America’s First Monument is a Lesson in Honoring Our Warriors

In 1776, for the country’s first act of commemoration, the Continental Congress shipped Benjamin Franklin off to Paris with 300 pounds sterling for the proposed Gen. Richard Montgomery monument. Franklin hired Jean-Jacques Caffieri, and, under his chisel, the marble grew into an altar overflowing with Greco-Roman and Biblical symbols. The monument now decorates the facade of St. Paul’s Chapel, a short walk from the World Trade Center site.

Flowering amid the Revolutionary War, the Montgomery Memorial is an essential lesson in celebrating our own warriors, a lavish illustration of the personal sacrifice and transcendent accomplishment that define war. Such high deeds command our honor, and honor itself depends upon their just retelling.