USA > New York > History of the Ninth Regiment N.Y.S.M. -- N.G.S.N.Y. (Eighty-third N. Y. Volunteers.) 1845-1888 > Part 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
"Pickett's charge has not a parallel in the annals of war," and touchingly alluding to the dead, said :
"Such is the sacrifice sometimes demanded by the usages of war." Glancing toward Round Top he added : "Yon crown- ing heights are now far more pleasant for fraternal meetings." In closing he said : " The ladies are present, God bless them, and may they dispel all illusion that may come between the people."
The band played " Dixie" before Longstreet's speech and "Yankee Doodle," after which General Fairchild was intro- duced and started out with the sentence : Twenty-five years have made it possible to sandwich a Confederate and a Yankee between 'Dixie' and ' Yankee Doodle.' He did not know a better object lesson for the young than these fraternal gatherings of two once hostile armies. He agreed with Governor Beaver's opening remarks, concerning the use of Sabbath for this purpose, and there was no day too holy to visit the scenes and hold memorial services over the dead. In times of war it was
1888
EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESSES.
673
not too holy to fight on Sunday, and with proper motives in their hearts this was not wrong to pay well-merited tributes to the dead.
General Lucius Fairchild of Wisconsin, Prof. Williams of Providence, R. I., Captain J. H. Stine, historian of the First Corps, and several others spoke briefly, and the exercises closed about five o'clock.
-¿
1888
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
674
CHAPTER XXXIV.
DEDICATION OF MONUMENT AT GETTYSBURG.
1888 (CONTINUED.)
Procession to the Monument .- Some Distinguished Veterans Present .- Chairman William Scott Addresses the Audience .- Monument Unveiled .- Transferred to the Gettysburg Memorial Association by General Sickles .- The Poem .- Orarion of Hon. Orlando B. Potter .-- Music by the Band .-- Greetings of Veterans on the Field .-- The Veteran Association Leave for Home.
AT four o'clock in the afternoon the regiment assembled and marched into town, where the procession was formed for the march to the monument. The Orator, Poet, Chairman NINTH . Regiment Gettysburg Monument Committee, New York Board of Commissioners, Officers of Gettysburg Memorial Association, Officers of Society of Army of the Potomac, Officers of Society of First Army Corps and Disabled Veterans, were in carriages. The members of the Veteran Association, together with comrades from John A. Dix Post No. 135, and Alexander Hamilton Post No. 182, G. A. R., and Veterans of the 61st, 97th, and 119th New York regiments, formed the left of the line, the regiment on the right. Upon reaching the monument the Veterans were drawn up facing the cast front, the Regiment forming a double line behind them. A stand had been erected to the left of the shaft, and upon it were grouped many distinguished Veterans and a number of ladies. Among the former were Generals Daniel E. Sickles, Henry W. Slocum, Joseph B. Carr and Charles K. Graham and Major Charles A. Richardson of the State Commission (having in charge the erection of the New York monuments), and Major George W. Cooney ; General N. Martin Curtis, Commander of the Department of New York, Grand Army of the Re- public ; General John Hendrickson, Chairman of the Mon- ument Committee and ex-Colonel of the NINTH ; John M.
1888
DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 675
Vanderslice, he Gettysburg Memorial Association ; Colonel Frank J. Magee, Commander of the Department of Pennsyl- vania, Grand Army of the Republic; Captain George S. Anderson, of the Sixth Regular Cavalry ; Hon. Orlando B. Potter, the Orator of the day ; Rowland B. Mahany, Esq., the Poet, and Mr. William Scott, Commander of the Veteran Corps, under whose auspices the ceremony was conducted. Sig. Luciano Conterno's fine band, which had accompanied the NINTH, played a march, " NINTH Regiment," composed by the leader, when the Rev. Alfred C. Roe, ex-Chaplain of the regi- ment, and Chaplain of the Veteran Association, invoked the Divine blessing :
PRAYER.
O Lord, as we come this day before Thee, who art so high and lifted up, we praise Thee. Thou dost speak, and it is done -- dost command, and it stands fast. We praise Thee for Thy greatness, and this is guided by Thy wisdom. Nothing is too vast for Thee, nothing beneath Thy notice. Thou dost see the end from the very beginning and dost march straight on to Thy designs.
