have covered soldiers' graves with flowers, and moistened them with dewy tears. They have been mantled with winter snow that in its spotless white seemed to emblematize the sacrifice they made. Since death was king on these fields "The bayonet flattened has turned to a spade, A capital scythe, is the old sabre blade, With the same martial strain, Thro' the rich golden grain, The veteran whistles, while cutting his way, Recalling war's harvest of blue and of grey." Over these fields swept that wave of patriotism, that gathered as the storm at sea, and that grew in intensity until it became liberty's cyclone and which moved on in its fury, the world breathlessly watching "Till down went the foes of this heaven cherished Nation, And slavery and disunion lay buried 'neath war's desolation." Pennsylvania is here to-day to dedicate monuments on historic fields, to commemorate and pay tribute to the valor of her sons. When all here shall have passed from worldly scenes, and for them life's accounts shall have been closed, these monuments will remain and be messengers to posterity. They will have the companionship of these everlasting hills, and like them will declare to generations yet unborn the history, the glory, the achievements, the sacrifices of the men who from Pennsylvania homes here on battle plain fought and died to secure for us and our children thro' all the coming years, the inestimable and manifold blessings of a free and a united country. We have waited long to pay the tribute, but to-day we come in peace. Many of the men in whose honor and to whose memory we raise these monuments have for more than thirty years been sleeping with those "Whose bones are dust, and whose swords are rust." To-day the bitterness of the strife is almost gone. The grey are here with the blue-conqueror and conquered-all full of gratitude for the safety in our homes, the glory in our flag, the hope in the future and the blessings that are secured and the institutions saved and made permanent. The soldier in grey will learn lessons from this day and these monuments. Honest he may have been, but these monuments will remind him that in the clash of arms and holocaust of war his mistake was corrected to his enrichment and his betterment. With him we shared the penalty and the sacrifice; with us he shares the blessings. About these monuments so grandly eloquent in magnificent silence will gather the ghostly sentinels of that army whose camping ground is beyond the stars, and who keep watch and ward above the nation's heroic dead. And here in years to come the living will gather, here rehearse the story, and exult, as we do now, in the continued enjoyment of the blessings and the institutions established by the fathers and saved by the blood of their sons. All hail to the north, all hail to the south! And now in the presence of these soldiers living, you of both armies, and in the presence of that silent host invisible to our eyes, but who always in garments of purity and peace attend these gatherings of their comrades of the "brave days of old," let all here consecrate themselves to the advancement, the unity, and the glory of the Republic for which all the soldier dead "gave the last full measure of devotion." Let patriotism and love of country burn and dwell in all our hearts and in the hearts of our children. Let us be Americans, and as Americans let our purpose, our efforts, our hopes, be for the growth and glory of the Republic. Let the flag, be the flag of all the people, and let the memories, and the glories that ciuster round it, keep us united in that great spirit of national unity and nationa! brotherhood that shall make every man a defender of his country's honor and glory, and keep us, one people with one country and one flag, keeping ever in mind the injunction "Be just and fear not, Let all the ends thou aimest at, Be thy country's, thy God's and Truth's." ADDRESS. GENERAL JAMES W. LATTA. C OMRADES, Ladies and Friends:-It was my privilege to have served with the old Sixth Army Corps. I bring you friendly greetings and good cheer as hearty and as warm as when for your achievements the old Potomac Army fired its salutes of shotted guns-shotted when the enemy happened to be close enough to make the salute the more effective. This is a well chosen spot for these exercises. This amphitheatre at the base of yon battle-remembered hill top is indeed a very audience chamber; and the generous warmth of this soft November sunlight is itself typical of a genial scuthern welcome to all this goodly company. It was probably fitting that the soldiers of the great west should of themselves halt the enemy in his purpose not to be content until the great Ohio river was within his grasp. But nowhere, whether where the big guns thundered on the sea or the musketry rattled on the land was it the exclusive privilege of any particuiar section to itself alone uphold the "starry banner of the free." And so it happened that on Chickamauga's famous day when that Confederate intent was foiled and that Confederate opportunity lost, there were with the patriot legions of the west a chosen few from the farther east, and Pennsylvania's contribution of three regiments of infantry, three regiments of cavalry, and a six-gun battery made that grand old Commonwealth no weak factor in the fight. "Discipline in war," my friends, has been defined to be, "a quantity measured by the endurance of loss under fire." As