“Spirit of Freedom”: African American Civil War Memorial (Washington, DC)

Located in Washington, DC, the semicircular bronze statue by Ed Hamilton depicts three African American infantrymen and one sailor. The soldiers grasp the barrels of their rifled muskets, while the sailor holds a ship’s wheel. The soldiers wear the standard Union army uniform­­—a forage cap, a light coat, and trousers—while the sailor wears a federal Navy flat hat, a wool frock, and trousers.  Overlooking the group is a personification of the "Spirit of Freedom,” rendered as a shrouded, angelic figure whose face tilts upward, eyes closed, and whose crossed hand rest on the chest. On the back of the monument in bas-relief, an African American soldier is joined by six members of his multigenerational family—his wife, three children, and his parents—who gather around him as he prepares to go off to war.