USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 46
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"Wild days that woke to glory or despair, And smote the coward's soul with sudden shame; But unto those whose hearts were bold to dare All things for honor, brought eternal fame."
It was a struggle of the Titans, and not until the South was utterly exhausted did the conflict end. In this mighty conflict what part did Beaver County play? Conservative men estimate the number of soldiers furnished by this county at eighteen hundred, and it must be remembered that this was at a time when our entire population-men, women, and children-was less than thirty thousand. This we know, that on many farms the harvest was gathered by the women and children. But what part did the Beaver County volunteer take in the conflict? Go read the history of these four bloody years of strife and you will find that wher- ever there was heavy fighting to be done Beaver County's brave sons were there. This is more emphatically attested by the many vacant places at the family board and around the firesides. Few families, indeed, who did-and do-not mourn the loss of father, son, husband, or brother, many of whom occupy unmarked graves in Southland soil.
These brave sons of Beaver County have builded for themselves a monument more enduring than one of granite or bronze. Yet we would pay our tribute to their valor and their worth, and have therefore erected this monument to the memory of the soldiers and sailors of Beaver County. It is the tribute of our generation to one which is rapidly passing away. It has been erected by the Commissioners of the county, and therefore every citizen of the county has an interest in it. After the lapse of nearly forty years, we can dedicate this monument to-day without a trace of bitterness. The bloody chasm has been filled up, and to-day the North and South are one. We know but one country, one flag, and one people: the first, the greatest; the second, the most precious; and the last, the freest and happiest on earth. All this we owe to the old veterans living and dead, to whom we dedicate this monument.
And now, in the name of the County Commissioners, I present this
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beautiful shaft to the people of Beaver County, to be kept and preserved by them as a lasting tribute to the heroism of our volunteers, and an object lesson in patriotism to all coming generations.
As Mr. Bigger finished his address, the large flag covering the monument was lowered by the hand of Master Richard Harter of Canton, Ohio, a grandson of Col. Richard P. Roberts, a former member of the Beaver County bar and Colonel of the 140th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Amid the cheers of the gathered thousands and a salute from the guns of Battery B, the flag gracefully fell from the imposing memorial, while the Great Western Band played The War Songs of the Boys in Blue, and the Chorus Club followed with The Red, White, and Blue.
Lieutenant-Governor J. P. S. Gobin then accepted the monu- ment in behalf of the people.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The State of Pennsylvania in authorizing and empowering the Com- missioners of each county to erect a monument to their soldier dead but reflected the sentiment which has permeated nations for ages. An appreciation of those who voluntarily offer their lives for their govern- ment seems inherent to the best forms of civilization; and very properly too, for it must be apparent that as a rule nations are fearful of the ravages of war. They appreciate its peril and demoralizing tendencies, and all the evils which follow in its train, and yet realize fully that there are conditions under which it cannot be averted. The people of the United States have always been averse to war, and have never pursued it for any purpose not consistent with our form of government; and yet when the occasion has arisen calling for the employment of the soldiers of the nation there has been no hesitancy, and the citizen soldier of the Great Republic has taken his place in the ranks, and proven to be one of the greatest fighting machines the world has ever known. And he has fought for his home, his government, and the flag which represents them both, and a full recognition of what it represents is essential for perfect service in those who follow it.
It is this citizen soldier of the Republic whose deeds we commemorate to-day, and in saluting this beautiful structure, erected by the citizens of Beaver County, in commemoration of those citizens who became soldiers at the request of their government, it is but fitting for us to refer briefly to the characteristics of those soldiers. Home and government are so inseparably connected in this nation of ours, that it is but just that in the homes of the survivors, and in those of future generations, there should be taught the virtues of those whose deeds are in this manner commemorated. As the great Lincoln remarked at Gettysburg, it was impossible to dedicate that ground by a monument to be erected there;
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the men who had fought and fallen there had consecrated it beyond all power of expression.
