CHATTANOOGA.

PENNSYLVANIA DAY.

NOVEMBER 15TH,

1897.

PENNSYLVANIA DAY.

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, NOVEMBER 15th, 1897.

FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY AND MONDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 12, 13, 14 AND 15.

Will be Devoted to Exercises by Regimental Associations in the
vicinity of their respective monuments.

CEREMONIES AT ORCHARD KNOB.

Monday, November 15, 2 P. M.

PRESIDING.

Brevet Brigadier General William A. Robinson, Lieutenant Colonel, Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers.

PRAYER.

Rev. Thomas H. Robinson, D. D., of Pittsburgh, Pa.

MUSIC.

Medley of Patriotic Airs,

By Fifth Regiment Infantry Band, U. S. A.,
from Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Ga.

TRANSFER OF MONUMENTS TO THE GOVERNOR. Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Blakeley, Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, President State Commission.

MUSIC.

Battle Cry of Freedom,

By Fifth Regiment Infantry Band, U. S. A.

ACCEPTANCE ON BEHALF OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA AND TRANSFER TO THE CARE OF THE NATIONAL

GOVERNMENT.

Governor Daniel H. Hastings.

MUSIC.

Marching Through Georgia,

By Fifth Regiment Infantry Band, U. S. A.

ACCEPTANCE ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.
Hon. John Tweedale, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Chief Clerk,
War Department.

MUSIC.

Patriotic Airs,

By Fifth Regiment Infantry Band, U. S. A.

ADDRESS.

General Henry V. Boynton, President Chickamauga-Chat-
tancoga National Military Park Commission.

MUSIC.

Auld Lang Syne,

By Fifth Regiment Infantry Band, U. S. A.
Remarks by Distinguished Survivors of the War.

BENEDICTION.

Rev. J. Thompson Gibson, D. D., formerly of Seventy-eighth Penn-
sylvania Volunteers.

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INTRODUCTION.

BRIG.-GENL. WILLIAM A. ROBINSON, LIEUT.-COL. 77TH PENNA. Volunteers.

OMRADES:--We meet here to-day to perform a sacred duty. Four years ago our noble Commonwealth appropriated money and appointed a commission to carry on the work of erecting monuments to the various organizations from the State that participated in the battles around Chattanooga. To-day at the call of the Governor, and with him, we meet that we may dedicate these monuments now erected to the memory of those who thirty-four years ago fell in battle on these historic grounds. And not only to them, but to you, the living, do we dedicate, to you who so many years ago stood with them shoulder to shoulder, offering your lives as freely as they in defense of a flag which represents all that is dear to the American people.

We build and dedicate to-day so that our children and our children's children in all the future may know what it cost in the nineteenth century to preserve and hand down to them unsullied so priceless a heritage. Men may come and men may go, generation will follow generation, while we, my comrades, with all who are with us to-day, shall be sleeping as our dead comrades sleep, but these granite rocks will stand through all future time to tell the story of your valor and sacrifices.

Let us then, as we to-day consecrate these beautiful memorial stones, cherish the memory of those who fell in battle as well as those who have gone from us since. Let us keep our love for each other fresh and true and ever remember that the God given rights of freedom and a free home are ours and not forget the compensation that always follows those who, when their country called, came to its rescue.

And now, my comrades, in behalf of the Pennsylvania State Commission, I thank you for your presence here to-day and we rejoice with you that so many of us are living to take part in these exercises.

The dedication ceremonies will now be opened with prayer by Rev. T. H. Robinson, D D, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

PRAYER.

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REV. T. H. ROBINSON, D. D., PITTSBURGH, PA.

LMIGHTY GOD, Thou art the King of kings, and the Governor over all the nations. We would evermore lift our hearts in prayer and thanksgiving to Thee, lover of men and Father of all mercies. Especially do we bow before Thee this day in praise and thanks for this

great land that we are permitted to call our own. It is Thy gift. We hold it from Thy hands and under Thee. We rejoice in its length and breadth, in its valleys and mountains, its fitness for the abode of the many millions of Thy children now within its borders and of the countless millions that will here find a home in the coming generations. We rejoice in its plenteousness, in its works of industry and art, its wide intercourse with the whole brotherhood of mankind, its growing richness and power. We praise Thee for its happy homes, its schools of learning, its just and wise laws and its banners of peace. We thank Thee that it is a land of political and religious liberty, a land of Sabbaths and Bibles, of gospel light and of holy worship to Thee, the living God.

On this day and at this sacred spot our minds recall the sad and troubled days, when we cried to Thee amid the strangeness and perils of war, and sought the favor of the God of our Fathers.

We remember before Thee, the great Disposer of all events, the strifes and alarms of the days when the very foundations of our country were shaken.

Thanks be to Thy name that these days are past. Thanks be to Thy great goodness that Thou didst so order in Thy lofty purpose that this nation should not perish from the face of the earth. Thanks be to Thy name that men were willing to die that it should live.

We praise Thee for the men who on this sacred ground, where we stand to-day, met the shock of battle, and here gave their best and their last, their lives, for their country. We remember them and honor them. We would have our children and the nation to its latest generations honor and remember them. Let the monuments that are lifted above their sleeping dust speak through the coming years of what they did and inspire all who look upon them with a like patriotic love and devotion. To their memory we gratefully dedicate this holy ground and pray that Thy loving and providential power may preserve it from every ill.

Look down, O Lord, in tender grace upon the men who still survive and who were in the heart of the great conflict. Bless them and bless their homes with every needed good.

Bless the whole country, O God. Thou dost shut none out of Thine infinite heart. They are all Thy children. They are our brothers, and as we love Thee we would love them all. Fill our hearts with the charity of Him who died for us all.

Thanks be to Thee, O God most high, for an undivided land and a united people. Thou hast given us peace; grant us also unity, stability and brotherly concord. Preserve us from all alienations. Let the nation never forget O God, how much it owes to Thee.

So order and settle all things in Thy wise governance, that truth and justice, happiness and peace, may be established among us for all generations.

May the blessings of a pure trust in Thee reach every household, and the grace that bringeth salvation come into every heart and life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.