Civil War Memorial (Adrian, Michigan)

The Civil War Memorial is a marble monument situated in the center of Memorial Park in Adrian, Michigan. The monument was designated as a Michigan Historic Site on August 13, 1971 and later added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 1972. It was unveiled on July 4, 1870 to commemorate soldiers from Adrian who died in the American Civil War (1861–1865).

History
The Civil War Memorial ties together the cities of Adrian and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The column used in the monument was originally one of the six marble columns on the eastern facade of the former Bank of Pennsylvania building in Philadelphia. The bank building and the column itself were built in 1799.

The Bank of Pennsylvania building, which was considered one of the first examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States, was demolished in 1868. With Congressional permission, one of the six columns was purchased by the city of Adrian from the bank prior to its destruction. It remains the only surviving piece of the original Bank of Pennsylvania building.

Design
Architect and sculptor Benjamin H. Latrobe created the monument at a cost of $10,000. The monument was unveiled in Memorial Park on July 4, 1870 by the Adrian Soldiers’ Monument Association. It was the second such commemorative monument erected in Lenawee County following the war — the first being a cemetery monument erected in nearby Franklin Township.

The column rests on top of a sandstone octagonal pedestal, and each side contains a bronze tablet inscribed with the names of 84 fallen soldiers and the regiment to which they belonged. The column itself is surmounted with a sandstone urn.

The inscription on the base of the pedestal reads:
 * "1870. Erected by citizens of Adrian in memory of our fallen soldiers. By such as these was our Union saved in the great struggle of 1861–1865.”