USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 32
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When, therefore, the friends of the dead came sorrowing, to seck their lifeless remains, they were struck with horror at the imperfect manner in which the burials had been executed. No one was more strongly impressed with the duty of immediately providing for the proper interment of these fallen patriots than Governor Curtin, the Executive of Pennsylvania. He intrusted the business of maturing a plan to Mr. David Wills, of Gettysburg. Acting under the instruction of the Governor, this gentleman purchased a plot of some seventeen acres on Cemetery Hill, adjoining the village cemetery on the north and west, where the centre of the Union line of battle had rested, and where the guns of Steinwehr and the men of the Eleventh corps fought. The eighteen states, whose troops gained the battle, joined in this enterprise. By an Act of the legislature, the title to the ground was vested in the State of Pennsylvania, in trust for all
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the states having dead buried there, and a corporate body was created consisting of one from each state, to serve without pay, to whom its care was entrusted, the expense to be borne in pro- portion to the representation in Congress.
The work of laying out the grounds, and suitably adorning them, was performed by an eminent landscape gardener, William Saunders. His suggestions upon the subject, accompanying the drawings, were eminently just. The great disparity in the number of the dead from the different states to be interred, demanded a plan that should obviate criticism as to preference in position. To this end a semicircular form was adopted, the head of every body pointing towards a common centre, which should be made the site for the monument. "The prevailing expres- sion," he says, "of the Cemetery should be that of simple grandeur. Simplicity is that element of beauty in a scene that leads gradually from one object to another, in easy harmony, avoiding abrupt contrasts and unexpected features. Grandeur, in this application, is closely allied to solemnity. Solemnity is an attribute of the sublime. The sublime in scenery may be defined as continuity of extent, the repetition of objects in them- selves simple and commonplace. We do not apply this epithet to the scanty tricklings of the brook, but rather to the collected waters of the ocean. To produce an expression of grandeur, we must avoid intricacy and great variety of parts, more particularly must we refrain from introducing any intermixture or meretri- cious display of ornament. The disposition of trees and shrubs is such that will ultimately produce a considerable degree of land- scape effect. Ample spaces of lawn are provided. These will form vistas, as seen from the drive, showing the monument and other prominent points. . . . As the trees spread and extend, the quiet beauty produced by these open spaces of lawn will yearly become more striking."
A contract was entered into with F. W. Biesecker, for dis- interring the dead and reinterring their remains in their last resting place, a work which was commenced on the 27th of Octo- · ber, 1863, and completed on the 1Sthi of March following. The whole number thus buried was 3512. The entire work was done under the superintendence of Samuel Weaver, who executed
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BURIAL OF THE DEAD AT GETTYSBURG.
his arduous trust with great care and judgment. "Through his untiring and faithful efforts, the bodies in many ummarked graves have been identified in various ways. Sometimes by letters, by papers, receipts, certificates, diaries, memorandum books, photo- graphs, marks on the clothing, belts, or cartridge boxes, have the names of the soldiers been discovered. Money, and other valu- ables, have frequently been found, which, when the residence of the friends is known, have been immediately sent to them. Those not returned are carefully packed up and marked, and every effort will be made to find the friends of the deceased, and place these articles in their possession. Words would fail to describe the grateful relief that this work has brought to many a sorrowing household ! A father, a brother, a son has been lost on this battle-field, supposed to be killed, but no tidings whatever have the bereaved friends of him. Suddenly, in the progress of this work, his remains are discovered by sure marks, letters, probably photographs, and they are deposited in a coffin with care, and buried in this very appropriate place, on the battle-field where he fell, the Soldiers' National Cemetery."
