Maine Archives and Museums

The Confederate Civil War Monument
York

Following the Civil War many Maine towns, large and small, created monuments to honor the sacrifices of their native sons in the rebellion of 1861-1865. Typically, the monument was a likeness of a Union soldier, cast in bronze and mounted on a granite pedestal. York's monument is unique in that it is a likeness of a Confederate soldier. It seems that the company that crafted the statues mistakenly sent a statue destined for a southern town to York, Maine. No one was able to determine where York's statue of a Union soldier was sent. Being frugal New Englanders, the citizens of York refused to pay for a second statue and erected the Confederate statue in the center of town where it still stands today.

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