What is a Monument?

After I'm dead,  I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.

--- Marcus Porcius Cato (the Elder 234 BC - 149 BC) ----

The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Department of Missouri, is committed to helping maintain the historic monuments, markers, and plaques honoring Union soldiers, Union and Confederate Soldiers, and/or those containing significant text about the Civil War.  However, not everything is a monument or marker.
 
Tombstones are not monuments! Cemeteries often have grandiose tombstones to the deceased that appear to be monuments, but are really not.  Grand Army of the Republic posts (such as in the case of Gen. John McNeil) or comrades in arms (as in the case of Major James Wilson) or soldiers honoring someone else (as in the case of Willie Sherman) sponsored the erection of  true monuments over graves.  Family tombstones are not monuments, no matter how grand they are.  So, strangely, General W.T. Sherman's young son has a monument in St. Louis over his grave (pictured below left) , but his more famous father does not (picture right)!   Those are monuments within our definition.  This does not mean that we are not interested in the tombstones of soldiers, that is simply another program (graves registration) and this one is about monuments.  Also, to remember a person, battle, group of people or something else, there can be other types of monuments.  Stain glass windows, buildings, flagpoles, cannons, cemetery gates and more can be monuments worthy of inclusion in our records.
 
Another concern is that the monument, marker, or plaque represents the true history of the incident commemorated or be of a patriotic nature.  As such, monuments that posit a one-sided, self-serving interpretation of the war are not patriotic and are not recorded by us.   
 
Finally, the Sons of Confederate Veterans maintain a listing of monuments, markers, and plaques sponsored by the United Confederate Veterans and Daughters of Confederate Veterans and their allied orders.  Our listing does not, normally,  duplicate their efforts.  For information on Confederate monuments and markers in Missouri visit: http://www.missouridivision-scv.org/monument.htm
 
If you come across a monument, marker, or plaque that may qualify for listing in our program or in need of repair, please contact Walt Busch, Dept of Missouri SUVCW Monuments Officer, at [email protected]. Please provide as much information as you can especially about the location and a member of the SUV will check it out as soon as it can be arranged.

Note:  The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War has a program honoring the last surviving veteran of the war for each county in a state by placing a marker on his grave site.  This practice falls somewhere between a monument and a tombstone.  The SUVCW has determined that the Monuments & Memorials Officer should maintain records of these and therefore they are included in his records.

Missouri's Civil War and G.A.R. Monuments

Picture
The 2011Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Sesquicentennial Event at the Grant Monument, Ste. Marie Du Lac Catholic Church, Ironton, MO.--

The location where Colonel U.S. Grant received notification that he had become a Brigadier-General
​photo by Cher Petrovic, used with permission