Of the condition in which the remains were found Mr. Weaver says: "Where bodies were in heavy clay soil, or in marshy places, they were in a good state of preservation. Where they were in sandy, porous soil, they were entirely decomposed." Of the articles found upon the bodies of the dead the following may be cited as examples : "G. W. Sprague, the grape-shot that killed him, two knives, two rings and comb; " "James Kelley, company K, Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania regiment, ambrotype, sixty cents, comb, medal ;" " Unknown, pocket-book, and hair of father, mother, sister, and brother." Of the entire number interred, 3512, Maine had 104; New Hampshire, 49; Vermont, 61; Massa- chusetts, 159; Rhode Island, 12; Connecticut, 22; New York, 867; New Jersey, 78; Pennsylvania, 534; Delaware, 15; Maryland, 22; West Virginia, 11; Ohio, 131; Indiana, SO; Illinois, 6; Michigan, 171 ; Wisconsin, 73; Minnesota, 52; U. S. Regulars, 138; Un- known, 979. Several of the Western States had but few troops in the Army of the Potomac, and hence their loss was corres- pondingly small, while New York, which had the greatest num- ber, suffered most severely. The Cemetery is enclosed on the
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
south, west, and north sides by a solid wall of masonry, sur- mounted with a heavy dressed coping stone, and on the cast by an iron fence separating it from the village cemetery. The design for a monument by J. G. Batterson, of Hartford, Connecticut, was adopted by the commissioners, after an examination of a large number submitted. "The whole rendering of the design is in- tended to be purely historical, telling its own story, with such simplicity that any discerning mind will readily comprehend its meaning and purpose. The superstructure is sixty feet high, and consists of a massive pedestal, twenty-five feet square at the base, and is crowned with a colossal statue representing the Genius of Liberty. Standing upon a three-quarter globe, she raises with her right hand the victor's wreath of laurel, while with the left she gathers up the folds of our national flag, under which the victory has been won. Projecting from the angles of the pedestal are four buttresses, supporting an equal number of allegorical statues, rep- resenting respectively WAR, HISTORY, PEACE, and PLENTY. War is personified by a statue of the American soldier, who, resting from the conflict, relates to History the story of the battle which this monument is intended to commemorate. History, in listen- ing attitude, records with stylus and tablet the achievements of the field, and the names of the honored dead. Peace is symbol- ized by a statue of the American mechanic, characterized by appropriate accessories. Plenty is represented by a female figure, with a sheaf of wheat and fruits of the earth, typifying peace and abundance as the soldier's crowning triumph. The panels of the main die between the statues are to have inscribed upon them such inscriptions as may hereafter be determined. The main die of the pedestal is octagonal in form, panelled upon each face. The cornice and plinth above are also octagonal, and are heavily moulded. Upon this plinth rests an octagonal moulded base bearing upon its face, in high relief, the National arms. The upper die and cap are circular in form, the die being encircled by stars equal in number with the states whose sons contributed their lives as the price of the victory won at Gettysburg."
By the unanimous voice of the agents of the several states, Edward Everett, the eminent orator, statesman, and publicist, was invited to deliver an oration upon the occasion of the con-
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CONSECRATION OF THE GROUNDS AT GETTYSBURG.
secration of the grounds. In his note accepting the invitation Mr. Everett said : "The occasion is one of great importance, not to be dismissed with a few sentimental or patriotic common- places. It will demand as full a narrative of the events of the three important days as the limits of the hour will admit, and some appropriate discussion of the political character of the great struggle of which the battle of Gettysburg is one of the most momentous incidents." . The ceremonies occurred on the 19th of November, at which time the address, modelled upon the plan sketched in the above sentence, was delivered in presence of the President of the United States, Mr. Lincoln, the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, the Ministers of France and Italy, the French Admiral, the Governors of many States, Members of Congress, and a vast concourse of citizens, among whom were many representatives of the Army and Navy. "One of the most sad and impressive features of the solemnities," says Mr. Wills, "was the presence, in the procession and on the grounds, of a delegation of about fifty wounded soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, from the York Hospital. These men had been wounded in the battle of Gettysburg, and were present in a delegation to pay this just tribute to the remains of their fallen comrades. During the exercises, their bronzed cheeks, were frequently suffused with tears."