But both alike, greatness and wisdom, wait upon Thy goodness. Wherefore we are not afraid of Thee, but call Thee Father. For Thou dost bring light out of dark- ness and good from evil ; and art able to make despair the door of hope, and our utmost danger but the contrast to the deliverance. Thou dost vouchsafe, even as our eyes behold this day.
We thank Thee for this bright afternoon with its fair sights and sounds, its quiet peace and rest. We thank Thee for the contrast between the present and the day we celebrate-then, the sounds of strife and deadly struggle of those who had been brethren : now, the clasped hands of friendship and sweet Sabbath bells.
We thank Thee for the numbers present-of the Veterans who fought over these hills. Thou didst shield us in battle, hast brought us through these many years, and we stand before Thee this day, monuments of Thy protecting care. We humbly thank Thee that we had part in the conflict, when our country rose to a larger life and a truer freedom ; and that we can leave the proud memory thereof to our children.
We thank Thee for the full ranks in the grand old regiment of those who are stepping into their fathers' places with their young hopes and strong hearts and arms. We thank Thee for the friends present, many of whom sent sons and husbands to the strife, or, toiling at home, supplied the resources of the field ; and many have grown up since to enter into blessings purchased on this spot.
We thank Thee for a united land-that there are no jarring States, nor any line drawn across our fair domain bristling with arms and guarded with hostile care. Slavery, too, the crime of our land, has been swept away. This, the cause of our woe, has been cheaply removed, though at the cost of treasure, and blood, and misery untold. We humble ourselves before Thee, and acknowledge our sin and the justice of Thy punishments.
Bat in anger thou didst remember mercy. We have learned, both North and South,
676
1888
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
mutual respect as for those of the same blood, with the same memories, and the same stout hearts. We thank Thee for the dying out of hatred-that not the bitterness of the strife, but its heroism and sacrifices on either side are remembered, and that we have learned how men can be mistaken, and yet noble and true.
Above all we thank Thee for the presence and fraternization of so many former foes, and accept it as a pledge of the present and an omen for the future. We thank Thee for the dear old flag and all that it means, and for the higher, holier love of country we all feel, alike the Blue and the Gray.
And now, Our Father, we meet to dedicate this monument to the memory of those who suffered and died. May its lesson sink deeply into our hearts, both as a Nation and with all now in Thy presence-the lesson that country and duty as we see it, is more precious than life itself. May it still live when this granite shaft we erect shall have crumbled and been forgotten. So only shall it be possible for Thee to give and for us to receive the blessings we desire.
We pray for the welfare and prosperity of the land, that it be preserved from fac- tion and strife, that there be one rule for the rich and the poor, and that our example of liberty and law through the government of the people, be an influence for good among the nations of the world.
To that end we pray that all in high places, and that those under them in authority, may rule in Thy fear. We pray for good rulers ; and as the people are with us the real source of power, we pray that they have eyes to see and courage to do the right.
We pray for our children here present, and for the generations to come, that they . be spared our test. Yet, Lord, we do not ask that they be without trial ; for without the strife there is no victory. We seek rather that they be ready for their country's call, and evermore be good soldiers of the right and God.
We pray for those who meet again after a quarter of a century. If consistent with Thy will, spare useful, honored lives-yes, those who come here but fragments and portions, as it were, of their former selves. Grant at least, that their future years be in all respects in harmony with and worthy of their services in arms. May they be ready for every summons of duty, faithful to the end. And when the last trumpet shall sound the roll-call of God's heroes of the right, may they answer joyfully to their names, and receive the approbation and promotion of the Lord. Amen.
General Hendrickson, chairman of the monument committee, then signalled for the unveiling of the shaft, and as the flag was being removed the band played " The Star Spangled Banner." General Hendrickson then, in brief but eloquent terms, pre- sented the monument to the Veteran Association and Mr. Scott, the president, accepted it, supplementing his formal acceptance by a brief address, in which he detailed the ways and means whereby the monument had been erected. He said in sub- stance, that in the summer of ISS6 the Veteran Association made a pilgrimage to the battle-fields of Antietam, South Moun- tain and Gettysburg, and while at the latter place, and noticing the monuments there erected, it occurred to some that the
677
THE CEREMONIES.
1888
NINTH should also be remembered. A meeting was held that evening at the hotel in the village, and preliminary steps taken to secure the desired result. Upon reaching home the matter was thoroughly canvassed, a committee appointed, and General Hendrickson made chairman. After two years of hard work, and by the assistance of many generous friends, supplemented by an appropriation of $, 1500 from the State of New York, " the result is before us."
