The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument - Cleveland, Ohio

05/30/2026

Please check out the livestream of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument's traditional Decoration Day ceremony! It can be found at the address in the first comment

TTRADITIONAL DECORATION DAY (MEMORIAL DAY) SERVICEMay 30, 2026CUY...

05/30/2026

Please join us today at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument as we hold our traditional Decoration Day ceremony at the monument. This ceremony honors the original, Civil War inspiration of Memorial Day, and features a reading of General Order No. 11 from the G.A.R., which first laid out the ideas and traditions we now associate with Memorial Day. We will also have noted speeches, presenting of wreathes, and the playing of Taps. Join us as we honor service men and woman from the Civil War and all our nations conflicts who gave their lives in our defense.

05/29/2026

A reminder to please join us tomorrow morning at 11 AM for our traditional Decoration Day ceremony, held on Public Square at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. This ceremony honors the Civil War-era inspiration for the modern Memorial Day holiday. For more information please check out our website at www.soldiersandsailors.com

05/25/2026

We here at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument honor and remember all those who have given their lives in service to this nation. We especially remember the over 1,100 Cuyahoga County men who lost their lives during the American Civil War. The monument is open today from 10 AM to 5:30 PM and our traditional Decoration Day ceremony will be this Saturday, May 30.

05/23/2026

Please join us one week from today as we honor those who fell in our nation's service with our traditional Decoration Day Service. This even honors the Civil War origins of Memorial Day, which we continue to hold on its original date of May 30th. The ceremony will take place from 11 AM to 12 PM on the northwest steps of the monument.

05/18/2026

The Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi began on this date in 1863, the culmination of six months of campaigning by Major General Ulysses Grant's Army of the Tennessee. The capture of Vicksburg was seen as vital to the Federal war effort, and after several attempts were turned back in the winter and spring, Grant took his army well to the south of Vicksburg and crossed the Mississippi River and headed inland. Facing rebel defenders at several points along the campaign, Grant's forces won those engagements and forced the rebels back into the city of Vicksburg itself.

What followed was over six weeks of siege warfare, punctuated by major Federal attacks May 19 and May 22, as well as a mine detonated under rebel lines on June 25th. Ultimately it would not be Federal bullets but starvation that decided the siege, as rebel forces were unable to procure food. Vicksburg was surrendered on July 4th, 1863, and coupled with the capture of Port Hudson, Louisiana a week or so later gave Federal authorities complete control of the Mississippi River. The Confederacy was effectively cut in two and General Ulysses Grant's star rose even higher.

05/14/2026

When Levi Scofield wrote his chapter for "Personal Reminiscences and Experiences by Members of the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Campaign Life in the Union Army from 1862 to 1865" in the year 1900, he focused on the creation of "The Color Guard" statue at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. The entire monument was a meaningful labor of love by Scofield, but he paid special attention to "The Color Guard", as it depicted the men who fell carrying and defending the flag of the 103rd at the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, on May 14, 1864. Because of the difficulty of obtaining photographs of the men of the color guard that day, Scofield chose to make seven of the nine figures shown to be more representative of types of soldiers rather than specific men. He did make two exceptions seemingly; one was the color sergeant Martin Streibler, who we have talked about before on this page. The other name mentioned was Andrew Clingman, who is depicted laying on the ground on the eastern side of the statue grouping.

Andrew Clingman was born in a rather unusual location; his parents were German immigrants who both traveled to Cape Town, now in South Africa. They married there in 1845 but soon left Cape Town for the United States. Andrew was born during trans-Atlantic crossing, and the family eventually arrived in Cleveland. When he enlisted in 1862 he joined then-2nd Lieutenant Levi Scofield's Company E and it is quite probable that Scofield even personally recruited Clingman as it is known that Scofield was on recruiting duty at that time.

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05/12/2026

17-year-old Thomas Galwey, a lieutenant in Company B of the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was shook awake in the pre-dawn hours of May 12, 1864, near Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. Galwey was already witness to some of the bloodiest and deadliest battles of the Civil War, from the Sunken Road of Antietam to Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg to the repulse of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. More recently he had survived a massive bloodletting just a week or so previous at the Battle of the Wilderness. Now he lined up with several thousand men of the Second Army Corps, awaiting orders to advance.

The attack planned was a larger version of one attempted on the stout rebel defenses just a few day previous on May 10. At that time, 1,200 Federal troops had broken into rebel lines in a sudden pre-dawn attack, only falling back when supports failed to show up. Now the Federal high command would repeat the surprise, only with 15,000 men instead of 1,200. At first the attack was a stunning success, overrunning large portions of the rebel lines and capturing nearly 3,000 prisoners. Galwey and the 8th Ohio were in the reserve lines and only came up the rebel works after the initial charge. However, the battle was far from over.

Soon rebel troops counterattacked and in a pouring rain the two sides settled down to a combat of a ferocity seldom seen during the Civil War. For the next 12 hours the two sides brutally attacked each other, with the lines at times being only separated by a wall or fence. As Galwey later wrote "Nothing can describe the confusion, the savage blood- curdling yells, the murderous faces, the awful curses, super- human hardihood, and the grisly horror of the melee! Of all the battles I took part in, Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania exceeded all the rest in stubbornness, ferocity, and in carnage." The rebels eventually retreated, but only to a new line that still blocked the Federal advance. By the following morning nearly 17,000 casualties had fallen around an area now called "The Bloody Angle".

05/09/2026

Please join the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument for our annual Veterans' Mental Health Fair, held today at the monument on Public Square! The event brings together resources and groups in one place and will take place from 10 AM to 2 PM, rain or shine! For more information and a list of vendors please check out https://www.soldiersandsailors.com/news-events/veterans-mental-health-fair

05/05/2026

Berea native William Stearns had already experienced a year of warfare in May 1864, having seen bloody fighting at Chickamauga and Chattanooga with the 5th Company, Ohio Sharpshooters. In February William was promoted to the command of the newly formed 9th Company, Ohio Sharpshooters, joining them in Cleveland. Almost as soon as they were formed the 9th Company, along with the 10th Company, were attached to 60th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and sent to join the Ninth Army Corps, which was preparing for the upcoming spring campaign.

That campaign kicked off on May 5th, 1864, when the Army of the Potomac and the Ninth Corps ran into the rebel Army of Northern Virginia in the so-called Wilderness, a wild and overgrown area of tangled woods. For two days the massive armies struggled through this terrain, with both sides suffering major casualties. However, the 60th Ohio must have done well, as they were singled out for special praise in the after-action reports by their division commander, who wrote "Among the old Regiments who all did gloriously, it would be difficult to single out the one which distinguished itself the most; of the new Regiments, the 60th, Ohio, which led the advance finely, is entitled to honorable mention."

William Stearns served with the 9th Company for several more months before being promoted to major of the 60th Ohio. He was discharged in April 1865 as the war came to a close, but remained active in veterans' affairs and was president of the 60th Ohio Regimental Association at the turn of the 20th Century. He became a banker in Berea before moving to Midland, Michigan and eventually Bradenton, Florida. He passed away there at age 92 in 1922, but is buried in Woodvale Cemetery in Middleburg Heights.