Plan Underway for Iowa Monument to 6 Brothers

armadillo

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Oct 3, 2014
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Iowa City, Iowa
In recent months plans have been moving forward to honor six brothers who perished serving the Union cause, possibly the largest single-family loss of life in America.
In 1840, James and Martha Littleton left Maryland, seeking opportunity in the Iowa Territory. Records indicate that Louisa County abolitionists helped James, who was of mixed race, settle his wife, three daughters, and six sons in Toolesboro. Martha died in 1853 and James in 1860.
In the months after the Civil War began in April 1861, Thomas, 25, enlisted in the Iowa Infantry, followed by William, 24; John, 31; Kendall, 19; and Noah, 16. George, [xx], then living in Illinois, enlisted there.
On December 7, 1862, at the Battle of Prairie Grove, in Arkansas, Kendall was killed. John, fatally wounded, died days later. Noah survived but drowned in a Missouri ferryboat sinking in March 1863.
George was captured at Harpers Ferry in September 1862. Paroled from a prisoner of war camp due to disease, he reportedly died early in 1863.
William fought at Shiloh, Jackson, and the Battle of Vicksburg, a two-month siege ending in July 1863. He died that December in a St. Louis hospital.
Thomas, the first to enlist, was the last to die. After fighting at Corinth and Champions Hill, Mississippi, and at Vicksburg, he was captured during the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, in November 1863. He died at Andersonville Prison in Georgia in June 1864. The Civil War ended 10 months later.
This tragic story of loss was only recently uncovered by Tom Woodruff and Ed Bayne after Woodruff received a family's scrapbook from Raleigh, NC and followed its clues. Today Louisa County, Iowa, is planning to honor the brothers and their sacrifice with a monument at Toolesboro. Constructed of Mesabi black granite on a Barre grey granite base, the memorial will stand 11 feet tall. We hope national attention will come to this project during the fundraising period, launched last week, and that the monument can be completed by the end of 2015. Anyone interested in the full story can consult The Sept 23 edition of Phil Gast's excellent Civil War blog at http://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/ or consult the current edition of the Iowa History Journal.
I am serving as artist for the project and have designed the memorial. I will post pics soon as I figure out that part of this site...Thanks!
 
Here is the design drawing of the monument now being planned for Toolesboro, in Louisa County, Iowa- an 11' monument, the top is Mesabi Black Granite and the Base is Barre Grey Granite; it will be nearly three feet thick at the base and is about 5'9" wide. The image of six soldiers disappearing into the fog of war, entitled "The last Full Measure of Devotion" will be etched into the surface, and the other side will tell the full story, with their names and service dates down the surface of the tall end, and a collective list of battles fought on the other end. Hopefully, we will have the money raised enough to begin construction next year, and the site will be landscaped in native Iowa vegetation with six oak trees planted to honor each of the brothers. The lot the county has provided is about 100 yards long next to a county highway, less than a mile from where the boys lived. The broken-off top represents, in Victorian memorial symbolism, a life cut short.
. Monument.jpg
 
In June 2016, The Littleton Brothers Monument was unveiled in a ceremony at Toolesboro, Iowa, commemorating the sacrifice of 6 brothers in the Civil War. Presided over by the Governor of Iowa, and with the honor guard of the "Governors Own Rifle Guards". The monument is encircled by 6 oak trees and can be found on Rt. 99 about ten miles east of Wapello, Iowa, at the village of Toolesboro and adjacent to the Toolesboro Mounds historic site.

Littleton 1.jpg


Littleton 2.jpg


Littleton 3.jpg


Littleton back.jpg
 
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