On the north side of the Capitol Square stands a winged female figure clad in flowing garments holding aloft the universal symbol of peace, an olive branch. This is the statue Peace. Though erected soon after the completion of the First World War, this monument honors those who served in the American Civil War. The Women’s Relief Corps, the auxiliary of the largest and most influential Civil War veterans’ organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, commissioned the statue from Bruce Wilder, of Saville, Ohio, a faculty member at The Ohio State University. The inscription on the front of the base says:
PEACE
Commemorating the heroic sacrifices of Ohio’s soldiers of the Civil War 1861-65 and the loyal women of that period.
Erected by the Woman’s Relief Corps Department of Ohio 1923
The inscription on the back of the base says: Let Us Have Peace.
The inscription on the bronze plaque on the left of the base reads:
WHEN OUR
COUNTRY SENT OUT THE
CALL TO ARMS FOR THE
PRESERVATION OF
THE UNION OHIO SENT
MORE THAN THREE
HUNDRED THOUSAND
OF HER SONS….
THEY HAD THE FAITH
THAT RIGHT MAKES
MIGHT AND IN THAT
FAITH DARED TO DO
THEIR DUTY….
THIS MEMORIAL
IS ERECTED IN
GRATEFUL TRIBUTE TO THEIR
DEVOTION
AND SELF
SACRIFICE.
And the inscription on the right bronze plaque on the back of the base reads:
MEN WIN GLORY IN THE
FIERCE HEAT OF CONFLICT
BUT THE GLORY OF WOMAN
IS MORE HARDLY WON….
UPON HER FALLS THE BUR
DEN OF MAINTAINING THE
FAMILY AND THE HOME NURSING
THE SICK AND WOUNDED AND
RESTORING THE COURAGE OF
THE BROKEN SHE ENDURES
THE SUSPENSE OF BATTLE
WITHOUT ITS EXALTATION
THIS MEMORIAL
IS ERECTED IN GRATEFUL
TRIBUTE TO THE LOYAL
WOMEN OF 61-65 WITHOUT
WHOSE HELP NO VICTORY
OR LASTING PEACE
COULD EVER HAVE
BEEN WON.
