Men from Kent County took part in every major battle of the Civil War during its four years, and more than 4,200 local recruits fought in most of the war’s major battles, with almost 600 giving their lives for the Union. The Kent County Civil War Monument honors those soldiers, includes the seal of Michigan and the badge of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is considered the first in the nation to pay tribute to women for aiding soldiers on battlefields and in hospitals during the war. Bas-relief faces of President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant, Admiral David Farragut, and President James A. Garfield adorn the base, and a distinctive fountain operates through four putti on the second tier and 20 cannon spouts around the base. Efforts to create the monument began in February 1864, when Thomas D. Gilbert led the Kent County Soldiers Monument Association in promoting a monument for downtown Grand Rapids, though the project was postponed until the association resumed its work in November 1884 and received permission to erect it at Triangular Park at the head of Monroe Street. It was dedicated on September 17, 1885, before a crowd of more than 30,000, including some 3,000 Union veterans, with General Philip Sheridan as guest of honor. The site was rehabilitated in 1959, the monument was moved 60 feet north in 1977 as part of a redesign of Monroe Center, a restoration committee formed in 2000 raised $250,000 over the next three years, it was rededicated on October 3, 2003, and renovations begun in 2013 moved it slightly again before a ribbon-cutting on October 23, 2014. The monument was made possible by the cast-zinc process perfected in 1873 by M.A. Richardson and C.J. Willard and marketed as white bronze, a weather-resistant material whose durability has helped preserve Kent County’s Civil War monument in excellent condition.