Turning to General Sickles, chairman of the New York commission, Mr. Scott formally presented the monument to the commission. The General in a few well chosen words, in which he paid a high tribute to the valor of the soldiers from the Empire State who fought in the battle, and especially to the men of the NINTH who died upon that and other fields, accepted the monument ; then, turning to Comrade John M. Vanderslice, representing the Gettysburg Memorial Association, which has in charge all the monuments on the field, the General made the formal transfer to the association. Comrade Van- derslice, in accepting the charge on behalf of the association, promised that the monument should have perpetual care and be preserved sacred to the memory of the brave men whose deeds it records.
Upon the conclusion of Comrade Vanderslice's remarks the band rendered " Nearer My God to Thee," and then the Poet, Mr. Rowland B. Mahany, of Buffalo, N. Y., was introduced, and read the following verses :
DEDICATION POEM.
BY ROWLAND B. MAHANY, OF BUFFALO, N. Y.
What shall we say to crown the honored dead, What voice of ours shall magnify their fame, Who on this field for Truth and Country bled. In storm of shot, in hell of battle's flame ?
Weak were our words to sound the note of woe, And vain the woven laurel of our praise, If that high faith by which their memories grow, Exalted not the spirit of our days!
1883
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
We sit at ease ! Across our prosperous years, No bugle peal of War's alarum sounds ; No host of armed battalions now appears, To desolate what smiling Commerce founds.
Blest is our land ! It teems with all increase, Its glory is the glory of mankind ; And all that Nationhood can give in peace, The slaves of older systems here may find.
Yet with inglorious triumphs in the mart, Men lose the grateful thought of freedom won, Nor estimate aright the dauntless part By heroes borne, in deeds of valor done.
In wealth's mad race, men's finer sense is dulled, They give not meed of honor as they might, Nay, even scorn, through conscience lost or lulled, The Soldiers of this War for Human Right.
We greet_to-day, the great, majestic Past, Wherein those heroes wrought their work sublime Whose glory never can be overcast,
While Progress treads the broad highway of Time.
Here on this storied ground whose holy sod Is fertile with the blood they nobly shed, We gather now to consecrate to God, The fame of His, and our, immortal dead.
On Gettysburg the fate of ages hung, The unborn millions in the future's womb
Rejoiced, when our exultant anthem rung And Freedom's light broke over Slavery's tomb.
No, never struggle was akin to this ! The old-time battles meant dynastic gains ; This ranks both Marathon and Salamis, For Humankind was freed upon these plains.
Here on this spot where countless heroes fell, We rear this fair memorial to their worth, That to all generations it may tell That Freedom everlasting here had birth !
Oh, hallowed shaft ! that speaks the garnered grief Of those whose tears forever silent fall For their lost loved ones, whose existence brief A dream of glory seemed and that was all !
678
1888
679
DEDICATION POEM.
They went in strength to nevermore return ; Their dust was mingled with the myriad years ; But while high deeds make bosoms beat and burn, Their names will grace the temple Fame uprears.
Through all the changing future's vast unknown.
Their valor points the length of Freedom's day ; We, for the love we bear them, raise this stone, To mark the mightiest triumph on the way.
While now we glorify that matchless host, Whose faith and courage spurned all doubts and fears, Forgive us if we turn to honor most,
Our own brave NINTH, our peerless Volunteers !
We need not praise them in sonorous rhyme, Who wrote their epic in red lines of steel ; Words echo faintly down the aisles of time ; Deeds merit deeds to make their meaning real.
When Lincoln blew his Northern bugle blast, The eager NINTH enlisted " for the war ";
And though death mowed their comrades thick and fast, They bore the flag before Columbia's car.
At Gettysburg-here on this very spot- They checked o'erwhelming numbers-undismayed ! Ay, North Carolina felt their courage hot. When down they swept on Iverson's Brigade.
But why recount the ceaseless roll of fame? Their glory is as deathless as the stars ! Of those that fought, we see each shining name, Where neither praise or censure makes or mars.
Here where their hearts were wrung, we consecrate Ourselves to that great truth for which they died- Their legatees of freedom in a State Where evermore the Union shall abide.
And, as our love's best love the Nation claims, Let us forget the fury of past strife ; And North and South with re-united aims. Move forward in the future's grander life.
