Trenton Battle Monument

About this property

The Trenton Battle Monument is a massive column-type structure in the Battle Monument section of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It commemorates the December 26, 1776, Battle of Trenton, a pivotal victory for the Continental forces and commander George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. Designed by John H. Duncan, the architect of Grant's Tomb, the monument is an early example of Beaux-Arts architecture in America. The design is based on "The Monument", a 1671 structure built to commemorate the Great Fire of London, on the London street where the 1666 fire started. The height of the Trenton monument is intentionally the same height as the London monument. The hollow Roman-Doric fluted column of the monument is constructed of granite, as is the pedestal which supports it, although slightly darker stone was used to give the base the appearance of more solidity. The column is capped by a small, round pavilion, forming an observation deck; accessible by means of an electric elevator, that has provided thousands of tourists an excellent view of the city and the surrounding scene of the battle. Encircling the column, just above the cap, thirteen electric lights, symbolizing the original Thirteen Colonies, shed their radiance at night. The pavilion is surmounted by an acanthus leaf pedestal where, atop the entire structure, a colossal bronze statue of General George Washington by William Rudolf O'Donovan crowns the monument. Washington is depicted as he appeared at the opening of the engagement and, with his extended right hand, directs the fire of the Continental artillery down King (now Warren) Street. The figure is 13 feet (4.0 m) feet tall, while the monument, including the statue, is 150 feet (46 m) above street level. On the base of the pedestal are two bronze relief panels by Thomas Eakins titled "The Continental Army Crossing the Delaware River" and "The Opening of the Fight." The latter panel depicts the battery of Alexander Hamilton about to fire down King Street. The original Eakins bronzes were part of the monument from 1895 until 1969, when they were removed and exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Duplicate castings were made and the copies were reapplied to the monument. The original bronzes were donated to the New Jersey State Museum, where they are on permanent view. A third bronze relief panel, "The Surrender of the Hessians," was modeled by Charles Henry Niehaus. On the north side of the pedestal is a bronze tablet presented by the Society of the Cincinnati of New Jersey. Guarding the entrance to the monument stand two bronze figures of Continental soldiers by O'Donovan. One is a statue of Private John Russell, a member of Colonel John Glover's Marblehead Regiment of seafaring men from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who gained fame by transporting Washington's army across the ice-choked Delaware River on the night of December 25–26, 1776. The other figure is modeled after a likeness of Private Blair McClenachan, of the Philadelphia Light Horse Troop, a unit which also took part in the battle.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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