Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Dedication of the Monuments of the 7th, 10th and 37th Mass; Vols, at Gettysburg, Pa;, October 6, 1886: With the Dedicatory Address
Yet as we come to this spot to dedicate these monuments, in order to realize that forwhich they stand, and what they imply, it is necessary that we should temporarily leave the present with its joys and brightness and in fancy go back to those other days and scenes. We would not reawaken if we could the keen anguish of the former years, now soothed and softened by Time's effacing fingers the intense anxiety straining at the heart cords is happily only a memory, least of all would we revive the passion and the fury of those days of deadly strife when the hand of brother was raised against brother. It is not to perpetuate these that we have erected here our monuments; it is instead to mark an epoch in the world's history, a turning point in the destiny of a nation.
In some form or another and for one purpose or another the memorial stone has been erected through all the ages of the past, especially has its mission been to commemorate notable events and illustrious lives. Such are the shafts at Bunker Hill, at Baltimore, at Washington, and the one soon to be erected at Bennington. Such is the monument in yonder National cemetery, watching over the graves of nearly 4000 illustrious men who died along these hills and slopes because they loved their country. Illustrious men, did I say? That in deed and in truth they were; for while their lives may have been very humble and of little' moment as the great world counts importance, we Should never forget, comrades and friends, that to each and every one of these men his life was his all, and in giving that he gave as freely and as nobly as the most eminent citized and renowned patriot - gave all that he had and was on earth.
Correlative and supplementary to that greater monument, we have placed these lesser ones, to Show that organizations with which we were identified, and whose name and fame had become dear to us, bore part - not alone in what was done on this spot, but here and elsewhere in all that great struggle which had here its culmination and turning point. Here may be said to have been in every sense the central point in the great war of the rebellion; these hights form a vantage ground, so to speak, from whichwe may look back to the beginning and hear the firing of the first gun at Sumter; may witness the surrender at Appomattox, the grand review at Washington and the fading from the vision of the scenes of blood and con?ict. In point of time, the battle of Gettysburg stood midway; two years had elapsed since the shot that awakened every loyal heart was fired, years in which the cause of Union and liberty had trembled in doubt; two years still in the future was the day when the steadily waning power of the rebellion should utterly collapse, and the old flag Should float unstained and in triumph.
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