The Davenport Public Library will be closed Monday, May 27, in honor of those who gave their lives so that we could have the opportunity to live ours in freedom.
The Scott County Soldiers’ Monument was erected as a memorial to the Scott County soldiers who died in the Civil War, but over the years, it has become a reminder of all who have fought to defend our country.
It is built of a single piece of solid English granite on a foundation of Nauvoo stone. Fifty feet above the base is a pedestal with an eight-foot figure of an infantry soldier of 1861. On each side are bias relief panels with emblems representing the armed forces of the nation and eulogies for the fallen.
To the south is the United States coat of arms, and the words, “Erected by the citizens of Scott County, In Memory of the Fellow Citizens who Died in Defense of the Union 1861-1865.”
To the west, the sabers and revolvers of the cavalry, and the epitaph, “Proved themselves the Bravest of the Brave—General H. W. Halleck.”
To the east are the anchor and shot of the navy, with, “An Honor to their Friends at Home, to the State, and their Country.”
And to the north, the crossed cannons of the artillery and the quote of another of the fallen: “They died ‘That Government of the People by the People and for the People Might not Perish from the Earth’—A. Lincoln.”
