Spa City Civil War statue razed
Monument honored Saratoga regiment that fought for Union
A Civil War statue honoring the Saratoga regiment that helped the Union army defeat the Confederacy was found smashed to pieces in Congress Park Thursday.
Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton said the statue of the Union Army soldier was likely destroyed overnight.
“The police are investigating,” Dalton said. “We take this matter extremely seriously . ... We won’t tolerate it. And when we find the individuals responsible we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
There are no suspects as of now as police are looking for video of the incident. There are city-owned cameras in Congress Park, and police are looking to see if any pri
vately-owned businesses may have cameras that captured footage of the incident, said Lt. Bob Jillson of the Saratoga Springs Police Department’s Investigations Division.
The now-destroyed statue had been in Saratoga for more than a century. The monument was erected in 1875 on the 10th anniversary of the end of the Civil War to honor the men of the 77th NY Volunteers, or the Bemis Height’s Regiment, who died fighting for the Union Army, said Saratoga Springs History Museum Executive Director James D. Parillo.
Over the summer, there has been a trend of monuments being vandalized throughout the nation — many of them controversial historical figures like Confederate leaders or Christopher Columbus. But there has been other unexplainable damage as well, like a statue of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, that was found ripped from its foundation in Rochester overnight on July 4.
However, the monument in Congress Park wasn’t a statue of a particular soldier. During the 19th century, similar statues were being put up across the country of soldiers in different poses and the municipalities could pick the one they wanted.
“It was like something you could order out of catalogue,” Parillo said.
However, Parillo said historians believe this was the face of a solder from the 77th New York Volunteers.
The 77th was made up of volunteers from Saratoga Springs, Wilton, Schuylerville, and other surrounding communities. When the regiment was raised, it was supposed to be numbered in the 30s, but the officers petitioned to have the unit commissioned as the 77th in honor of the Battle of Saratoga, fought in 1777, according to Parillo.
The statue was initially in the center of Broadway at the entrance of Congress Park. In 1921, it had to be moved into Congress Park as it became an obstacle for cars.
Vandals were also in the park earlier in the week. Dalton said the Katrina Trask staircase, recently restored, was covered in red spray paint. She said that police have leads on the staircase graffiti.
Vandalism of statuary in the historic park, which is closed after dark, has been a problem for years. In 2000, the arms of Spit and Spat, the marble fountain sculptures that hold up water-spewing horns, were knocked off and shattered. In 2005, the pine branch held in the hand of the Spirit of Life was snapped off.
In 2013, motion-activated surveillance cameras were installed as a deterrent and have caught several vandals in the act. That’s how two Navy recruits, were charged in the Pan destruction. The two paid $7,500 in restitution to cover the repairs and did community service.
In 2017, vandals destroyed the 1876 cast-iron urns, known as Day and Night.
Surveillance cameras were not trained on those vandals and an arrest was never made.