Cottrill Creates Ohio's Second Equestrian Civil War Statue

Zanesville native, Alan Cottrill, was selected to make the larger than life size equestrian statue of Major General William Starke Rosecrans mounted on his horse to be placed on the Village Green in Sunbury, Ohio.  This is only the second Civil War equestrian statue in Ohio.  The other is in Somerset, Ohio of General Phil Sheridan 

The Dedication of the Statue
will be
Saturday, September 28th.

Rosecrans Command Headquarters, a Civil War Re-enactment under the leadership of Rick Helwig formed under the umbrella of the Big Walnut Area Historical Society.  Members studied the Civil War Era and did living history presentations

and  local reenactments.  Tom Paul, who portrays General Rosecrans, spearheaded the group's effort to put a statue of the Kingston Township native who became a Civil War General on Sunbury Square. Alan Cottrill was selected to make the sculpture.

Cottrill started working in clay following college, the army, and a successful career as owner of a Four Star Pizza franchise in Pennsylvania.  His travels throughout the world gave him the opportunity to visit many major art museums.  He became an art collector and even painted but he found his heart when he touched clay for the first time in 1990.  He moved to New York to study sculpture at the renowned Art Students League and the National Academy of Design.  He studied anatomy at Columbia Medical Center.

Clay model of Boney, General Rosecrans'
 faithful mount during the Civil War

In June 1990, Alan moved his sculpture studio from Pennsylvania to his hometown of Zanesville. A 17,000 square foot studio and gallery is a dream facility with high ceilinged open areas with ample daylight  for working or viewing the sculptures.

Nearby is the Coppermill Bronzworks where Alan casts his clay into the bronze statues for which he is famous.

Alan makes a wax model of his sculpture which can easily be modified to get the customers input.  From there he made a model in clay and cast it in bronze.  More changes may be seen.

The back side of the horse shows the attention to detail Cottrill brings to his statues

In January 20013, Cottrill received the first check for the statue began working in the spring on the equestrian statue for Sunbury.  Cottrill will finish when it is mounted on the Village Square in Sunbury. 

The Statue Committee wishes to thank all the people who brought bricks or made other contributions to the statue fund. The statue committee consists of Chairman Bill Comisford,  Treasurer Hon. Henry Shaw, Jr., Richard N. Helwig, Janet MacKenzie, Sue Comisford and Polly Horn.  Watch for details of the Dedication on this website.

Visit Cottrill's Studio online at http://www.alancottrill.com

(08/12/2013)