And so in this county of Beaver your soldiers, whom you this day honor, by the sacrifice of their lives consecrated the homes they dwelt in, and made your county and all its people the heirs of the glory and fame they as soldiers left behind them. The American soldier is a distinct outgrowth of our system of government, and his appearance upon the field, in all the wars of this nation, has emphasized his peculiarity. He comes from every rank and calling, from every profession and business, with less thought of benefit to himself or future rewards than ever has been the condition in any army of the world. He is in every sense of the word a volunteer, and with a readiness that is not fully appreciated, dons the habits and submits to the discipline necessary to make the most perfect soldier the world has ever known. Let him be skillfully com- manded and bravely led, and there can be no doubt as to what he will accomplish if anything can be accomplished. As we remember him in the closing days of the war for the Union, stripped of everything but what was absolutely necessary for his purposes, self-confident, self- reliant, the embodiment of patriotism, courage, daring, and adventure, his picture must ever remain fresh in the minds of his comrades. His necessities were few. His aversion to anything not absolutely necessary for the firing line is well known. To him the necessities of life consisted in a good rifle and forty rounds of ammunition; to him the rubber blanket was baggage, and a woolen blanket freight, in his self-confident heart victory was certain because he believed in his cause, and was willing to die for it.
To his commanding officer he was thoroughly loyal. He retained and exercised the right to criticise all military movements, and their expediency, but when the order came to move, and go forward in any given direction, objection ceased and he went with serene confidence that all would be well. He loved to speak of his commander in familiar tones. Major-General Grant or Sherman, or even Grant or Sherman, was too lengthy and unsuitable for his use; it was "Ulyss," "Uncle Billy," "Pap," "Thomas," "Little Phil," or "Little Mac," as the case might be, and very few commanding officers escaped without a nickname of some kind, which was usually indicative of the peculiarity which the soldier beheld, or imagined he beheld, in his favorite officer. I have never seen this confidence better exemplified than in an incident connected with Sher- man's Army leaving Atlanta for the sea. As the Twentieth Corps moved out, without any knowledge whatever of their destination, there were sounds of heavy explosions in the captured and doomed city they were leaving behind them. Two soldiers conversing, one inquired of the other what that noise was, when the other replied: "They are blowing up the town I suppose; have no use for it any more; I heard before I left camp this morning that the General had made up his mind to blow up the river." "Well," replied the other, "I don't know about that, but if Uncle Billy wants to do it, he will do it, and if he does do it, it is all right, anyhow," and giving his gun an extra hitch this American soldier moved
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onward, having given his commander the strongest possible evidence of his confidence in him, and an expression of his utter indifference to what was before him.
Of his achievements in the War for the Union it is difficult to speak with the ordinary emphasis at this period of the nation's history. Even then he builded better than he knew, and in the preservation of the govern- ment based upon the will of the majority, he seems to have been but an instrument of Providence in preparing this nation for the greater position it was to assume among the governments of the world.
Regard it as we may, there is everywhere apparent the hand of the Almighty, directing the movements and the purposes which were to remove from this nation those differences of opinion and those evils which were separating our people, and after due time to bring them together under one great constitutional organization, with but one flag and with no divided allegiance.
Therefore it is that, as we to-day look upon the accomplishments of the past, we behold this soldier of the nation rising into greater and more important significance, as the result of his work becomes more apparent.
Able writers, among them General Dick Taylor, of the Confederate Army, have maintained that slavery was not the cause of the War of the Rebellion, and whether it was or not, we must realize that equal in danger with it, as affecting the stability of the Union, was the prevalent doctrine of State Rights, which had been left unsettled by the founders of the Federal Constitution. This, however, was settled at Appomattox, and the American Nation became from that time one divested of both these evils and with a reputation for resources, endurance, bravery, and heroic sacrifices never excelled. And this was not only to the eternal credit of the men in the field, but for its accomplishment the support of those remaining at home was most essential.
The great sufferers were at the lonely firesides where vacant chairs remained unfilled and where wives and mothers mourned for those who would never return, but with a spirit undaunted the American woman rendered her name forever blessed among the heroines of the world.
