After the Civil War ended in April 1865, Worcester County reckoned with a life-changing conflict that had disrupted every part of ordinary life as men left for camps and battle units, families struggled, businesses lost workers, and local men answered the call to defend the Union. Of the 4,227 men who enlisted from Worcester, 3,903 returned safely and 324 died. In his 1866 inaugural address, Mayor James B. Blake urged that the dead never be forgotten and called for a monument in a public square bearing the names of those who had given themselves to their country. A Soldiers' Monument Committee formed under his leadership insisted that the memorial be funded entirely by voluntary public contributions rather than the city treasury. A community fundraising campaign began on February 22, 1866, and within a month citizens had given about ten thousand dollars, but little progress followed until late 1867 and 1868, when designs were solicited. In December 1868 the committee unanimously chose an arch by Mr. Richardson, a New York architect, but the enormous and expensive plan, intended for the center of the Common, was rejected by popular vote three to one. Other proposals then circulated, including a library building with a memorial room for war relics, a fountain, and a chime of bells on a new City Hall. The effort remained dormant for two years until a new committee under Worcester industrialist George Crompton revived it. In July 1871 the committee learned that sculptor Randolph Rogers was in New England overseeing a soldiers' memorial in Providence and sought his advice; by September he had begun modeling, and by mid-November the committee, much pleased with his design, had unanimously adopted it and invited the public to view the model.
