Sherman Monument, Grand Army Plaza

Unveiling the Sherman Monument at the northern section of The Plaza (later Grand Army Plaza) in Manhattan, in 1903. The Metropolitan Club of New York and other buildings on 60th Street and east side of Fifth Avenue is in the background. The Madison Trust Co. building was erected on the lot to the right. Photograph by Robert Louis Bracklow (1849-1919). Source: New-York Historical Society.

The Sherman Monument was dedicated on May 30, 1903, to William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 – 1891), appointed brigadier general of volunteers for the Union Army in 1861 and promoted to major general in 1862. Sherman distinguished himself in the Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns of 1863. He received the surrender of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston in 1865.

After Sherman’s death, members of the City’s Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to raise funds for a monument to the General. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848 – 1907) was commissioned by the committee to create the monument. The General posed at his New York residence for his Saint-Gaudens's bust in 1888. The sculpture of the horse was made by Alexander Phimister Proctor (1860-1950). The pedestal’s architect was Charles McKim and Harriette Eugenia Anderson, an African-American from Georgia, posed for the allegorical figure of peace leading Sherman.

During the construction of the new design of The Plaza, in 1915 -1916, the Sherman Monument was moved sixteen feet west to align with the Pulitzer Fountain.