Located in the Townsend Town Common at Main and School Streets in Townsend, Massachusetts, this standing soldier statue is one of several done in this style ("The Volunteer") by artist Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson. The first "Volunteer" was sculpted in 1902 for Newburyport. The Townsend Volunteer was gifted through a bequest of $10,000 from John Birney Blood, who had served in the 53rd Massachusetts Infantry. Blood enlisted when he was 22 years old, and his unit served in the Port Hudson Campaign, LA in 1863. While he returned home, his brother, Abijah Blood, did not. He died at age 91 in 1931, and the statue was dedicated the following year. By this late date, the construction of Civil War monuments in Massachusetts had largely ceased, due in part to the Depression.