“Forlorn Soldier”

This music video was created as a part of my capstone project. It is a time lapse of the Forlorn Soldier move with an original song called, “Forlorn Soldier,” as performed by Tom Callinan, Connecticut’s first state troubadour. The July 19, 2013 event was sponsored by the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission’s series of programs honoring the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The monument featured in this video is a brownstone figure of a Union soldier and was created by James G. Batterson in Hartford, CT. The location of the monument at of the time of video is 119 Airport Road, Hartford, CT. Videography and editing by Tony Roy. Created on July 21, 2013.

Forlorn Soldier Monument Analysis

This slideshow features four of James G. Batterson’s earliest monument figures. This is part of my research on the Forlorn Soldier, a Civil War Monument that was never sold and has been on display at various locations in Hartford for over 100 years. Explanation for when the monument was created and why the monument was not sold is unclear. Some say it was rejected because of the positioning of the monuments feet. This slideshow, however, shows that other monuments created by Batterson, and his colleague Carl Conrads, had identical foot positioning and were sold just the same.

The Forlorn Soldier Monument features a man with a beard, which is consistent with the earliest two monuments featured here, one from Granby (1868) and the other from New Haven (1870). The Forlorn Soldier has two major inconsistencies from all of the monuments featured here. First, the arm positioning on the monuments here are above the belt and the Forlorn Soldiers arm is positioned below the belt. The other inconsistency is that all of these monuments have some sort of support on the back of the statue. The Forlorn Soldier does not have this same support.