And now to-day culminate the thought and sentiment of all these years with this beautiful testimonial. The soldiers of 1898 succeeded those of the 60's, and it remained but for this to weld the people of all the States into the great and harmonious whole of which the nation is comprised to-day. Originally it seems to have been necessary that we should have passed through the fire of war and under the strokes of Divine Providence in order that justice might be done to all men, and latterly to again respond to the tocsin of war, and to a slight extent feel its torrid breath in order that the world might understand and appreciate that the American people were once more united in love of their country and devoted to its every interest.
It is necessary, in order that these lessons may be thoroughly learned, that not only the memory of those whom this monument commemorates be held in historic reverence, but that their service and patriotism be
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appreciated in every homestead. Patriotism is the foundation stone of this Republic, and its lessons should be taught in every schoolhouse and by every fireside. Wherever the flag floats and the American soldier is ordered for duty the hearts of the American people will be with him and the sustaining hand of all the people will be with the government. It is easy to criticise, but idle to attempt to restrain the onward march of destiny. The growth and development of the nation upon this con- tinent has been phenomenal and for a purpose. If our civilization, and our Christianity, and our form of government are the right ones and the best, then we must extend them throughout the world, for the world wants what is right and what is the best.
This nation of ours is a synonym of liberty everywhere, and with liberty goes the American schoolhouse and the American Bible. Any mission of an evangelizing character undertaken by our people must succeed, peacefully if possible, through warfare if necessary.
And now in behalf of the people of this county let me extend their thanks to the officials who have erected this beautiful testimonial to the valor and patriotism of your sons. May it stand forever, not only as a testimonial of what they did, and of what they accomplished, but as an in- centive to all men to appreciate the patriotism which induced them to make the sacrifice!
May we to-day one and all as citizens of this the greatest nation of the world renew our allegiance to our government and all that it represents, and realize as never before the inestimable value of the proud title of American citizens!
Some writer is responsible for the thought that before the monument to Napoleon at the Place Vendôme the armies of Europe are marching forever. Before the Government of Liberty on this continent the world will forever pass in silent procession, beholding its peace and pros- perity we hope; and before this memorial the representatives of the county of Beaver, its visitors and citizens, will gaze with increased tender- ness and love of country, with dimmed eyes, as long as the sunshine lingers lovingly upon its sides. May all the lessons that flow from it bring but increased devotion to liberty and union, and reverential pride in the unparalleled growth of the nation, and unite us thoroughly in the undivided support of our government which this in part represents, and which the men honored by it died to maintain inviolate through all the coming ages.
Col. J. A. Vera of Custer City, Pa., was then introduced and spoke on "Beaver County in War."
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I can sympathize with Rip Van Winkle in his pitiful bewilderment, awake from a twenty years' sleep and pathetically looking around for the boys. For lo, I am introduced to the people of Beaver County! I am among "mine own people," yet a stranger in a strange land! I will none of it.
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Why, God bless you all! my heart goes out to you in the language of Ruth to Naomi: "Whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried."
Or, with Burns:
"An' here 's a hand my trusty fiere, An' gie 's a hand o' thine; We 'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne."
But never fancy me a stranger to the girls and boys of ye olden time- of Beaver County before or in the Civil War.
Beaver County in War! What an emotional flood of tender, patriotic memories-the proudest and the saddest that tongue can tell!
The beginning of the story is told, here and there, by half a hundred lonely, nearly forgotten, almost obliterated, boulder-marked graves. No chiseled cenotaph, no fame-inscribed memorial, no heaven-scaling monu- ment is theirs. And yet, "Come not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." He that lieth there-under the daisies, under the snow-"made way for liberty, and died." Cherished forever be the memory and consecrated the graves of the soldiers of the Revolution!
And when, in the beauty of flowers, we bring back a spring-time glow on the myrtle-wreathed grave of comrade or commander, we still scatter the bud and the bloom, for a hero's laurel, under the shadow of the tablet sacred to the memory of the soldier of 1812. Some six hundred of these were "Beaver County in War" when England once more lowered her flag, on the land and on the sea, to the paan of victory volleyed by the Ameri- can guns in 1815.
