The statue was created by Urbana sculptor Mike Major, who also crafted the statue of Lincoln that has stood tall on Courthouse Square in downtown Dayton since 2016.
“This is to honor Abraham Lincoln’s promise to care for those who bore the battle during the Civil War,” said Bill DeFries, a member of an American Veterans Heritage Center committee working to create the statue’s new home. “There was no other way to take care of the veterans at that time.”
Just over a month before Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, he made a speech promising: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”
Dayton was the location for one of the first three soldier’s homes in the country; Dayton’s home became the Dayton VA Medical Center.
“It’s just magnificent,” DeFries said of the statue.
Raised so far has been about $400,000. “We need about another $125,000,” said DeFries, chief executive and owner of Dayton electronics firm Copp Systems since 2012.
One big remaining step will be construction of a plaza or pavilion for the statue at Kentucky and Ohio avenues, near the VA Medical Center on Dayton’s West side. The plan is to place the bronze sculpture on a massive limestone pedestal, four feet high, with the statue itself rising another 10 or so feet beyond that.
The VA provided the professional design of the pavilion and hired the architect and engineering firms for design work, DeFries said.
Information about the American Veterans Heritage Center can be found at https://americanveteransheritage.org/
Donations via credit card and other information can be found at https://americanveteransheritage.org/how-to-help/
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