Old Soldier

A monument at Prairie Hill Cemetery one mile north of Fulda, Minnesota, depicts a Union soldier in the Blue of the North standing at parade rest over soldiers buried at its base and elsewhere in the cemetery. It was a project of the Fulda Zach Taylor Post 42, Department of Minnesota, G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), founded by Fulda Civil War veterans on July 25, 1883, and was erected to honor their fallen comrades for patriotism, loyalty, and service. A.A. Waugh of Tracy, Minnesota, was chosen to sculpt it for $370.00. When first erected it was known as the Shaft, and veterans later named it the Old Soldier. Hundreds of G.A.R. members and Fulda citizens rode in carriages, on horses, or walked to Prairie Hill Cemetery for its dedication on Memorial Day, 1896. After donations fell short in hard times and Waugh began legal proceedings to remove the monument, Wilhelm Walther, a Civil War veteran from Avoca, Minnesota, intervened and paid the outstanding balance to save it. The monument weathered for 116 years and remained intact, and M. Odenbrett painted the cement-colored Shaft in the original Union colors in 1995 and 2010.

Minnesota · United States