An Astounding Discovery That Requires a Fix

My office is located in a suburb of Columbus called Pickerington. There’s a strip shopping center in Pickerington where there’s a Mexican restaurant that Susan and I like. We had dinner there on Sunday, and then we walked a block to a Rita’s Italian Ice store for dessert.

I have been to that shopping center previously, and I knew that there was an odd open spot in the middle of it. I never noticed what fills that odd opening before Sunday night. As we walked by it, I noticed a white column that said “Sherman”, so it got my attention. I went to look at it, and it was a monument to William T. Sherman that I have never seen before. However, the monument is missing its head and the figure of Sherman is missing its left hand. The monument indicates that it was placed in 1918, and mentions the names of four members of the Union Veteran Legion who placed the monument.

After thinking about it for a couple of days, I called my friend Mike Peters today, and Mike turned up some interesting information. Thanks to Mike for sharing it with me.

I had never heard of the Union Veteran Legion. Mike found that the Union Veteran Legion was formed in 1884. The requirements for membership was that UVL members were to have “volunteered prior to July 1, 1863, for a term of 3 years, and were honorably discharged”. Service in the military had to be of at least 2 years in duration if the discharge was due to wounds encountered on the battlefield. Given these requirements, the membership of the UVL was many times smaller than that of the G.A.R. So, this monument was erected by some of Sherman’s boys.

Mike also ascertained that the monument was vandalized in 1968, meaning that Uncle Billy has been headless and handless for 42 years.

One of the fellows I practice law with has lived in Pickerington for his entire life and had absolutely no clue that that monument exists.

The poor condition and poor security for the monument bothers me a great deal, so Mike and I agreed that we’re going to see what we can do about (a) relocating the monument to a place where it can be seen and have some security (it has NONE now), and (b) fixing it so that Uncle Billy is no longer headless or handless. We’re going to see what we can do.

I will keep everyone posted as to our progress.

The following pictures were taken by Nancy Peters, and are used with her permisson: