page_title: Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
section_title: About the memorial
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery) / About the memorial
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking up at the capital, sphere, and eagle on top of the Spanish-American War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. The memorial is located in the easternmost portion of Section 22. The National Society Colonial Dames asked for permission to erect a memorial in the cemetery to the war's dead in March 1901. Quartermaster General Marshall I. Ludington made some changes to the design, which was approved on October 23, 1901. The monument was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt on May 21, 1902. It was the first monument ever erected at the cemetery by a society of women. The monument consists of a column on a base, situated in a small plaza. The granite column from Barre, Vermont, is 50 feet high, Corinthian in style, and surmounted by a sphere of granite from Quincy, Massachusetts. The dark grey granite is highly polished, and with a band of rough granite lined with stars about the circumference. The sphere is tilted at a 15 degree angle, and a bronze eagle -- facing west, wings spread -- is mounted on the top of the sphere. The light grey square granite base as a highly polished black granite sphere 18 inches in diameter at each corner. Along the upper eage of the base are bronze stars, 5 inches wide. There are 11 stars on each side of the base (representing the 44 U.S. states at the time of the war). Bronze plaques commemorating the war dead adorn the front (west) and rear (east) of the base. The monument sits in a circular grassy space. Lawton Avenue circles the space. At the rear of the monument, across the roadway, are four cannon mounted on brick and concrete stands. The guns face northeast, east, southeast, and south. The two outer guns are captured Spanish bronze field artillery. The and are made of bronze. The two inner guns are made of steel, and came from U.S. Navy ships which served in the war. A bronze plaque on a granite marker was added to the front of the memorial plaza on October 11, 1964.
context_page_description: The Spanish–American War Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States that commemorates those American military personnel who died in the Spanish–American War. Constructed by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and dedicated on May 21, 1902, the memorial consists of a granite column in the center of a small grass-covered plaza. A granite sphere and bronze eagle with outstretched wings stand atop the shaft. The memorial faces west; to its rear across Lawton Avenue is a flagstone terrace on which are placed four cannon, aimed east.
context_section_description: The Spanish–American War Memorial consists of a column of gray granite 54 feet (16 m) high quarried in Barre, Vermont. Atop the column is a bronze eagle with outstretched wings, facing west. The eagle is mounted on a granite globe, which was quarried in Quincy, Massachusetts. A band decorated with 13 stars (representing the original Thirteen Colonies) is carved in high relief on the globe. The globe stands on a square base. The base stands atop a Corinthian capital which crowns the column.
  The column rests upon a tall plinth with a square cross-section. Around the top of the plinth are bronze stars 5 inches (13 cm) across. There are 11 stars on each of the four sides, for a total of 44 stars. A bronze tablet affixed to the front (west face) of the memorial contains the following language:
  To the soldiers and sailors of the United States who gave up their lives for their country in the war of 1898–99 with Spain this monument is dedicated in sorrow, gratitude, and pride by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the name of all the women of the nation. 1902.
  The plinth stands on a larger square base, which sits atop a foundation set in the earth. On each corner of the foundation is a polished black granite sphere 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter.
  The total cost of the monument was $9,000 ($250,967 in 2018 dollars).
  At the rear of the monument across Lawton Drive is a flagstone terrace. Four cannon, mounted on low brick pillars capped with concrete, stand on the eastern edge of this terrace. The guns point east. The inner two guns are larger and more modern, and were taken from the Spanish Navy armored cruisers Vizcaya and Infanta Maria Teresa. The two outer guns are smaller and made of bronze, and likely were captured from the Spanish coastal battery Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca at Sevilla near Santiago de Cuba.
  The memorial is notable because it was the first national memorial erected by a national society of women. The Boston Evening Transcript criticized the memorial for being too plain for the magnificent site. It editorialized that the society should have taken time to collect more money, and built a more elaborate memorial. The newspaper expressed its hope that the Army would place no other memorials near it.
caption: The eagle and sphere atop the capital at the Spanish–American War Memorial.
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