We're gathered to-day to honor the brave,

Who fell in the deadly strife;

Who fought, who died, and gave up their all
To save the Nation's life.

CHORUS-Many are the graves of the soldiers at rest,
On mountain, glen and vale;

And they peacefully sleep on the earth's kind breast;
They're tenting o'er hill and dale--

Tenting to-day, tenting to-day,

Tenting on the old camp grounds.

Oh! gloriously sleep the honored brave!

To them the shaft shall rise;

And the storied urn, and marble bust,

Shall e'er salute the skies.

CHORUS-

'Tis ours, through all time, to honor the men,
Who died in the mortal fight;

The men whose valorous actions brought
The triumph of the right.

CHORUS

Then followed an interesting and eloquent dedicatory address, by Colonel Augustus H. Fenn, of Plymouth. It was peculiarly appropriate that Colonel Fenn should be invited to deliver this address, as, for a time, before his deserved promotion to a 1st Lieutenancy in Company K, he was a private in the Woodbury Company I, under Capt. Eli Sperry, of Woodbury. He left his right arm at Cedar Creek, and could feelingly speak of his dead comrades of Company I.

SPEECH OF COL. A. H. FENN.

“FELLOW CITIZENS AND FELLOW SOLDIERS :-I feel to-day as if the heavy stone had been rolled away from the door of the sepulchre of our dead, and the two angels in white were sitting, the angel of love at the head, and the angel of gratitude at the foot, where the bodies of our comrades have lain. The country for which they died, the community from which they went forth, have taken these our brothers in its bosom, and bears them forever upon its great heart of love.

It is my privilege to-day to speak to you in a double capacity, as a citizen and as a soldier. As a citizen-as one of those for whom these brave men have toiled and struggled and died. As

one who, while they have labored, has entered into the fruits of their labors. As a citizen of this great republic, knowing the love which they bore to it, the peril from which they rescued it, by blood and with their lives. I tell you that what you consummate to-day in the dedication of this beautful, appropriate, durable and costly memorial, they have widely earned and fully merited. It is but the discharge of a debt of gratitude which you owed to them, and I know that you my friends are very far from considering it anything more. It is but an act of simple justice to keep in affectionate and lasting remembrance the name and fame of those who from amongst us have given their lives that the nation might live. It is not for us to honor them, but it is they who have honored us, and beautiful, appropriate and generous is the act which we here complete. It finds its highest symbolism in the lives of those it commemorates, in the fact, that, after all, it is not so much for them as for others we have done it, even as they laid down their lives, not for themselves, but for their country and for us. They whose names are inscribed upon that monument need no such memorial, but we who stand here do. They who died gloriously on the field of a nation's honor, need no witness but God, but woe to that nation, woe to that community which dares to forget them. The storied urn or animated bust can never call the fleeting breath back to its mansion. The voice of honor can never provoke the callous ear of death, but when from the top of the lofty pyramids of Egypt forty centuries looked down upon the soldlers of Napoleon, the hearts of the living were made valiant, by the silent witness of the dead. And when from the top of yonder monumental shaft, the muse of history shall look down upon this favored commuuity, the hearts of your young men shall be made strong, the fires of patriotism shall be lighted, and from these sacred ashes and from this hallowed spot shall go forth that controlling and pervading spirit that shall guard and animate the country of their love.

But in that other capacity in which I am permitted to address you, as a soldier, as the comrade of these your guests to-day, as the comrade of these others, your honored, silent guests to-day, speaking in behalf of these my brothers, and of those dead lips, that now cold and still in the silence of the grave, will never speak to you themselves again, I have to thank you and to bless you. I thank you in behalf of the living, that in the rich and generous welcome, in the full and overflowing hospitality with

which you have greeted us, you have embraced these also, our dear ones and yours. I remember how in those dark days which are gone forever, after the smoke of battle had died, and its thunder was stilled, we have sat down together in the twilight shadows and talked of those who had gone up higher. I remember we said that in the days to come, when this cruel war should be ended, we might meet again amid the dear familiar scenes of childhood and of home, That we might meet but that they no more should come with their soft voices to greet us. They had gone before, they had passed from death unto life, they could not come to us, but we should go to them. But as I stand here to-day it almost seems to me as if the old familiar forms had come back again, and stood in their accustomed places. As if the thinned and decimated ranks were full again, and Kellogg, our master and our king, stood before us in majesty and waved us on to battle. I hear the thunder of the cannon, the roar of the musketry, the trumpet sounding the charge.

