A bronze statue of Revolutionary War hero Col. Benjamin Cleveland, for whom the city of Cleveland, Tenn., was named, is unveiled Friday as part of Patriots’ Day activities. The work was sculpted by local artist Joshua Coleman and commissioned by the Colonel Benjamin Cleveland Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Cleveland commemorated Patriots’ Day – the 238th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord – by celebrating the life and times of the city’s namesake, Revolutionary War hero Col. Benjamin Cleveland.
On Friday, the Col. Benjamin Cleveland Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution unveiled a 500-pound bronze statue of Cleveland — known by contemporaries as “Old Round About” — in a ceremony at First Street Square.
The statue faces the Bradley County Courthouse with one hand on a sword hilt and the other holding a fox horn. Cleveland, a North Carolina militia officer who was 6 feet tall and weighed at least 300 pounds, earned his fame at Kings Mountain, S.C., on Oct. 7, 1780, serving as a leader of victorious Patriot forces that delivered a severe blow to British military efforts in the South.
The statue was created by local sculptor Joshua Coleman.
“He has produced what I think is a gem for our city of Cleveland and our county of Bradley,” Phil Newman, chairman of the chapter’s statue committee, said of Coleman.