Oberlin Landmarks and Monuments: Giles Shurtleff Statue

Oberlin Landmarks and Monuments: Giles Shurtleff Statue

Location: In front of Shurtleff Cottage on South Professor Street

Built: 1898

Dedicated: Memorial Day 1911

Giles Waldo Shurtleff represented Oberlin’s early action in support of abolition. In speeches and lectures he embraced civil rights causes and acted upon his strong personal beliefs.

Giles Waldo Shurtleff

David Shurtleff was born in Massachusetts and traveled north to Vermont at a young age where he met Ruth Knapp. After marrying in 1816, the couple continued traveling north to Canadian territory where they eventually settled in Stansted, Quebec. Here, Ruth gave birth to eight healthy children, Giles Waldo being the eighth. Shortly after his birth, the family traveled back to the United States to Lowell, Massachusetts. The Shurtleff family moved once again when Giles was only five years old, this time west to Genoa, Illinois where the family settled after many years of traveling from place to place.

In 1850, Giles sought out formal education and moved to the home of one of his older sisters in St. Charles, near Chicago. Another opportunity for more formal schooling arose only a few years later, prompting Giles to head north to Kenosha, Wisconsin where he would stay with another married sister. In Kenosha, Giles met John G. McMinn, superintendent of schools in Kenosha, who encouraged Giles to seek college education. McMinn was a Baptist minister who had connections with Charles G. Finney, so he suggested a new school in Oberlin, Ohio. Charles Finney was the President of Oberlin College at the time, and Giles was encouraged to write to him and request more information about the college. In return, he received a college catalog describing education at Oberlin. Satisfied with the characteristics of the college, Giles began his journey to Ohio.

When Giles arrived at Oberlin, he was not well off fiscally. He began to work his way through college and found creative ways to support himself, such as by chopping wood. He rented a room from a local preacher and began tutoring other students once he became more financially stable. In 1859, Giles graduated from the college with honors and was hired by the college as a tutor in Latin. This was his first position at Oberlin College and the beginning of his life-long relationship with the school as an employee.

Monroe Rifles

When the American Civil War broke out in April 1861, many residents of Oberlin were passionate about joining the Union Army. A group of some of the first Oberlin men to volunteer their service called themselves the “Monroe Rifles.” They named themselves after James Monroe, a professor at the college and state politician, who strongly supported abolition and social reform. Giles Shurtleff was elected as the captain of the Monroe Rifles.

When Camp Taylor in Cleveland was created as training grounds, Shurtleff immediately visited and requested that the Oberlin Company be stationed there. Although the camp told him there was no room for them in the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Giles contacted James Monroe and asked him to use his political status to let the men join. With Monroe’s help, the Monroe Rifles were accepted into Camp Taylor.

7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Giles Shurtleff played an important role in the formation of Company C of the 7th OVI. This infantry was made up of college students with Shurtleff serving as their captain. The company completed basic training at Camp Dennison just outside of Cincinnati. This training was commanded by Jacob Dolson Cox, an Oberlin graduate and the brother-in-law of James Monroe. Despite the camp in Cincinnati being ill-equipped, the men still were able to receive sufficient basic training. After the war, Cox served as Ohio Governor, United States Secretary of Interior, United States Congressman, and Oberlin College Trustee. Cox also fought alongside his brother-in-law for social reform in the Ohio statehouse. 

Company C of the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was considered one of the most experienced of the Union’s armies. They served under three different Union armies: the Army of Virginia under US General John Pope, the Army of the Potomac, and the Army of Cumberland. Their most notable battles included: Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Ringgold Gap, and Resaca.

In August 1861, the 7th OVI experienced devastating losses at Kessler’s Cross Lanes, Virginia, including 96 men being taken prisoner. Giles was taken prisoner and he was held in various Confederate prisoner-of-war camps for almost a year. Giles returned home to Oberlin in August 1862 to a large crowd welcoming him home. A year later, he was exchanged and assigned to the staff of General O.B. Wilcox of the 9th Army Corps with whom he served at Fredericksburg.

