Location: 2 Border Street, Cohasset
Coordinates: 42°14’23.4″N 70°47’40.6″W
Date dedicated: November 11, 2006
Number of names: 112 men who served (stars indicate 11 men lost in the war)
When Civil War veteran and historian Alfred S. Roe published his comprehensive survey of Civil War memorials and GAR posts in each town of the Commonwealth in 1910, he printed a brief report from Cyrus Bates, commander of the Cohasset GAR post. With regard to a monument, Bates wrote, “No Rebellion reminders here.” Cohasset did not construct a memorial to her sons who served in the Civil War until 2006. The Cohasset Veterans Memorial, dedicated on Veterans Day 2006, includes tablets listing the names of those who served from that town in conflicts from the Civil War to the present. The names of those who lost their lives are marked with a star.
Perhaps the most prominent of Cohasset’s Civil War veterans was Major Zealous B. Tower, a career soldier. He graduated West Point at the top of his class in 1841 and served under Gen. Winfield Scott during the Mexican War. He was wounded at the Battle of Chapultapec. During the Civil War, he led a brigade during the Second Battle of Bull Run and was again wounded. When Union forces occupied Nashville, Tennessee, Tower became chief engineer there. The fortifications he designed played a large role in the defeat of John Bell Hood’s army at the last Battle of Nashville, in December of 1864.