Michigan Soldiers and Sailors Monument

The Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Detroit has historical significance as Michigan's foremost Civil War memorial, which was purchased by state citizens through voluntary subscription. In artistic terms, it is notable as one of the outstanding nineteenth-century public monuments and works of civic sculpture in Michigan, and as a major work of the eminent American sculptor Randolph Rogers (1825-1892), who spent some of his youth in Michigan.

The Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Detroit stands on a small traffic circle at the southeast tip of Campus Martius, an open park area established by the 1806-1807 City Plan of Judge Augustus B. Woodward. It stands at the intersection of five principal thoroughfares in the heart of Detroit's central business district. It is a massive Neo-Classical Revival structure of Westerly, Rhode Island granite with bronze figures. Set on an octagonal, stepped base, the monument consists of a relief and plaque-decorated, stepped, central pier, topped by a large female figure symbolic of Michigan; buttresses with allegorical and representational figures on upper- and lower-level pedestals at the four angles; and ground-level pedestals, each topped by a carved eagle, in the center of each of the four principal sides.