Rear view of monument at Dolores & Market.
Here is the text carved into the plinth –
ERECTED BY
THE CITIZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO
IN HONOR
OF THE
CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEERS
SPANISH AMERICAN WAR
1898
"FIRST TO THE FRONT"
THE CITIZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO
IN HONOR
OF THE
CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEERS
SPANISH AMERICAN WAR
1898
"FIRST TO THE FRONT"
That war is now more accurately referred to as the American Conquest of the Philippines (which remains a client-state 111 years later) but anybody who had talked about a bully-boy invasion of foreign territory in this town in those days would have been beaten up and thrown in the Bay.
Patriotism is a lovely thing.