Mr. Everett's oration was one of the most eloquent and well wrought of his many addresses on important events in the national history which have made his name illustrious. The opening passages were in his peculiar vein, and are so beautiful, so apt, and so ornate that they will ever be recalled with delight. "Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields, now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must be performed ;- grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy. It was appointed by law in Athens, that the obsequies of the citi- zens who fell in battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the most honorable manner. Their bones were carefully
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
gathered up from the funeral pyre, where their bodies were con- sumed, and brought home to the city. There, for three days before the interment, they lay in state, beneath tents of honor, to receive the votive offerings of friends and relatives,-flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, painted vases, (wonders of art, which after two thousand years adorn the museums of modern Europe,)-the last tributes of surviving affection. Ten coffins of funeral cypress received the honorable deposit, one for each of the tribes of the city, and an eleventh in memory of the unrecog- nized, but not therefore unhonored, dead, and of those whose remains could not be recovered. On the fourth day the mournful procession was formed : mothers, wives, sisters, daughters led the way; and to them it was permitted by the simplicity of ancient manners, to utter aloud their lamentations for the beloved and the lost; the male relatives and friends of the deceased followed ; citizens and strangers closed the train. Thus marshalled, they moved to the place of interment in that famous Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens, which had been adorned by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, with walks and fountains and col- umns,-whose groves were filled with altars, shrines, and tem- ples,-whose gardens were kept forever green by the streams from the neighboring hills, and shaded with the trees sacred to Minerva and coeval with the foundation of the city,-whose circuit enclosed
'The olive Grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trilled his thick warbled note the summer long ; '-
whose pathways gleamed with the monuments of the illustrious dead, the work of the most consummate masters that ever gave life to marble. There, beneath the overarching plane trees, upon a lofty stage erected for the purpose, it was ordained that a funeral oration should be pronounced by some citizen of Athens, in the presence of the assembled multitude.
"Such were the tokens of respect required to be paid at Athens to the memory of those who had fallen in the cause of their country. For those alone who fell at Marathon a peculiar honor was reserved. As the battle fought upon that immortal field was distinguished from all others in Grecian history for its influence
.
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CONSECRATION OF THE GROUNDS AT GETTYSBURG.
over the fortunes of Hellas,-as it depended upon the event of that day whether Greece should live, a glory and a light to all coming time, or should expire like the meteor of a moment,-so the honors awarded to its martyr-heroes were such as were bestowed by Athens on no other occasion. They alone of all her sons were entombed upon the spot which they had forever rendered famous. Their names were inscribed upon ten pillars, erected upon the monumental tumulus which covered their ashes, (where, after 600 years, they were read by the traveller Pausanias,) and although the columns, beneath the hand of time and barbaric violence, have long since disappeared, the venerable mound still marks the spot where they fought and fell, ---
'That battle-field where Persia's victim horde First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword.'
" And shall I, fellow-citizens, who, after an interval of twenty- three centuries, a youthful pilgrim from the world unknown to ancient Greece, have wandered over that illustrious plain, ready to put off the shoes from off my feet, as one that stands on holy ground,-who have gazed with respectful emotion on the mound which still protects the dust of those who rolled back the tide of Persian invasion, and rescued the land of popular liberty, of letters, and of arts, from the ruthless foc,-stand unmoved over the graves of our dear brethren, who so lately, on three of those all important days which decide a nation's history,-days on whose issue it depended whether this august republican Union, founded by some of the wisest statesmen that ever lived, ce- mented with the blood of some of the purest patriots that ever died, should perish or endure,-rolled back the tide of an inva- sion not less unprovoked, not less ruthless, than that which came to plant the dark banner of Asiatic despotism and slavery on the free soil of Greece ? Heaven forbid! And could I prove so insensible to every prompting of patriotic duty and affection, not only would you, fellow-citizens, gathered many of you from dis- tant states, who have come to take part in these pious offices of gratitude,-you, respected fathers, brethren, matrons, sisters, who surround me,-cry out for shame, but the forms of brave and patriotic men, who fill these honored graves, would heave with indignation beneath the sod."
