The vast 3.5 acres of the Milford Green holds four monuments dedicated to the men and women of Milford who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Each year in honor of Memorial Day and Veterans Day, city officials, Veterans groups, and regular citizens gather to lay wreaths at the monuments in memory of the brave residents who fought, and often died, in the preservation of American freedom.
Starting from the Green’s west end and working east toward the center of town, the first monument is the Korea-Vietnam Memorial dedicated November 11, 1986 after the Veteran’s Day parade,. Designed by Milford native John Blair, two soldiers, one from each war, stand together on a marble pedestal. Next to the pedestal are two concrete boulders from the original base of the Statue of Liberty.
Further east is the Green’s oldest and most prominent marker, the Civil War Monument. The (ital)History of Milford, 1639-1939 by the Federal Writers Project, described the dedication celebration on August 31, 1888 as including “a flag raising, joyous pealing of church bells and shrill blasts of factory whistles.” The Van Horn Post No. 39, Grand Army of the Republic, and private donations had raised $3,000 for the granite shaft topped by a caped Civil War soldier with rifle and forage cap, surrounded by a large circular garden of flowers. It is engraved with the locations of four major battles where many of the 245 Milford volunteers served between 1861-1865: Fort Fisher, Port Hudson, Gettysburg, and Appomattox. At 9:50 a.m., a 13-gun salute announced the arrival of the GAR Department commander, followed by a similar greeting for Governor Phineas C. Lounsbury, who attended the unveiling along with hundreds of townspeople.
Across High Street is the Milford Flagpole Memorial, dedicated July 4, 1954 and bearing the names at its base of Milford residents who died in World War II. (The names of those residents who gave their lives in Korea and Vietnam were later added.) Ten feet from the flagpole is a large flat stone with a plaque which reads, “This memorial is dedicated to members from this community who served their country in time of conflict.” Also on the stone are logos from the armed services: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The current flagpole, according to an article in the (ital)Milford Citizen replaced one that was blasted by lightning in 1953, some forty-nine years after it had been dedicated. State Supreme Court Justice Raymond E. Baldwin, a three-time governor and once senator was a featured speaker at the second dedication, and the ceremony was described as “the biggest and most colorful event Milford had seen in years.”
Those who served during the Second World War are memorialized in a second, newer monument (also designed by Milford’s John Blair), which was dedicated August 13, 1995, fifty years after the war ended. The monument depicting five bronze figures representing the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Women’s Army Corps (WACs) are represented in a sixteen ton of granite rock. A plaque on the side of the stone says: “Dedicated to all who served, 1941-1945, World War II.” Buried in the ground near the monument is a time capsule containing World War II letters, diaries, and remembrances of the war contributed by Milford residents. The capsule is intended to be opened fifty years after it was buried, in 2045.
Two more significant memorials honoring veterans are located in other parts of town. Just across the tracks from Milford Green in front of City Hall is the World War Memorial. Dedicated ten years after the November 11, 1918 armistice, the bronze figure of an infantryman on a granite pedestal was not called the World War I Memorial since World War II was still far in the future. The front tablet has the names of Milford men who died in service. Those on the sides state the names of more than 700 local residents who served in uniform.
About a mile away in the older part of Milford Cemetery stands the Revolutionary War Memorial, a 35-foot high column of two Portland brownstone blocks erected in 1852. The State coat of arms and motto are carved onto the monument along with the names of Captain Stephen Stow and forty-six American soldiers who died of smallpox after being left by a British prison ship on a cold Milford beach on January 1, 1777. A total of 200 soldiers were cast off the ship and taken in by Captain Stow, who later succumbed with the others. All are buried nearby. This Veterans Day let us honor our servicemen and women and thank them for their service.
