The Civil War lasted four long years, and Ohio played a pivotal role with 310,654 men enrolled in 230 regiments.

One hundred Mesopotamia men donned blue coats with brass buttons and went into the battlefields of the South: 25 never returned. Between the end of the Civil War and 1869, eight Ohio cities and towns erected monuments to their valiant soldiers. Seven of these early monuments have eagles as their decorative element — four with wings spread as if in flight and three with wings closed.

Howard Brigden carved the marble eagle that tops the 1867 monument in Mesopotamia. Made of limestone and granite, the statue rises north of the Commons surrounded by wrought iron gates. Brigden was a carver of several markers known as “Sacred Stones.” Born in Mespo in 1841, he served in Ohio State Militia 1st Regiment in the Civil War.

Eagles were the dominant design element for Civil War monuments in Ohio in the 1860s when they comprised 70 percent of them. Although an additional seven eagle monuments were constructed between 1870 and 1889, they represented only 12 percent of the 58 monuments dedicated during that time.

In March 1867, 140 people committed $2,046 for the Civil War Monument. “We, the undersigned citizens of Mesopotamia and vicinity appreciating the services of the gallant soldiers who lost their lives while fighting for our right, do feel it to be our duty to erect a monument to their memory which shall tell future generations that we not only appreciate their services while living but revere their memory when dead. Therefore for this purpose we agree to pay the sum set to our respective signatures provided however that no subscription shall be binding unless the sum of $2,000 be subscribed.”

During the ceremony, “Captain Rev. Millikan rose and spoke, his words taking hold in all their hearts and becoming as their own as words do when they are true. ‘We have erected here an imperishable marble shaft on which are subscribed 95 names. … God bless our noble defenders. Seventy-eight returned, a few maimed and scarred for life. Most of us with constitution more or less impaired. They exposed life and health and limb that the glorious institutions of our fathers might be preserved. Others — also 17 noble names are recorded as those who gave up their lives.”

The base inscription reads “Honor the Brave.”

The description of the monument is as follows: “Beautiful shaft pointing heavenward and directing us to the land all the moored names is the noble eagle, America’s bird, his feet are upon a globe as much to say in its onward flight the whole world shall yet be free — not a slave on the face of the earth … preserve it from harm, fence it neatly… turf the grading about it with mantle of green. Visit it frequently and drop a tear on the fallen brave. Strew flowers.”