the Duke of Welling ton is said to have remarked at Waterloo, turning to his staff, as his grenadiers were stiffening to resist another assault, "Hard pounding, gentlemen, hard pounding, but we'll see who can stand it longest." The phrase has potent application in this vicinity. It echoes over the mountain range, rolls across the valley, speaks spitefully in the timber. There are here everywhere in forest and stream, meadow and mountain, silent witnesses that plainly testify that the "endurance of loss under fire," here outrivaled the "discipline in war" of Britain's sturdy manhood or Frenchman's famous chivalry. It was "hard pounding" at Snodgrass Hill; it was "hard pounding" at Kelly's field; it was "hard pounding" at Wauhatchie; Wauhatchie where the big contingent from the Potomac Army first had speech with the enemy. They had sped the "parting guest" when Longstreet left them on the Rapidar, but gave no "welcome" to "the coming" when he again forced his attentions on them on the Tennessee. What a mighty feat of transportation! Two great army corps with all their impediments, without mishap or detention, in six days had spanned the barriers of a mountain and river, left the Atlantic seaboard, and were in action in the fastnesses of the Cumberland. Somewhere I have read or heard the philosopher's deduction, "In peace there is nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility." But how, amid such surroundings, can one heed the invocation? "General Taylor never found out up to the day of his death that he was beaten at Buena Vista, because his opponent planted a force square in his rear. Instead of acknowledging the move and withdrawing from the game, as the rules would seem to demand, the general rudely faced about and went on with his work, on the common sense principle that he must clean everything out, whether in his front or his rear." You never knew when you were whipped out here in the west. You never were whipped. You drove Bragg from the ridge yonder; you held him at Chickamauga until you were ready to meet his investment, and when you opened your "cracker line" to Brown's Ferry, you had robbed him of the full fruits of his success. A guide in the Tower of London, pointing out a brass cannon in the crdnance room, said to a lady American tourist, with an air of much consequence, "We took that gun from you at Bunker Hill." "You are welcome to the gun," was the prompt response, "we have the hill." So here "you are welcome to the ridge; we have the ferry." You proposed to move and did move on Buckner's works at Donelson, and forced him, as was the demand, to an unconditional surrender. You shut Pemberton up at Vicksburg and pounded and punished him so seriously that he yielded his sword and every man he had laid down his arms. You taught Longstreet a bitter lesson at Knoxville, and he learned that earth works in east Tennessee were as impregnable as stone walls in Pennsylvania. You mashed Hood at Franklin and routed him "foot, horse and dragoons" at Nashville, and left him nothing but a remnant. You drove Johnson at a merry pace by Ringgold and Resaca, Snake Creek Gap and Big Shanty, snuffed the Bishop's candle out near Kenesaw, and then, hurrying him rapidly across the Chattahoochee, you shut him tightly within his entrenchments at Atlanta. It was no better when the Richmond authorities forced a change of commanders. At Peach Tree Creek you repelled Hood's assault; fighting first on one side of your entrenchments and then upon the other, you successfully resisted his attack on the 22d of July, and then, forcing him to a general engagement at Lovejoy Station and Jonesboro, he abandoned the great Georgia metropolis, and Atlanta, the "Gate City" of the South, was yours, all there was left of it. Regardless of a base, you struck out for the great big sea, presented Savannah to the nation as its Christmas gift, pressed through the Carolinas and Virginia, until on the crowded highways of the National Capitol you found your reward in the paeans shouts and plaudits of a grateful people. And Pennsylvania comes here in perpetuation of this appreciation of a grateful people, in these times so different from those times, for "in peace," says the axiom, "children bury their parents, in war parents bury their children;" comes here upon these great battlefields and makes this her day, Pennsylvania's day at Chickamauga, Pennsylvania's day at Chattanooga. BENEDICTION. REV. J. THOMPSON GIBSON, D. D., OF THE 78TH PA. VOL. A LMIGHTY FATHER, again at the close of these services, we acknowledge Thee as our Creator, Preserver and Ruler. Thou art the God of nations, the King of kings, the Lord of hosts. Thou rulest in the armies of heaven and on this earth, controlling the affairs of men, making even the wrath of man to praise Thee, restraining the remainder of wrath, working out always and everywhere Thine own wise and beneficent purpose. Bless, we pray Thee, these monuments. May they ever be an encouragement and an inspiration to pure and noble deeds of righteousness. Bless the nation for which these brave men died. Purify, elevate and preserve our country in peace and unity. Enable us all to recognize Thee as our Heavenly Father and all men everywhere as brothers. Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep with the blood of the eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make us all perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. |