On that April day, the opening of that most wonderful of conflicts in the world's history, when Sumter was fired upon, the Confederate cannon had sounded the knell of a Republic that could know no awaking. But hark to the
"Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching!"
They are coming from every Northern mountain and hill and vale- coming from city and town and hamlet-coming from prairie and farm and workshop-coming from the turreted castle of the rich and from the humble home of the poor-coming by rail and river and highway-they are coming with sinewy muscles and ringing footsteps, with set faces and gallant hearts, to do-to dare, or to die!
They are coming-coming-coming-until Appomattox closes the Janus gates of war, and there are victory and peace, and liberty and union eternal as the rock-crested hills.
The young giant among the nations had tottered almost to the fall, and falling would have been embalmed in history with Macedon, Athens, Sparta. But the drums beat, the bugle sounded, and the man with the
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musket was there making history that will live when Carthage, Greece, and Rome-when Hannibal, Alexander, Cesar, are almost forgotten memories enshrined in the dust of a bygone wealth and strength and splendor.
Beaver County in War in 1861-65? Well yes, pretty much all its male population old enough and young enough to handle a sword or a gun.
Yes, and the women too were in war. Picking lint, making bandages, sending boxes of garments to the hospitals, and, in organized groups, with clattering machines and chattering tongues, were busy daily and devotedly-a home guard of slippered warriors and fireside defenders. God bless the women, the ministering angels of war, in their silent home courage, when every fatal bullet of the battle-field rebounded from a far off hearthstone carrying desolation, mourning, death in its lightning flight!
Even our river men took the hard knocks but without the glory. Steamboats, transports, convoys, tin-clads, on the lower waters, under a rain of iron and lead. The pilots in their steel cage; the engineers, mates, and roustabouts behind boiler-plate barricades; captain and clerks dodging around smoke-stacks; cook, forehanded with boiling water to repel boarders, armed with iron spoon, and protected by inverted soup- kettle helmet, like Ben Battle-cook "Was a soldier bold, much used to war's alarms." These hardy, courageous steamboat men were in govern- ment service, if you please, and were not the sort to tie up and take to the woods to escape a probable pelting from rebel riflemen.
Statistics are burdensome. To-day memory is my only mentor. The Beaver County of the early sixties has grown.
Beaver Falls was the Old Brighton of a dozen dwellings and a silent factory or two; Monaca was Phillipsburg, a quaint German village placidly dozing in the sunshine, ferried only into the big round world; Rochester was River street and Teaberry with a lonesome civilization terraced between; Bridgewater, the Sleeping Princess of the Valley, the enchantment dispelled by the touch and the hand clasp of the Knight of Sharon; Beaver, the Saints Rest, disturbed only by the inrush of the ungodly to Court, convention and county fair.
New towns, suburbs, extensions, parks, and pleasure resorts, were towering groves, forests primeval, or pastures green. Even so, five full companies of soldiers went into the United States service from New Brighton alone: Captains Cuthbertson, Hanna, Vera, Patterson, and Barker. All, save one, are
"Beyond the river where the surges cease to roll."
Beaver, Bridgewater, and Sharon, and Rochester with Freedom and Phillipsburg, sent one or several companies each. In Beaver, almost on the very spot where the soldier's monument of to-day honors the brave who fell, three companies, F, H, and I, of the 140th Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry, were mustered into the United States service, Aug. 22, 1862.
Following the first two years of war volunteering went on continu- ously through the Provost Marshal's department, at New Brighton, for
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the district of Beaver, Lawrence, Washington, and Greene counties. After that came the deluge and the draft to gather the loiterers by the wayside.
