For the Union cause, 290 townsmen volunteered, and by the war's end the town had lost 22 men killed in action, 9 dead from disease, 40 severely wounded, 86 disabled, and 12 taken as prisoners of war, a costly toll for local families and the economy. The G.A.R. named the memorial for Lt. George Gay, who entered the war in October 1861 as a private and quickly rose in rank. Wounded at the Battle of White Oak Swamp in Virginia in June 1862, he received his commission in the field on September 11, 1862. Only 5 days later, after being credited with saving his company from ambush and slaughter in what is still considered the bloodiest one-day battle in American history, George Gay was killed in action at the Battle of Antietam in western Maryland.