Yea, that the South fought well, let us rejoice ; They were our brothers, chivalrous and brave; And though they lost the battle, let our voice Place Valor's wreath above each hero's grave.
1888
680
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
We are too great to cherish olden wrongs ; The din of conflict dies within our ears,
As swelling on the breeze the festal songs Of Peace and Friendship greet the coming years.
O North and South, O Nation one and free ! We lay our whole existence at thy feet,-
For here the hallowed dead who died for thee, Have glorified and made thy fate complete.
The reading of the poem was listened to with rapt atten- tion and frequently elicited outbursts of applause.
Hon. Orlando B. Potter, of New York, was then introduced as the orator of the occasion. Mr. Potter said :
Veterans and Members of the NINTH Regiment of New York Militia, and of the Eighty-third New York Volunteers :
After what has now been done on this spot, surrounded by this scene, there is little need of speech by me. The spot upon which we are gathered, the scene which sur- rounds us, and the memories which they awaken and recall, are more eloquent and more stirring than any words I might utter. You are on the spot where, twenty-five years ago this day, you met and turned back with others who participated with you in the struggle, perhaps the most determined and best organized assault ever made upon the flag and armies of your country. With the close of the work which this day com- memorates, you and those who fought upon this field with you had established the fact that no power upon this continent, however concentrated, impassioned and well directed, could carry a war of invasion to the heart of the loyal States of this Union. The work accomplished upon this field must ever remain a prominent and important, if not a decisive, part of your country's history. Here sleep the dead who mingled their efforts and their blood with yours in the struggle for the preservation of your country's liberties; and these hill-sides and plains, the whole landscape upon which you look again afresh, are but the " solemn decorations" of the tombs of those who, fell upon this field .. How impotent is speech or attempt at description to those who here took part as actors in the struggle you now commemorate! I shall attempt no such description. The record of that struggle is made up; and these fields and plains and heights, which bore witness to its sacrifices; sufferings, efforts, and victory, have kept and will faithfully keep this record in the tombs of the heroic dead until they shall be given up at the last trump.
Nor is it important to this occasion that I attempt to enter at all into details of the sufferings and sacrifices of the regiment, of which you are the honored remnant, upon other fields than this. These survive in your own memories. They, too, are a part of the history of your country. You will live them over again and again while memory remains to you, and when you have passed away they will remain in that history, as the richest legacy to your children and children's children, as your con- tribution by example, to stimulate and encourage the patriotism of those who may be hereafter called to serve their country on the field.
It is sufficient to say here that this regiment volunteered its services to the country
: 1883
ADDRESS OF HON. ORLANDO B. POTTER.
68 1
early in the Rebellion ( April 19th, 1861), and volunteered for the war. Its members were sworn in and became part of the organized army June 8th, 1861. Between that date and the discharge of all that remained of them, June 23d, 1864, the regiment par- ticipated in eighteen battles, commencing with that at Harper's Ferry. July 4th, 1861, and ending with the battle of Cold Harbor, June 20, 1864. *
The regiment suffered loss in killed and wounded in fourteen of these battles; and lost in killed, wounded, and those who died of wounds, during its service, six hundred and eighty-four in all. Upon this field the regiment, which had been before largely reduced by its heavy losses, lost in killed seven, and in wounded eighteen. When the remnant of the regiment was discharged, the army of the Rebellion had ceased to be an army of invasion, and the beginning of the end of the Rebellion was at hand.