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
""""A single clause from the peroration will illustrate the happy manner in' which, with a few master strokes, he glorified the field and the dead who there fell, whose last resting place he was aiding to consecrate. "The spots on which they stood and fell ; these pleasant heights; the fertile plain beneath them; the thriving village whose streets so lately rang with the strange din of war; the fields beyond the Ridge, where the noble REYNOLDS held the advancing foc at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, assured by his forethought and self-sacrifice the triumph of the two succeeding days; the little streams which wind through the hills on whose banks in after times the wondering plowman will turn up, with the rude weapons of savage warfare, the fearful missiles of modern artillery ; Seminary Ridge, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery, Culp, and Wolf Hill, Round Top, Little Round Top, humble names, henceforward dear and famous,-no lapse of time, no distance of space shall cause you to be forgotten."
The dedicatory address was reserved to President Lincoln, who after the conclusion of Mr. Everett's oration, delivered the following :
" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are en- gaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. . We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have conse- crated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedi- cated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, -- that we here highly resolve that the
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CONSECRATION' OF THE GROUNDS AT GETTYSBURG.
dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that Governments of the people, by the people, for the people; shall not perish from the earth."
Short and simple in sentiment and structure, it is yet a most impressive and appropriate piece of composition. So well does it embody the thought which seemed struggling for utterance in every breast, that a word added to, or subtracted from it, would mar its harmony and faultless conception. But, however perfect its formation, its delivery was more solemn and impressive than is possible to conceive from its perusal. Major Harry T. Lee, who was one of the actors in the battle, and who was present upon the platform at the dedication, says that the people listened with marked attention throughout the two hours that Mr. Everett spoke; that his oration was finished, grand, lofty, though as cold and unimpassioned as the marble which pressed the forms of the sleeping dead; but that when Mr. Lincoln came forward, and with a voice burdened with emotion, uttered these sublime words, the bosoms of that vast audience were lifted as a great wave of the sea; and that when he came to the passage, " The brave men living and dead who struggled here," there was not a dry eye, and he seemed bewailing the sad fate of men, every one of whom was his brother.
When he had concluded, Mr. Everett stepped forward, and taking him by the hand, said in a manner which showed how fully he felt what he uttered : " Ah ! Mr. Lincoln, I would gladly give all my forty pages for your twenty lines." The Westminster Review, one of the most dignified and scholarly of the English quarterlies, always chary of praise for literary excellence in an American, and which during the late war preserved an attitude of little sympathy for the cause in whose interest the battle was gained, said of this address : " His oration at the consecration of the burial ground at Gettysburg has but one equal, in that pro- nounced upon those who fell during the first year of the Pelopon- nesian war, and in one respect it is superior to that great speech. It is not only more natural, fuller of feeling, more touching and pathetic, but we know with absolute certainty that it was really delivered. Nature here really takes precedence of art, even though it be the art of Thucydides."
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The monument, above described, was completed in 1868. It is of granite procured from Westerly, Rhode Island. The four figures about the base, and the colossal one upon the summit, are of marble, and were cut in Italy. The whole was constructed by Mr. Batterson, the designer. The names of the dead are not inscribed on the monument, but on granite headstones, which mark the place where each reposes. Dedicatory services were held upon the ground on the Ist of July, 1869, when General Meade delivered a brief address, Governor O. P. Morton, of Indiana, an oration, and Bayard Taylor an ode. General Meade alluded in touching words to the bereaved by that battle, and earnestly urged in conclusion the propriety and the duty of gathering the remains of the Confederate dead and giving them burial in some suitable ground to be devoted to that special purpose, justly observing that the burial originally was from Mr. Morton described briefly the necessity very imperfect.
course of the battle, and traced the progress of freedom since the memorable era of 1776, deducing the conclusion that the triumph of the Union cause was due to its devotion to the principles of liberty. Mr. Taylor dwelt in a chaste, and well conceived poetic vein upon the fruits which should be gathered from the struggle, and concluded in these fitting lines :
" Thus, in her seat secure, Where now no distant menaces can reach her, At last in undivided freedom pure, She sits, the unwilling world's unconscious teacher ; And, day by day, beneath serener skies, The unshaken pillars of her palace rise- The Doric shafts, that lightly upward press, And hide in grace their giant massiveness.
