A STUMP IS ALL THAT REMAINS of a Silver Maple transplanted from the Battlefield of Chattanooga. In 1897 the sapling was planted here as part of a Memorial Grove dedicated to Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War. The first war memorial to grace Capital Park, the Grove was conceived by Mrs. Eliza Holloway Waggoner of Sacramento, who led her sisters from the local chapter of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic in bringing more than forty trees from battlefields of the Civil War.
Having survived beyond its years, the noble tree finally succumbed to rot and weakened branches. After serving for 101 years as a living reminder of the debt we owe to the brave veterans of that terrible and costly war, the Silver Maple was removed.
[Inscription below photo of Silver Maple]
The Silver Maple (Acer Saccharinum), native to the eastern United States, takes its name from the silvery gray color of the underside of its leaves. Each leaf is five lobed and three to six inches wide. Leaves turn yellow or a combination of yellow and orange in autumn. The limbs of the Silver Maple ascend sharply upward with side branches dropping gracefully, ultimately reaching a height of up to one hundred feet with a spread up to seventy-five feet.
[Inscription below photos of Civil War Soldiers]
The memorial grove was planted to honor such men as these four members of the California Battalion of Calvary, who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the Union in the Civil War.
Led by Major D.W.C. Thompson of Sonoma County, the California Battalion was raised and recruited to represent California on the distant battlefields of the East.
[Inscription next to photo of Eliza Holloway Waggoner]
"Accept this gift of trees, guard them well; ...and as the years shall come and go, and as your children's children shall walk amidst the shadows of this Memorial Grove, ...may they become better citizens, more zealous patriots and may they know war nor more."
Eliza Holloway Waggoner
Memorial Grove Dedication
-May 1, 1897
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