McPherson Square is located at 15th Street between K and I streets NW. Identified as a park on the 1791 L’Enfant Plan of Washington, D.C., it is a key element of the historic monumental core, along with Farragut and Lafayette squares.
The square is named for Major General James B. McPherson, a leader of the Union Army during the American Civil War, who is depicted in the equestrian statue in the center of the park. The bronze artwork was cast from a captured cannon by Italian-born sculptor Louis Thomas Rebisso. The statue, topping a granite pedestal, was dedicated on October 18, 1876.