Washington Monument (Baltimore) creator Enrico Causici
Washington is depicted on the top of the Monument resigning his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, an act which took place in the Old Senate chamber in the Maryland State House in the state capital of Annapolis, Maryland on December 23, 1783. The Confederation Congress was meeting in the Maryland capitol which served for a few months as the temporary national capital. While there, the Congress also ratified the Treaty of Paris of 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing the independence of the United States by Great Britain.
The statue was carved by Italian-born sculptor Enrico Causici, who previous to his work on the Monument had been employed carving reliefs for the United States Capitol. William Rusk, in his book Art in Baltimore: Monuments and Memorials, tells the following story about the raising of Causici's marble statue of Washington in 1829. "Tradition recalls a prodigy occurring when the statue was raised to the summit of the monument – a shooting star dashed across the sky and an eagle lit on the head of the settling general."
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