Unveiled on April 19, 1875, The Minute Man statue, by sculptor Daniel Chester French, is an American icon and has stood guard over hallowed ground ever since. It is set near the spot where the first colonial militiamen were killed in Concord on that fateful day in 1775.
The seven foot tall bronze statue was cast from old Civil War cannons by the Ames Foundry of Chicopee Massachusetts. The pedestal base measures over seven feet tall and four feet on each side. Inscribed on the front facing is the first stanza of the poem “The Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."