Boston - Public Garden: Colonel Thomas Cass by wallyg

This standing portrait statue of Colonel Thomas Cass, designed by sculptor Richard Edwin Brooks, was dedicated in Boston Public Garden, along the Boylston Street Mall, on September September 14, 1899. The 8-foot bronze sculpture was secured through the efforts of Mayor Joseph Quincy and funded through the Jonathan Phillips Fund. It replaced an earlier granite memorial to Cass. Colonel Thomas Cass (1822-1862), an Irish immigrant who settled in Bosotn, founded and was commander of the the Ninth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, a regiment of Irish volunteers known as the &quot;Fighting Ninth,&quot; which saw extensive service in the American Civil War. Cass was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill, as part of the Peninsular Campaign waged by the Union Army intending to capture the city of Richmond, Virginia, on July 1, 1862 and died shortly after from his wounds in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Public Garden, established in 1837, was the first public botanical garden in the United States. The twenty-four acre landscape, which was once a salt marsh, was designed by George V. Meacham. In 1859, an act by the Massachusetts General Court preserved the Public Garden as an open space. Together with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/150887916/">the Boston Common</a>, these two parks form the northern terminus of the Emerald Necklace, a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. While the Common is primarily unstructured open space, the Public Garden contains <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/150890741">a lake</a> and a large series of formal plantings that are maintained by the city and others and vary from season to season. During the warmer seasons, the four acre <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/150890998/in/photostream/">pond</a> is usually the home of one or more swans and is always the site of the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/4903555448">Swan Boats</a>, a famous Boston tourist attraction. Several statues are located throughout the Public Garden. Located at the Arlington Street gate is <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/150890519/">the equestrian statue of George Washington</a>, which faces Commonwealth Avenue. A set of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/15680171202">bronze statues</a> based on the main characters from the children's story Make Way For Ducklings is located between the pond and the Charles and Beacon streets entrance. There is also a <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/4887224736">statue</a> commemorating the first use of ether as an anesthetic. National Register #87000761 (1987)