Such service as volunteers for your country in any cause needing your arms or your lives, would more than entitle you to the commemoration of to-day and to this monument, to transmit to posterity the remembrance of your patriotism and devotion to country. But your service was rendered in no ordinary war. War against foreign nations is easy as compared with war in which all is put at hazard for the cause of country, in a contest against one's own countrymen. The service for which you volunteered, was a service against American citizens, your own countrymien, and was the most arduous and trying for which freemen can draw the sword. But it was a service necessary to save American liberty for yourselves and your children. Other forms of liberty had been known and enjoyed in other countries and by other people, but American liberty was the child of the American Constitution and the Union of these States, and had not before been known or enjoyed by man. It made the citizen a coequal sovereign with every other citizen both of the community and State in which he lives, and also of the Nation formed by the Union of all the States, and endowed with such, and only such powers as was necessary to secure to the citizen the sacred right of self-government at home, and protection and security as a citizen of the Nation against and throughout the outside world. The American citizen, therefore, at the same time a sovereign and coequel member with every other citizen both of the State in which he lives, and of the Nation, rightfully regards and cherishes every foot of the National domain, in whatever State or Territory, as part of his own country, while the State in which he lives is the immediate spot and territory whose govern- ment and laws, in all matters not delegated to the Nation, he with other citizens thereof ordains and controls. While he relies for protection and enjoyment of his fireside rights, primarily upon the State government by which he is immediately sur- rounded, he finds those rights also doubly secured in the American Constitution ; and, more important to the permanence of his liberties, the American citizen finds only in the Constitution and the Union of the States under it, the sufficient guarantee of the ability of the State to maintain and make good the security and permanency of these domestic rights and liberties-the only adequate guarantee for the maintenance of republican government by the State itself. But more and greater still the possessor of this double liberty of State and Nation finds, and shall forever find in the American Constitution alone, freedom with the rights of a citizen throughout every part of the National domain, freedom of the seas, freedom from disturbance by war, except such as shall be waged by the consent of the whole country and for the welfare and security of the Nation, and freedom and all-sufficient protection of his liberties and rights as an American citizen under the flag of his country throughout the world. If the tide of Roman citizen was valuable to him at home and abroad, what is the value of American citizenship,-what will it be when, within the lifetime of those now living,
---
1
: ---
1
682
1888
THE NINTH NEW YORK.
our sixty millions of to-day shall become two hundred millions, dwelling together as brothers in peace and love, holding the advance of human progress under the flag which on this spot you so gloriously and triumphantly defended in support of consti- tutional liberty and self-government ?
But it was said in behalf of those who contended against our flag and nationality in the late war, that they contended for self-government. This was doubtless believed by the body of the army who waged that contest against that dear old flag, in whose stars and stripes are recorded the great achievements of the past and shall be recorded the achievements of the future-a record and inheritance of glory for them and for us forever. Never did greater delusion possess the human mind. There is and can never be but one adequate security for self-government upon this continent, and that is the American Constitution. That Constitution was rescued from destruction and burial, in the abyss of secession, by the valor of the Union arms on the battle-fields of the war we in part review to-day. Higher service for country and mankind has never been and can never be rendered than was rendered in that rescue.
It has been said that the battles and victories of the late war ought not to be cele- brated, because they were battles against and victories over our own countrymen. I cannot agree with this sentiment. They were battles for the supremacy and preser- vation of our Constitution and Government. They were the last argument, rendered necessary by the appeal from reason to force in the assault upon Fort Sumter, for the overthrow and annihilation of the fatal heresy of secession, which had its origin more than thirty years before in the false teachings of statesmen who failed to regard their own States as a necessary part of the National Union, and refused to accept and acknowledge the National Government as necessary or important to their own per- manent liberty, progress and prosperity. This heresy, if acquiesced in, made our Union, after all it had cost of blood, treasure, and sacrifice, but a rope of sand, which might at any time be broken and destroyed at the will of a minority of the States forming it, or at the will of a single State. The appeal to force in support of this heresy left the Nation no alternative but to maintain by force the Government and Constitution created by our fathers and theirs. All that was won upon the battle- fields of the Revolution, and all thereafter achieved through the dreary experiences of the Confederacy, and all that was of value in our constitutional Government, under which the States and Nation had prospered and grown strong as few people have ever prospered, from the formation of the, Constitution to this suicidal assault in 1861 upon the Government, was at stake upon the issue tried and decided upon the battle- fields of the war against Rebellion. If this Rebellion had succeeded, the Govem- ment established by our fathers would have been overthrown, and all the treasures and hopes for our own country and mankind with which that Government was freighted would have been lost. Fortunately for the Union, not less than its assail- ants, the Constitution and Union were preserved and the heresy of secession was an- nihilated and buried, and I trust abandoned forever, in the surrender at Appomattox. The triumph of the Union arms upon this field and other fields of that war, were not triumphs over or against the rights of the South. They were triumphs as much for the South as lor the North-triumphs of the Constitution and the Union only, through which and under which all parts of the country, North or South, had achieved all that was valuable in their history, and in obedience and support of which they could only hope to achieve anything valuable to human liberty in the future for them- selves or for mankind. No right of self-government was conquered from that section of the country which had unfortunately placed itself in arms against our Nation and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.