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The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial Website ... is one of more than 1,000 memorials featured at ... dcMemorials.com |
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| He conceived the work as pyramidal in its big outline, with all the minor figures and groups sweeping up to the central character, General Grant witting quietly astride his horse, at the apex. The marble base, as noted before, is 252 feet long. At the opposite ends of this, two groups of men and horses are seen going into action, moving swiftly, tumultuously toward the center. One represents a cavalry charge, the other a field battery wheeling into position. The men are straining forward in their saddles or bracing themselves against a sudden shock. The horses are rearing or plunging. If you could stand a little way off and regard the memorial as a whole, your eye, following the impelling motion of these two charging groups, would leap to the marble pedestal in the center. There it would come to a majestic pause, an architectural semicolon, and artistic breathing space. For there on the four corners, four great lions lie on their haunches, guarding the flags of the Army and of the United States. Then, instinctively following the architectural rhythm, your gaze would climb the marble pedestal to the figure of the grim man on horseback. Grant at Appomattox – the far-off call of a bugle heard faintly across the Potomac – the Union Army moving on – Vicksburg, Cairo, Antietam, the Wilderness – sabers flashing in the sunlight – all these will pass in kaleidoscopic review as you stand there; else art is a meaningless monosyllable and Mr. Shrady labored 20 years in vain. |
