I saw this amazing work up close for the first time last week and was floored!!!
This image is a composite of “The Cavalry Group” and the Church of Prince Willams Parish known as Sheldon. Built between 1745-1755, burned by the British Army 1779, rebuilt 1826, burned again by the Federal Army 1865.
The amazing story behind this bronze masterwork:
Located near the Capitol Reflecting Pool, the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial represents the Union victory that General Grant engineered during the Civil War. The completion of this memorial in the 1920s placed General Grant on the east-west axis of the National Mall, two miles away from the memorial that honors the Civil War President, Abraham Lincoln.
The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial is the largest equestrian statue grouping in Washington, D.C. White Vermont marble bases hold three massive bronze sculptures. Oxidation of the metals has turned the bronze from a golden brown to a dark green color. The centerpiece is a statue of General Grant on his favorite horse, Cincinnati. The statue sits on a marble pedestal 22 feet high and flanked by four bronze lions.
The sculptures on either side of General Grant are named “The Artillery Group” and “The Cavalry Group.”
The sculptor, Mr. Henry Merwin Shrady, was personally connected to this memorial because his father, Dr. George Frederick Shrady, had been General Grant’s doctor. Shrady had no formal artistic training and completing the three massive bronze statues consumed the last 20 years of his life. Unfortunately, Shrady died only weeks before the Memorial was dedicated in 1922, but his work still inspires visitors to the U.S. Grant Memorial.
