During the late nineteenth century, the monument was used as a place for Union veterans to gather at annual Memorial Day events to decorate the cenotaph and hear brief presentations.

[2][3] The square plinth includes four inscribed panels, three of which dedicate the monument to unnamed Union Army soldiers who died on the battlefields of New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War.

[8] The present siting originates with an 1860s re-design of the town square in a neoclassical style of the prior plaza grounds design.

[14] A time capsule was added October 24, 1867[15] containing coins of the period, local newspapers, legislative journals, and other commemorative items.

[20] The panel that contained the words "savage Indians" faced towards the Palace of the Governors where local Puebloan artisans sell arts and crafts under the portico.

In 1908–1909, the New Mexico governor offered to fund a change in wording while the legislative council passed a resolution supporting inscribing "confederate" in place of "rebel."

[26] The obelisk was of standard design from Edgar Warne & Company marble works, St. Louis, the contractor for the monument material.

[27][28][29] In the spring of 1868, the five marble components of the obelisk – four tapered shaft segments and a pyramidal capstone – were placed atop the plinth's tiered stone cap.

The committee selected the site, hired architects and workers, and contracted with a marble works for a cenotaph of modest design.

The next legislature, 1867–1868, passed an act January 29, 1868 that stated:[41] "Whereas no provision has been made for honoring the brave victims who have perished in the various wars with the savage Indians surrounding us, and this Legislative Assembly desires that a slab perpetuating the memory of those be included."

[42][43][44] During the 1910s–1960s, efforts emerged to remove the monument and replace it with either a gazebo or with a statue of a Spanish colonizer, Don Diego de Vargas.

He added, the word should be changed: "why should future generations of American Indian children continue to have this insulting reminder that the conquerors considered them little more than blood-lusting beasts, not notable martyrs fighting for their homes?

In 1973, the American Indian Movement leadership wrote the governor of New Mexico to change the wording of panel 4 or remove the Soldiers Monument.

[33] The GI Forum in Taos sent a message to the governor stating that the panel 4 wording was disturbing and should be obliterated: "no explanation in favor of the phrase can be sufficiently convincing.

[34] City management was hesitant to make changes because the plaza received federal aid as a National Historic Landmark in the 1960s and 1970s.

Shortly thereafter, Mayor Alan Webber stated that he planned to have the monument removed in addition to two others that symbolized glorification of conquest and violence.

A diverse crowd of several hundred people gathered at the plaza for two hours of talks focusing on reconciliation, social justice and a new era of civil rights.

It was reported that a young man wearing a hard hat walked into the plaza and chiseled out the word "savage" from the monument.

[61] The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reported that the man was described as being "in his 20s and having long blond hair" worn in a pony tail.

"[19] At the time of the incident, the state historian, Dr. Myra Ellen Jenkins, said her "immediate reaction was that I doubt it was an Indian [who performed the chisling] but some Anglo kook."

"[60] The reference to Native Americans as 'savages' in panel text #4 had long been a sore point to Native community groups who felt that the entire monument was an affront to their people because it "paid homage to Union soldiers who helped cement a claim to the territory for a nation that believed its [manifest] destiny stretched westward.

[63][5][64] [20] In anticipation of protests on the Plaza, city workers had gathered plywood to board off the obelisk; however, it was not assembled before the toppling occurred.