Patriotism is an outgrowth of these beautiful hills and valleys, truly native here as on the castled Rhine of song and story-'mid the peaks and crags of the Jura and Tyrolean Alps-in the Edenic valleys of Lake Lucerne, of the Rhone and of the Danube. And so, in the sixties, Beaver County in war was but the spontaneous expression of a God-implanted love of the liberty-cradled land of their birth. The great heart-throbs of this people were a transfused pulsating vitality pouring its crimson flood through the fever-fired veins of the god of unity, enthroned within this latest citadel of human freedom, at the seeming consummation century of the creative fiat that called a world out of chaos, and that gave man dominion over the air, the earth, and the sea.
Pennsylvania heroism immortalized itself on every shell-furrowed great battle-field of the Civil War.
The right to secede from the Union had gained such a stubborn lodgment in the Southern brain that it required hard blows, and many of them, to knock the delusion out of their heads. And they did not turn the other cheek, either, as the appalling figures culled from battle-field history will show. To quote from our Rev. Brother Kiefer on Memorial Day-himself a private soldier in the Civil War-"There was no chasing of Spanish nor Filipino jack-rabbits in that war." It is stated that near the close of the war a New England regiment, just arrived at the front, in one battle, and their only battle, lost six hundred in killed, wounded, and missing, out of less than one thousand men. A percentage of loss greater than, and a total loss equal to that of the entire "Light Brigade" of poetic memory, when
"Cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered."
In his book, Gen. Longstreet on Pickett's charge notes that of the 29th North Carolina every commissioned officer was killed; every man with a gun was killed or wounded, and, after the battle, the regimental report was made out by an orderly with a bullet in his leg.
These southern "Johnnies " were Americans of courage and endurance, trained, disciplined, and hardened in war, and who could read their title clear from the same crimsoned and ragged pages of the book of Revolu- tion, as did the northern "Yanks" with whom for four years they fought.
"War is hell," said Gen. Sherman with more truthful force than elegance. And, my friends, those of you upon whose heads I now see the silvered sheening of the passing years may devoutly thank your God, even in this closing of the century, that the horrors of the actual carnage and the ruthless devastation of civil war came no nearer your peaceful, happy homes than Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg, thirty odd years ago.
Americans record property, but are remiss in recording humanity, save in the aggregate. Possibly the man with the musket, dying in battle or since, is named upon a humble village gravestone or on a
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grander soldier's monument. I cannot call the roll of your soldier dead. They are numbered by the multiple scores. But, "Lest we forget- lest we forget," I will this day, by indirection, record in the Centennial history of Beaver County names of her honored dead who led the way in march and in battle.
With very few exceptions, every officer of Beaver County in war then was personally known to me. There were acquaintances; there were intimate associates-boy and man; there were members of Franklin Literary Society; there were fellow-students at Beaver Academy; there were playmates of the little old brick schoolhouse on the Sharon road. Personalities so impressed upon the memory, credentials so stamped by the iron heel of war are not easily forgotten. And I will call the roll of those dead as I remember them:
Col. Richard P. Roberts, commanding the 140th Pennsylvania, needs no eulogy from me in Beaver, where one can fancy there yet lingers the resonant echoes of his forensic eloquence. He fell at Gettysburg.
Col. Joseph Hemphill Wilson, of Beaver, commanded the 101st Pennsylvania Regiment, and died at Williamsburg, Va., just after the battle, in which he took part, though even then sick unto death with fever.
Dr. David Minis, Beaver, surgeon of the 48th Pennsylvania, "Patriot, gentleman, scholar," was the Confederate-written, truthful, epitaph on the board that marked his grave.
Lieut. John D. Stokes, 140th, Beaver, lost an arm at Gettysburg. Numbered now with the dead.
Lieut. Charles Griffin, 56th, Beaver.
Hon. James S. Rutan, Lieut., 14th Cav., Beaver.
Capt. H. M. Donehoo, 17th Cav., Beaver.
Lieut. A. W. Purdy, 140th, Beaver.
Col. James Quigley Anderson, 17th Cav., Beaver, was an academy student. These are those of whom heroes are made. Honorable, manly, ambitious, daring. When we lightly waved the parting salute, in camp near Falmouth, Va., just before that terrible Fredericksburg wind-rowing of death, a mute fate did not interpose the shadow of an ominous "forever."
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