Oberlin and the Civil War

Those in the town who were not serving in the war rallied together to support the war effort. Oberlin’s women made uniforms for the men who were volunteering while others donated money, raising thousands of dollars for relief. Some townsfolk even helped Shurtleff with his pending student loans.

127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

The 127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was one of Ohio’s contributions to the Black regiments in the Union Army. Later designated the 5th U.S. Colored Infantry, soldiers served for varying lengths of time with an average ranging from one hundred days to three years. Ohio provided the federal government with 260 regiments of men, infantry, artillery, and cavalry units during the Civil War. In Ohio, an estimated 330,000 men, including 5,092 African American men, served in the Union military during conflict.

Ohio Governor David Tod ratified the recruitment of African American military units in the summer of 1863. The first organization to come from this ratification was the 127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, formed in Delaware, Ohio. Although Giles Shurtleff was discharged from the war in the spring of 1863 because of illness, he became the Lt. Colonel of Ohio’s black infantry. His assignments included Petersburg, Virginia (June-August 1864) and New Market Heights in September 1864. Shurtleff remained with this unit until the Civil War ended in April 1865, and he was honorably discharged the following June. Before his discharge, Giles was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. 

Giles Shurtleff Statue

The statue depicts general Shurtleff holding a scroll with an arm extended pointing forward. The statue honoring Shurtleff was put up shortly after his death, and it is currently on public display on former Shurtleff property, located on Oberlin’s South Professor Street.

Its sculptor, Emily Ewing Peck, attended Oberlin sporadically from 1877-1881, and again in the early 1880s. She selected Giles Shurtleff to be her model as he represented ideals that she wished to express in her sculpture. The original plan for the monument was to have a group of statues alongside the General, with the second figure being a young Black man taking a rifle from Shurtleff. However, this concept was never completed, and the statue of Shurtleff stands alone.

In the summer of 1898, six years before his death, Giles put on his uniform and posed with his heavy sword in the summer heat in Peck’s studio on Main Street. The clay figure of Shurtleff was put on display at Spear Library in the College in September 1898. At the reception held for the statue, Emily explained what the finished work would look like and that it would eventually be cast from bronze and placed outdoors.

Peck spent a long time searching for a motto that would best reflect what she was trying to portray. She eventually chose: “Freedom cannot be given, it must be achieved.” That winter, Emily left Oberlin again for Chicago to study and work but still had intentions to finish the sculpture. In Chicago, she completed many portraits including ones of William Harper, the President of the University of Chicago, and Jane Addams, founder of the Hull House. Yet, there was still no companion for Shurtleff.

The statue was put up shortly after Giles death in 1904 and was dedicated in 1911. Overlooking an area intended for a village parkway, the statue was set on a granite block and placed on the lawn just below the house that at one time belonged to Shurtleff. Without a companion, the meaning of the phrase Emily carefully picked out to accompany the statue was unfortunately lost. 

 

Bibliography:

“7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University, March 15, 2021. https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/7th-ohio-volunteer-infantry-regiment.

“The Civil War in Ohio.” Ohio Secretary of State. Accessed September 17, 2022. https://www.ohiosos.gov/profile-ohio/places/the-civil-war-in-ohio/.

Harper, Robert S. “127th Ohio Infantry, 5th U.S. Colored Infantry.” Essay. In Ohio Handbook of the Civil War. United States: LBS Archival Products, 1992.

“Jacob D. Cox.” Ohio History Central. Accessed September 17, 2022. https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Jacob_D._Cox.

Mercer, John L. “Giles Waldo Shurtleff: Leadership in the Cause of Freedom,” May 6, 2004. https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/ShurtleffBio-Mercer.htm.

Oberlin Civil War Soldiers Database compiled by Richard Donegan for the Oberlin Heritage Center, 2013.