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The weather might be a bit chilly, but it’s still hard to beat a good stroll through a local park. Here’s what LebTown captured on a recent trip to Monument Park, at 8th and Lehman Streets in Lebanon.

All photos by Will Trostel.

One corner entrance to the park.
Eight paths radiate outward from the center of the park, where the monument sits.

The park’s main feature is the monument itself, which sits at the center of the block. Comprised of a 30-foot pillar and surrounding mound, the monument was the creation of the Women’s Monument Trustees, a group of local women who erected it in 1869. Stacks of cannonballs are placed on each of the monument’s four corners, and an additional cannonball is perched on top of the pillar itself.

At each corner of the monument is a stack of 25 cannonballs.
This decorative cannon faces visitors walking on the grass.
With one cannonball mostly invisible at the top of the pillar, the number of cannonballs on the monument and base itself comes out to 101.

The idea for a monument honoring the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, the volunteer regiment from Lebanon that served in the Civil War on the side of the Union, was conceived in 1867. Previously, the site had served as the troop’s camp, named Camp Coleman.

Read More: [Photo Story] Autumn arrives full-fledged at Coleman Memorial Park

The carving on the north side of the monument depicts an American eagle on top of an anchor and a gun.

Debbie Coleman, wife of George Dawson Coleman and a member of the prominent Coleman family, had a “deep interest in the welfare” of the regiment and raised money for a monument to the fallen soldiers of the county beginning in April 1867.

The text on the west side of the monument, seen here, states: “In memory of the soldiers and sailors of Lebanon County, fallen in defense of the Union.”

According to the Pennsylvania Civil War Volunteers, the regiment lost 274 men in all. Of these, 161 enlisted men were killed in battle or mortally wounded, and 111 men died to disease. The details of the regiment’s history in the war are available online in the public domain book Red: white: and blue badge, Pennsylvania veteran volunteers. A history of the 93rd regiment, known as the “Lebanon infantry” and “One of the 300 fighting regiments” from September 12th, 1861, to June 27th, 1865.

The mound itself measures roughly 30 paces on each side, according to the Lebanon County official website.
The park is open from dawn to dusk and pets are not permitted.

To the north, across Monument Street, is St. Mark’s United Church of Christ. St. Mark’s recently became the new home of the congregation of St. Johnโ€™s United Church of Christ, which predated the Civil War and closed in June. St. Mark’s has history of its own, with origins as a Sunday school on the north side of the town established in 1885.

St. Mark’s UCC, just to the north of the park along Monument Street.
The side of Holy Trinity Lutheran church, also visible from the park. (Editor’s Note: Thanks to the eagle-eyed LebTown readers who informed us that an earlier version of this article mistakenly identified the above building as St. Mark’s. )

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Josh Groh is a Cornwall native and writer who began reporting for LebTown in 2019. He continued to regularly contribute to LebTown while earning a degree in environmental science at Lebanon Valley College, graduating in 2021. Since then, he has lead conservation crews in Colorado and taken on additional...

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