He was doing the Sheridan memorial for Chicago, which nearly filled his Stamford studio, when he received the Wars of America commission. Characteristically, he immediately began to clear a place in the woods near his home and to dig out the ground for a foundation. The foundation he built of stones covered with cement, a support stout enough to be unshaken by any number of tons of clay or marble. On this he built a bigger studio with walls of stone, while at the same time he laid out the armature for the big group in the middle. Under his personal supervision large rocks for the base of the walls were dragged by horses and tackle from the bed of the near-by river. The location of so huge a monument demanded much thought and preparation. Eventually the City of Newark cheerfully spent another hundred thousand dollars for the setting of the group. Regarding this matter the sculptor wrote to Carl Bannwort, of the Newark Parks Department: Now that the monument matter is settled, won’t you get hold of Caparn, your landscape architect, and let us have a conference about where it will be placed? If you and he will come over and lunch with me, we can talk this park proposition over in detail. You have a chance to have the best memorial in the United States and I don’t want any slip through my failing to be beforehand. You are always in such a hurry yourself, anyway, you will be rebuking me if I don’t keep one or two steps ahead of you. A little later Mr. Bannwort replied: This is a subject I hardly dare mention. The mere whisper of it may cause as great a stir in the large area of your cerebellum as when a brick is tossed into the pond and visibly agitates every molecule of water. When we move the bandstand and other excrescences from Military Park, the memorial site, to make room for the monument, we must have a tool shed. Is there no way of putting a door at the northern end of your plinth and using some of the space under the bronze group for this utilitarian purpose? For fear that a whole load of bricks will be heaved by you with deadly aim, I say no more at present. The modeling was “going splendidly,” as the sculptor wrote, when Mr. Lum brought up a subject of prime importance, which of itself involved a whole volume of correspondence. This was the casting in bronze of the huge memorial. Mr. Lum wrote: