inscription: "In honor of the 90,048 Michigan Soldiers who aided in perpetuating American Liberty, 1861-1865." The names, on parchment, of the Michigan officers and soldiers killed at Gettysburg, prepared by Hon. Thomas W. Ferry, Commissioner for the State in the Board of Managers of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. List, on parchment, of Michigan Regiments, Companies and Batteries, sent to the field during the war. Adjutant General's report, as far as published, 1861, 1862, 1863, full bound in leather, 2 vols. Two Commissions, such as have been issued by the State for Commissioned Officers. Michigan resolutions on the state of the Union, Feb. 2, 1861. First call for troops. Governor Blair's message at extra session, May, 1861. An act to provide a military force, approved May 10, 1861. Governor Blair's message at extra session, January 2, 1862. Governor Blair's message at regular session, January 7, 1863. Governor Blair's message at extra session, January 19, 1864. Governor Blair's message at regular session, January 4, 1865. Governor Crapo's message at regular session, January 4, 1865. Michigan resolutions on the state of the Union, March 18, 1865. Proclamation of Governor Crapo, June 14, 1865, welcoming the returning troops-above documents bound in one volume. "Legislative Manual of Michigan." Contents as follows: Calendar, 1865-6-7. Constitution of the United States. Constitution of the State of Michigan. Counties, cities and townships in Michigan, with census of 1845-50-54-60-64. Representative Districts of Michigan, and the names of members of State Senate and House of Representatives for 1865. Soldiers' vote, 1864. State officers and deputies, and State military officers, 1865. Federal officers of Michigan, 1865. Governors of Michigan Territory, from 1805 to include 1835. Governors and Lieutenant Governors of the State of Michigan, from 1835 to include 1865. Speakers of the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Michigan, from 1835 to include 1865. United States Senators from Michigan, from 1836 to include 1865. Representatives in Congress from Michigan, from 1836 to include 1865. The above are all contained in a small copper box, marked "State of Michgan, 1865," which is 9x5x4. The finishing stroke to consummate the trust is a monument, which, as before stated, is under contract, to be completed and erected in two years from July 1, 1866. The contractor is the distinguished artist, James G. Batterson, of Hartford, Connecticut, who has given ample bonds for fulfillment. In general architecture, the monument will not materially differ from the photograpic design already transmitted. The column will be of white American granite. The statues, of Italian marble, to be modeled by our own celebrated sculptor, Rogers. The crowning figure will be so modified as to represent the Genius of American Liberty, holding in her left hand a sheathed sword, and on the right, the wreath of victory about to be cast upon the victorious slain. Instead of bronze, as first intended, the statues upon the pedestal will be of marble, representing respectively War, Peace, History and Industry. The pedestal will also be decorated laterally, with emblematic groups. The front plinth will bear, in bronze, the United States coat-of-arms; and around the shaft will be cut 18 stars, suggestive of the represented States; and below these, and in front, "July 1, 2, 3, 1863"-the memorial days on which their gallant sons battled for and won the decisive victory. In general dimensions, the monument will be 23 feet square at base, and extreme height, 60 feet, costing $47,500, of which $10,000 is already paid, and the balance payable in semi-annual installments. The approximate cost, originally estimated by the Executive Committee for the entire work of the cemetery, exclusive of monument, The apportionment as made to the states in the ratio of their population, indicated by their representation in Congress, was as follows: Requisitions made upon the State were paid to the Treasurer of the Board, respectively, as follows: I would recommend that there be transplanted from the soil of Michigan to to the cemetery, a white pine tree, as a living perennial emblem of the State. As comprehensively and briefly as the subject would admit, I have endeavored to sketch the history of this worthy trust, assumed by states, who felt it their special charge thus to consecrate the memory of heroic dead, fallen in behalf of all the states of the Republic. Were I to close here, violence would be done to the sad and painful associations which forcibly remind all that death is not confined to battle fields, however memorable. In the progress of these recounted labors, he who stood as the civil and military chief of the nation, battling for its life, and through the weary, disheartening years of struggle, never failing, but with courageous heart and confiding purpose, guiding that nation to victory, has fallen a victim to the same treacherous foe that crimsoned a decisive battle field with the blood of heroic defenders. Abraham Lincoln is inseparably connected with the solemnities consecrating the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Honored by his distinguished presence, his participating words may well become a part of this record, for they can never be too often pondered: ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG, NOV. 19, 1863. "Four score 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 engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived or 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 consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated 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 dedicated 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 dead shall not have died in vain-that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Impressed with a measureless national loss, the Board at its next meeting following the assassination of the illustrious President, unanimously adopted the following testimonial of Michigan, and immediately thereafter adjourned in further token of respect: "Whereas, In the mysterious Providence of God, Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, in the full tide of trust and power, has fallen by the hand of an assassin; "And whereas, The National Cemetery committed to our trust, was by the presence and participation of President Lincoln, consecrated to the enduring memory of the heroes who here fell in the defense of the Union, it seems befitting that this occasion of our first meeting following that tragic event, should give some expression of the irreparable loss sustained by the nation; therefore, "Resolved, That as a part of the people he loved so well, we deeply mourn the assassination of the able, faithful, pure and patriotic President, whose martyrdom crowns with glory the many sacrifices offered upon the shrine of a restored nationality, and we utterly condemn the fiendish malignity and complicity of rebel leaders, which, culminating in Presidential assassination, forever consigns the great southern rebellion and its abettors to lasting infamy. "Resolved, That to Abraham Lincoln's native good sense, shrewd sagacity, exalted humanity, unswerving integrity, his rare combination of fixedness with pliancy, simplicity of manner and purity of purpose, based upon an unshaken faith in the ultimate triumph of truth and right, upheld by loyal arms, are we indebted for the suppression of the rebellion and the deliverance of the nation. 