Mysterious Monument

Well, not really.  This is the top of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common.  The monument is 126 feet tall, and is situated at the top of Flag Staff Hill.  It was erected in honour of the Massachusetts soldiers and sailors who died in the Civil War.  The bronze female statue on top of the column is an allegorical figure named America.  She holds the United States flag in her left hand, and a laurel wreath and sword in her right.  An inscription at the base of the column reads:

TO THE MEN OF BOSTON
WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
ON LAND AND SEA IN THE WAR
WHICH KEPT THE UNION WHOLE
DESTROYED SLAVERY
AND MAINTAINED THE CONSTITUTION
THE GRATEFUL CITY
HAS BUILT THIS MONUMENT
THAT THEIR EXAMPLE MAY SPEAK
TO COMING GENERATIONS