This life-sized statue of Clarence Ransom Edwards can be viewed on the western State Capitol grounds.
Edwards, reportedly dubbed “Daddy” by his soldiers, served as Major General for the 26th Division (Yankee) in World War I, earning praise and honors, though he was removed from his position two weeks before armistice, seemingly without reason. It was rumored that the decision was made because Edwards would not replace National Guard officers with members of the Regular Army. The 1936 Congressional Record contains this insight into the matter: “He was relieved of his command because he insisted on casting diplomacy aside and, in biting, sarcastic words, told the ‘higher ups’ that he would be no part of a scheme which would aggrandize self-seeking, would-be military leaders, to be brought about by the degradation of officers and men who had followed him unhesitatingly into the hell of battle.”
He was formally welcomed back by a few thousand people at Hartford’s Foot Guard Hall in 1919, where he was not short on things to say:
“I would like to have stayed and come back with [his division] but God’s inscrutable ways cannot be analyzed and when I realize the things that have happened to me personally and know what these mothers, friends, parents, wives and sweethearts have been through, perhaps it is best that I was sent back first because if I had not been I could never have known such a welcome from you cold-hearted, calculating, steely, calloused lot of New Englanders.”
Edwards was born in Ohio.
He continued: “I am a grandson of a New Englander with witch-burning ancestry. I have heard of the cold estimate of worth that is prevalent in New England but this welcome on behalf of the Twenty-Sixth Division for me personally has been more open-hearted than anything I have ever experienced.”
When he passed in 1931, Governor Cross ordered the State Capitol flag to be flown at half staff and called for a minute of silence.
