CORNWALL, Ontario – For the first time ever in Canada a monument will be erected to memorialize the more than 50,000 Canadian (British North American) veterans who volunteered and fought in the American Civil War.
And the monument is going up right in our backyard.
The Lost Villages Historical Society announced this week that the monument will be erected within Ault Park, on County Road 2, which also includes the Lost Villages Museum.
Jim Brownell, president of the Lost Villages Historical Society, said the monument will face the highway and become a focal point of the property.
The proposed 14-foot black granite obelisk will be paired with eight-foot black granite side stones and a small paved pedestrian walkway.
The historical society recently entered into an agreement with the Grays and Blues of Montréal (GBM) – a mid-19th century living history re-enactment association, to erect the monument.
The monument should be completed in time for the 150th anniversary of Canadian confederation, which takes place July 1, 2017.
Over the bloody four-year American Civil War more than 50,000 volunteers from Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes travelled to various northern or southern U.S. cities, to enlist on either side of the battle lines.
By the end of the war more than 620,000 on both sides, including thousands of Canadians, were killed.
Some 34 Canadians on the federal side were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Today no war monument exists to commemorate and remember the Canadian volunteers.
