On
behalf of the Clyde Monument Association and the Society
of the Army of the Tennessee, General Andrew Hickenlooper
commissioned Louis Rebisso of the Cincinnati Art Foundry
to create this second bronze sculpture of McPherson.
When
President Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman
feared that the first monument would never be erected,
they asked Cynthia McPherson for permission to move the
site of the statue from Clyde to Washington, D. C. She
agreed and further assented to the removal of McPherson's
body to that location. Congress appropriated $25,000 for
the base and dedicated McPherson Square in his honor.
Grant sent one of McPherson's closest friends, George
T. Elliot, to bring McPherson's body to Washington. Outraged
residents of Clyde prevented the removal.
After
the monument dedication in Washington, D.C., General Ralph
P. Buckland of Fremont quietly protested. Buckland thought
it undignified that no monument graced McPherson's grave.
Buckland, President Rutherford B. Hayes, and Sandusky
Countians joined with the society of the Army of the Tennessee
and soon raised funds for this second statue. Civil War
veterans financed fully two thirds of the cost of both
statues.