'But the vision passes, and I stand in this peaceful place and mingle my tears with yours beside the memorial of the dead. I thank you also in behalf of these my dead brothers for what you have done for them. I was their comrade, and I tell you their last thoughts were of you, the loved ones at home. Their last prayers were offered up for you, their last blood was freely shed for you. And I tell you it is a peaceful thought, even amid the throes and agonies of death, to feel that we shall not be forgotten by those we love. It matters not so much perhaps where our bodies may lie, though who would not rather that his ashes should mingle with the dust of kindred, but it does matter, that somewhere, away down in the heart of hearts of those we love, is a spot where our memory is kept sacred, and somewhere near the dear place that gave us birth, beneath the leafy bower, or by the purling brook, or in the quiet church-yard, is a spot kept green for us, and a stone that bears our name and keeps our memory when we are gone. These men, dying thus for you, never doubted that you would so remember them, and as their comrade, I thank you, with a full and grateful heart, that you have this day so fully, so nobly, so generously redeemed their trust. To you then, our neighbors, brethren and friends, you who went forth from our midst when the call of an imperilled country was heard; you who kept step to the music of the Union, but who came not back to us with the scarred and thinned battalions, the rent and torn stand

ards and battle-flags, that told of conflict and death; you whose places are left vacant in many a quiet home and peaceful family circle; you upon whose portraits we love to gaze, on whose memories we love to linger, but whose forms we shall see no more forever; you whose remembrance comes back to us out of the mists and darkness of the past like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land ;—to you my comrades, and the comrades of these my soldier brothers, present to-day in your honor, you who marched with us in the closed ranks, step to step, elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder, you who dined with us in the same mess, who drank with us from the same canteen, who slept with us under the same blanket, the same ground beneath us, the same sky above us, the same thoughts of home and loved friends in our hearts. You went with us from this beautiful place, you shared with us the privations of the camp, the sufferings of the march, the perils of the picket, the dangers of the field. True comrades of the old 19th, brave boys of Company I, you were always present or accounted for. And though you came not back with us, when we marched in triumph and joy from the hard fought fields you helped us to win, though yours was the sufferer's cross and our's the victor's crown, thank God, you are with us here to-day in Glory wearing the halo of martyrdom, shining with the light of God.

To you then, the husband, the father, the son, the neighbor, the brother, the comrade, the friend, we dedicate this monumental shaft, this pillar of enduring granite, erected by loving hands, consecrated by loving hearts. Long shall it continue to stand in this peaceful place. Long shall it loom forth in majestic beauty from its solid foundation, to guard with jealous care, and to extend and perpetuate the memory of the brave. And as the swift recurring years shall circle over us, and we your surviving and scattered comrades, shall grow old, and tottering, and gray, your worship shall be forever fresh and young. And oft as spring time shall come with blossoms and the song of birds, and shall bring with it that day which a beautiful and now universal custom has rendered sacred to the memory of the soldier dead, the aged with their gray hairs, and the young and beautiful, with soft hands and tender eye, shall gather around this memorial shaft. They shall garland it with their choicest flowers. They shall hallow it with their tenderest associations; they shall crown it with their richest blessings. They shall water it with their warmest tears of gratitude and love.

"And when, in a few short years at the best, we who knew you and loved you here, shall have followed you and shall have entered with you into rest, they who shall live after us, our children and our childrens' children for generations and centuries to come, shall gather here in gratitude, and reverence and awe, greater even than what we feel to-day, for you will then have passed into the immortality of history, you will have become kings and heroes and priests unto God, in the temple of liberty. And if, which may God in His mercy forbid and avert, the day should ever come, when this beloved land of ours, should fall again into peril as before, and the strong arm and courage of her sons be required again in her defence, be sure, oh my friends, this monument which we dedicate here shall stand as a pillar of cloud by day, as a wall of fire by night. It shall be a shaft of living flame from heaven, which shall light the smouldering ashes on the altars of patriotism in the hearts of the young. Every stone in that monumental pile shall cry out Where art thou?" and every young man within your borders shall answer, "Here am I."

"The wonted fires of the living shall glow again in the ashes. of the dead. The hand that held the trained musked in the deadly charge at Cold Harbor; the feet that marched unflinching 'mid the grape and canister at Winchester; the voice that shouted Victory' on the afternoon of Cedar Creek, shall yet inspire the Battle cry of Freedom for generations still unborn, and be the motive power, which shall sweep away the future enemies of the Nation, as they swept the flying minions of Jubal Early from the Valley of the Shenandoah.

"And now, in His hands, with whom are the issues of life and death, we leave you, our honored and lamented dead-thankful that in this beautiful place, in the midst of all those loved ones who keep your memory sacred, after the fitful fever of life is over, He has given his beloved sleep.'

At this point the flood gates of Heaven were opened and a severe thunder storm passed over the town in lieu, as the lawyers say, of a salvo of artillery in memory of the dead. By direction of the President of the day, there was now an intermission in the exercises, except the beautiful ceremony of the decoration of the monument during the repeating of the following words by him:

And now we come to the last solemn and grateful act of dedi