66 Resolved, That in the emancipation of an oppressed race, he has given efficacy to the principle enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming all races and conditions entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and history, as it declares Washington the founder, will enroll Lincoln the savior of the republic. "Resolved, That we especially sympathize with the stricken household, made desolate by inconsolable woe. "Resolved, That in respect to the memory of a chief magistrate, canonized in the heart of universal liberty, we do now adjourn." Mr. Ferry in closing his able and elaborate report says, in referring to the members of the Board of Commissioners: "The members have brought to their labors patriotic zeal and untiring energy. It will, however, matter little who were immediately instrumental in devising and developing the sacred memorial which is to hand down to future generations the lustrous record of patriots who prized country above life. "They will be forgotten, while shaft and speech and song shall tell of battle and heroism to ages yet unborn. The decisive contest-the turning strife of the war, from which victory, leaping from field to field, eventuated in peace, national labor and re-union-this, this alone, will be the enduring, emblazoning chaplet which time shall weave for the gallant heroes who sleep beneath the shadow of the Nation's Mausoleum at Gettysburg." In 1867 the legislature appropriated $3,344.88 as the proportion of the State for the purchase, preparation and care of the Antietam National Cemetery at Sharpsburg, Md., where rest 37 of Michigan's heroic dead. The Hon. John J. Bagley was appointed by the Governor as trustee to represent the State in the corporation formed for the management of the matter. In both of these cemeteries most favorable locations were secured as burial places by the gentlemen named, while every duty confided to them has been most faithfully executed. The general Government, through the Quartermaster's Department, has made most creditable and praiseworthy efforts to gather together, with much care, the remains of the union soldiers who fell in battle as well as those who died of wounds and disease in hospitals, in rebel prison, or by the wayside, into the "National Cemeteries," as contemplated by the War Department. With great labor and continuous kindly care the graves have been prepared and marked, so far as practicable, with tablets, giving name, company and regiment. These cities of the dead have been substantially enclosed, the grounds laid out and beautified, and persons appointed to protect them from being disturbed or desecrated. The most noted of rebel prison pens was Andersonville, Ga., associated as it is with the most inhuman barbarities ever committed by any savage or civilized people, intentionally and systematically perpetrated, resulting in death in all its forms. A writer in the "Hartford Courant" says of this infernal place, invented and constructed with the design of destroying the lives of Union prisoners of war, and alas! alas! too fully accomplishing its most hellish purpose: "The stockade was erected in the midst of a primeval pine forest. The heavy logs were placed upright, close together, standing from 15 to 18 feet above the ground, to make the inclosure. Within it every tree and shrub was cut down. Not a tent was furnished; a few soldiers only carried in with them old blankets that were not considered worth seizing. The great forest stood almost near enough to shade them. There were men of all trades in that pen. Everybody knows how quickly and neatly soldiers housed themselves in their own camps when they had time. These men would have gladly built shelter of some sort, or even handsome barracks. It was only necessary to take out a few at a time under guard and let them cut and hew. Yet, from five to 35,000 men were there under the blazing sun of a Georgia summer, shadeless and houseless, drinking from the stream that trickled through their filth, and lying upon the bare, open ground or crawling into the burrows they dug. The bloodhounds to track the fugitives were housed just outside. Who can explain away the fact that the men would gladly have built themselves a shelter, but were now refused the privilege. The writer of this paragraph received in March, 1865, at Wilmington, N. C., 9,000 Union prisoners who had been in Salisbury, Florence, Millen, and Andersonville. He saw them, conversed with them, provided hospital attendance for a shorter or longer time for 3,000 or 4,000 of them, and buried them by scores and hundreds. To say that they had been treated as well as possible, to say that they had not been neglected and brutally misused to a degree that amounted to murder, is an infamous and damnable falsehood." At this place a beautiful cemetery has been completed, containing nearly thirteen thousand graves of Union soldiers. Michigan gave to this sacrifice six hundred and twenty-three braves, who, sooner than accept the standing proposition to enter the rebel ranks and disown their State and fight against their country, became victims of the horrid ordeal, suffering death by starvation, extreme exposure, and every conceivable infliction of brutal cruelty at the hands of rebel officials, with the full knowledge and sanction of the Richmond authorities. "Rest on embalmed and sainted dead, No impious footsteps here shall tread Nor shall your glory be forgot In this as well as all other National cemeteries, proper records have been made of those buried in each, bound in printed volumes, copies of which have been furnished to the various states. The main entrance to this cemetery is on the west side, but visitors usually enter at the south gate. East of this gate is the inscription, "National Cemetery at Andersonville." On the west side: "On Fame's eternal camping ground And glory guards with solemn round |