Four hundred Venango County soldiers died in the Civil War, serving in battles that included Lookout Mountain, Bull Run, Yorktown, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Antietam. Some were killed in action or died of wounds, while others died as prisoners of war at Libby, Belle Isle, and Andersonville Prisons. Among them were Major General Jesse L. Reno, known before the war as a "soldier's soldier," who was shot in the chest by a Confederate sharpshooter while reconnoitering the Confederate position at Fox's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain, and Brigadier General Alexander Hays, who fought at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Savage's Station, and Malvern Hill, helped his division break Pickett's final charge at Gettysburg, and was killed in action at the Battle of the Wilderness. Their sacrifice was remembered as part of the cause of abolishing slavery and preserving the Union. In June 1864, the U.S. Sanitary Commission held a Soldiers and Sailors Sanitary Fair in Pittsburgh to raise money and supplies for Union soldiers, offering as a prize a monument worth more than $2,000 to the county in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, or West Virginia that contributed the most. Citizens of Venango County raised the greatest amount and won the marble shaft. On September 10, 1866, thousands gathered in Franklin for its dedication, with infantry, artillery, and cavalry parading to martial music, wearing blue, red, and yellow sashes respectively, while the Franklin Band and the "new cornet band" marched and played during the ceremony.