As noted in this space just a few weeks ago, the long line of Memorial Day services at a Baltimore County church uniquely dedicated to those who fought to end slavery and preserve the union will come to an end this Sunday morning.
The last service at Lansdowne Christian Church, 101 Clyde Ave., will commence at 10 a.m.
“After 123 years, the final Memorial Day service will be held in the only church in the United States dedicated to the memory of Union Civil War veterans,” says an announcement from the Chesapeake department of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. “Due to declining membership, the congregation will conclude its ministry and cease holding all services.”
Founded by Charles Hull, the Lansdowne church was dedicated to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a large, progressive and racially integrated organization of Union veterans that formed after the war and became a political power. The GAR pushed for voting rights for Black Americans and government pensions for veterans. It was the advocacy arm of the Republican Party (“the party of Lincoln”) and helped elect several presidents during the late 19th Century.
The GAR dissolved in 1956, after the last Civil War veteran died. But the services at Lansdowne went on every Memorial Day weekend. This Sunday’s will be the last.
I mention it because, given today’s political division and turmoil — among many depressing factors, the president’s support of the January 6 insurrectionists, some of whom carried Confederate flags — every American should reflect on our history, and on Memorial Day in a quiet, private way. The existential issues that the nation faced in the Civil War feel very much of the moment.
Think about those who came from northern towns and cities — from farms and factories — to fight and die to preserve the Constitution and the union of states. They should inspire a moment of awe and gratitude. Their sacrifices of the 19th Century should fuel our resolve to resist those who have damaged our democracy.
On Wednesday, I walked across a lawn of clover to make my annual pilgrimage to the one monument in Baltimore that honors the more than 65,000 Marylanders who fought for the Union in the Civil War.
The impressive Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument stands on the lawn near the 29th Street end of Wyman Park Dell. It’s a bold memorial to the citizens who became soldiers to save the Union and abolish slavery. The figure in bronze at the front is still in the process of buckling the belt on his uniform; he’s leaving his plow and anvil behind, heading off to battle. The figures behind him are the helmeted Bellona, goddess of war, and the winged Victory.
The sculptor was Adolph Alexander Weinman. The memorial’s dedication was in 1909. The inscription reads: “Erected by the state of Maryland to commemorate the patriotism and heroic courage of her sons who on land and sea fought for the preservation of the Federal Union in the Civil War, 1861-1865.”
A few years ago, I asked the Baltimore artist and sculptor Joseph Sheppard to give his critique of Weinman’s sculpture: “The movement of the soldier, with his cape flowing, is very much in the same style of contemporary sculptor Hans Schuler. He and Weinman were German-born Americans and influenced by the European Beaux-Arts movement. Weinman studied under Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was considered the most famous sculptor in America in the Beaux-Arts Movement. In my own work, where I often group people together, I’m always interested in how an artist works with several figures in a group — just as a dancer would in choreographing a group of dancers on a stage. A painter has to worry only about one view point. A sculptor has to think of at least three different viewpoints. I think that Weinman’s solution works.”
If you’re anywhere near Wyman Park Dell this Memorial Day weekend, you could stop by and have a look at the monument and think about the sacrifices that earlier Americans made to save the Union and end the evil of slavery. They should not be forgotten. They should be an inspiration.
Dan Rodricks writes weekly for Baltimore Fishbowl. He can be reached at djrodricks@gmail.com or via danrodricks.com