What though the sword has hewn each corner-stone, And precious blood cements the deep foundation ? Never by other force have empires grown ; From other basis never rose a nation ! For strength is born of struggle, faith of doubt,
Of discord law, and freedom of oppression. We hail from Pisgah, with exulting shout,
The Promised Land below us, bright with sun, And deem its pastures won, Ere toil and blood have earned us their possession !
Each aspiration of our human earth
Becomes an act through keenest pangs of birth ;
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DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT AT GETTYSBURG.
Each force, to bless, must cease to be a dream, And conquer life through agony supreme ; Each inborne right must outwardly be tested By stern material weapons, ere it stand In the enduring fabric of the land, Secured for those who yielded it, and those who wrested !
This they have done for us who slumber here, Awake, alive, though now so dumbly sleeping; Spreading the board, but tasting not its cheer, Sowing but never reaping ;-
Building, but never sitting in the shade
Of the strong mansion they have made ;-
Speaking their words of life with mighty tongue, But hearing not the echo, million-voiced,
Of brothers who rejoiced,
From all our river-vales and mountains flung ! So take them, Heroes of the songful Past ! Open your ranks, let every shining troop Its phantom banners droop,
To hail Earth's noblest martyrs, and her last ! Take them, O God ! our Brave, The glad fulfillers of Thy dread decree ; Who grasped the sword for Peace, and smote to save, And, dying here for Freedom, died for Thee ! "
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CHAPTER XVII.
THE MILITIA-CAPTURE OF MORGAN-BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG -- FINAL TRIUMPH-DEATH OF TIIE PRESIDENT.
WING to the suddenness with which the battle of Gettysburg was precipitated and won, the militia which had been called out for this emer- gency did not come to mortal conflict except in meeting the advanced guard of the enemy in the Cumberland valley, and after the battle, in ad- 40.R. U.S vancing upon his flanks as he retired to the Potomac. General (Baldy) Smith, who had the 1 active command in the valley, when he found the enemy retiring before him for the purpose of participating in the great battle, moved forward with his column cautiously, and when General Meade came up with the foe at Williamsport, Smith's column was reported in readiness to join in the battle which was expected there to take place. But the enemy having made good his escape across the river, the services of the militia were no longer needed.
The Thirty-sixth and Fifty-first regiments were sent to Gettys- burg, where Colonel H. C. Alleman, the commander of the Thirty-sixth, was made Military Governor of the district embrac- ing the battle ground and all the territory contiguous in any way pertaining to the battle. He was charged with gathering in the wounded and stragglers from both armies, in collecting the débris of the field, and in sending away the wounded as fast as their condition would permit. The following trophies are reported to have been gathered and turned over to the agent of the War Department deputed to receive them, or were shipped directly to the National Arsenal at Washington : 26,664 muskets, 9250
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THE MILITIA-CAPTURE OF MORGAN.
bayonets, 1500 cartridge-boxes, 204 sabres, 14,000 rounds of small arm ammunition, 26 artillery wheels, 702 blankets, 40 wagon loads of clothing, 60 saddles, 60 bridles, 5 wagons, 510 horses and mules, and 6 wagon loads of knapsacks and haversacks. From the various camps and hospitals on the field and in the surrounding country, were sent away to hospitals in northern cities, 12,061 Union soldiers, 6197 wounded rebels, 3006 rebel prisoners, and 1637 stragglers.
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