The winner: Anne Bensard, Greenwood Village
Last week’s photo was the Civil War Monument and Memorial on the west side of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. The Union Soldier honors Colorado’s Civil War veterans, and the base of his monument features four plaques that list the names of soldiers and the battles in which they died. Also on the base is an acknowledgment of the “Unknown Dead.”
One to remember: Curt Neeley, Colorado Springs
Remember the Civil War heroes that the statue represents. One captured Confederate personal letter described them as “regular demons in the form of Pikes Peakers from the Denver City gold mines, against whom lead and iron had no effect.” They didn’t have the cavalry boots shown in the photo until after Chivington turned down promotion to general so as to get our Colorado Regiment mounted. In the desperate rush to reach and defend the massive supplies at Fort Union before the Reb Texans, the 1st Colorado marched the final 90 miles in 34 hours. Some of the men marched barefoot in the spring snows.
History lesson: Mindy Elswick, Englewood
Unlike many states, Colorado didn’t erect a monument to its Civil War volunteers until 1907, and didn’t add the names to the monument until the ’20s. Those names came from casualty lists and include every man who died while in the service, including a couple who were executed by a firing squad, one who was shot escaping a brawl at a bar in Denver and several who died of diseases unrelated to their military service. The legislature had to buy the list from the daughter of Col. George Shoup and didn’t look too closely at it!
