By Craig Hooper

The Soldiers' Monument, a Meetinghouse Hill memorial for Dorchester's Civil War veterans, is falling apart. The Civil War monument in Reverend Allen Park is a simple, 31-foot-tall pillar of Gloucester granite.

Each face of the memorial carries a list of local Union soldiers and the inscriptions, "They Died that the Nation Might Live" and "In honor of the citizen soldiers of Dorchester who fell in the war of the Rebellion, 1861-1865." It is a modest memorial for a community that suffered more casualties than many nearby Boston boroughs.

As civic memory of the Civil War fades, the now-abandoned 138-year old monument is decaying.

"It is a shame," says Earl Taylor, President of the Dorchester Historical Society, "that the Dorchester's Soldiers' Monument, which commemorates the service of our citizens in the Civil War, should suffer neglect."

For Dorchester, the Civil War was a community-wide endeavor. We've forgotten that over 13 percent of Dorchester volunteered to fight for the Union. We don't know that Dorchester boys fell during the two battles of Bull Run, in Fredericksburg and in the Wilderness campaign.

Nineteen - from one company alone--died at Gettysburg. In all, 97 Dorchester men sacrificed their lives to preserve the Union. An unknown number were wounded.

The monument is in bad shape. On some faces of the pillar, the names of the dead veterans are barely legible. The town seal and a depiction of a battlefield scene have worn away. The base of the stone pedestal is cracking, and one of the less robust corner pieces has broken. Even the seams of the monument are rotting. A full restoration is in order.

Some help is on the way. The Dorchester Historical Society, after receiving a grant from the Browne Fund to do a study of the historical parks of Eaton Square, is trying to drum up support for a new and comprehensive park management plan. Though the plan details are still being finalized, Mr. Taylor expects the plan to be unveiled in time for a Meeting House Hill Neighborhood Association meeting on the third Wednesday in May.

This sort of project is very much welcome, but the plan is a narrow vision constrained by harsh reality-- a lack of public funds and community interest.

The monument, along with the entire park, certainly could use some better landscaping and regular maintenance. The scrub and fence surrounding the memorial gives the monument a foreboding look, and trash littering the monument is disgraceful. But with additional community help, the grounds around the monument could get a comprehensive redesign and landscaping.

The memorial is missing some basic items. For want of a flagpole, no national banner has flown near the memorial for some time.

The monument and surrounding park might also benefit from contemplative benches, and, perhaps, interpretive and educational materiel "reminding us," in Mr. Taylor's words, "that if our national government is threatened ever again, valiant people from Dorchester will rise in its defense."

Keeping the monument in clean condition and maintaining the landscaping that frames it, says Mr. Taylor, "seems to be the least we ought to do as our civic duty to ourselves and future generations."

But why do the least? Why not do more?

Some might feel that the Civil War is not a war to remember. It is strange to memorialize a time when fellow countrymen fought each other. But, perhaps, that is precisely why Dorchester should remember.

Civil war, as any member of Dorchester's Vietnamese, Cambodian or Haitian communities can remind us, is not something to be forgotten.

Others may prefer to memorialize those who have been killed during the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. But who wants a monument that, in a hundred years, is a forgotten piece of crumbling statuary? Fixing the old monument honors the ones yet to be built.

Let's do more. Soldier's Monument needs our help. If anyone is interested in adopting Reverend Allen Park and, perhaps, donating time or money to restore and improve Soldiers' Monument, please give me, Craig Hooper, a call at 617-953-1769, so we can start exploring how to better honor Dorchester's community-wide contribution toward winning the Civil War.