late 1800s, early 1900s
Ohio’s American Civil War soldiers and civilians sought to commemorate the troopers’ devotion to and service with the United States by constructing monuments and other memorials.
During the American Civil War, Ohio provided the federal government with 260 regiments of men, including infantry, artillery, and cavalry units. Ohioans also served in several other regiments from other states, most notably from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Massachusetts, as well as in federal units. Almost 330,000 Ohio men, including 5,092 African Americans, served in the Union military during the conflict.
Ohio’s soldiers and civilians sought to commemorate the troopers’ devotion to and service with the United States by constructing monuments and other memorials. Ohioans completed the first of these commemorations during the Civil War, with hundreds more being built after the conflict. Ohioans have built at least 295 monuments to commemorate Civil War veterans, civilians, political leaders, and war-related events in the state. Eighty-six of the state’s eighty-eight counties contain Civil War monuments, with Hamilton County, Lucas County, Lorain County, Brown County, and Franklin County each boasting ten or more memorials each. Only Clinton County and Noble County do not contain Civil War monuments.
Following the Civil War, residents of Bridgeport, Ohio raised funds to construct a memorial to honor deceased Civil War veterans interred in the Weeks Cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place of dozens of Civil War veterans from the Bridgeport, Ohio and from the Wheeling, West Virginia area. The completed memorial consisted of a three-foot-tall granite base and a cannon located nearby. On the base of the monument is the following inscription: “Dedicated to the memory of all soldiers at rest in this cemetery.” The base may have had some sculpture on top of it, but if so, it no longer stands.
The memorial is in poor condition today. It is located in the Weeks Cemetery on Starlight Road in Bridgeport.
