The park-like area is named after James B. McPherson, a major general who fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War before he was killed at the Battle of Atlanta. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee presented an equestrian statue of McPherson, which was erected at McPherson Square and dedicated on October 18, 1876. The sculpture represents McPherson surveying a battlefield. It was made by Louis Rebisso out of a captured cannon and rests on a granite pedestal.