American War (April - December 1898). Despite similarities to Rebel attire, Hanson confirms that the statue accurately depicts a soldier of this era “in proper uniform, campaign hat, haversack, and primer cap box” common to the “1899 - 1901 period” (Hanson, “There is…In York”). He continues by analyzing the musket the soldier holds firmly, validating its accuracy as weaponry of state militia until the 1904 Springfield became standard.

Ignorance of the intent behind the monument’s creation also leads to further confusion. Deliberate contemporary dressing of the soldier showed the committee’s extension of their tribute beyond those who served in the American Civil War. The statue honors a variety of soldiers who “served, fought and died” in the “Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the Boxer Rebellion” (Dow, “The Soldiers’... 2018”). The ceremony dedicating the monument was held on May 26, 1906, and featured Maine’s very own Civil War hero. General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain led the 20th Maine regiment to victory over Rebel forces at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863. As keynote speaker for the event, Chamberlain seemed to signify himself as a symbol of strength and resilience of the Union. Chamberlain was monumental in Maine history beyond efforts in the Civil War; he also served as the 32nd Governor of Maine, and President of Bowdoin College. 

Regardless of the seemingly turbulent history of truth surrounding the Soldiers’ Monument in York, Maine, one theme pervades any ongoing myth. Humanity, in response to phenomena that proves unfamiliar and complex, has a tendency to grasp onto easy, or, in this case, controversially intriguing explanations in the face of a much simpler reality. Ultimately, the case of York’s monument proves that history is a subject to be studied with great curiosity and open mindedness, as it can promote better understanding of our cultural fascinations and mysteries.

Works Cited

"Folk Lore." York, ME | Official Website, www.yorkmaine.org/380/Folk-Lore.

Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. 

Vintage, 2010.

"Maine's Civil War Monuments." Maine.gov, www.maine.gov/civilwar/monuments/york.html.

"The Soldiers' Monument April, 2018." York, ME | Official Website, www.yorkmaine.org/429/The-Soldiers-Monument-April-2018.

Staff Writer, Portsmouth Herald. "There is No Confederate Monument in York." Portsmouth 

Herald, 29 Jan. 2018, www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/portsmouth-herald/2018/01/29/there-is-no-confederatemonument/15387233007/.

Staff Writer, Portsmouth Herald. "York in American History: When and Why Our Soldiers’ Monument Was Erected." Portsmouth Herald, 21 July 2020, 

www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/history/2020/07/21/york-in-american-history-when-and-why-our-soldiersrsquo-monument-was-erected/113961208/.