DEDICATION OF MONUMENT Με 11TH REGIMENT INFANTRY SEPTEMBER 3, 1890 ADDRESS OF CAPTAIN H. B. PIPER Y Comrades-To have taken part on the side of the Union in the late civil war is of much importance, and to have participated as a member of that grand old regiment, the Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, may be counted an honorable distinction. The part it played in the most sanguinary national tragedy of the century, was both important and conspicuous. Entering the service at the beginning, and continuing to the end, participating in the first and last battles of the war, its very name became the synonym of patriotism and bravery. Early in April, 1861, the old Eleventh was organized as a three months' regiment under the first call for troops by the President, and saw some practical campaigning during that period, participating in the battle of Falling Waters, Va., which was the first infantry fight of the war. It was the first Pennsylvania regiment to reorganize for three years' service. On July 25th, 1861, by official order of the Secretary of War, its services as a regimental organization were formally accepted, and it again entered on a career as one of the most faithful of all faithful military organizations placed in the field by our native State in those dark and bloody days. Passing over all its subsequent campaigns preceding the summer of 1863, the old Eleventh, then a part of Baxter's Brigade, Second Division, First Army Corps, left Falmouth, Va., on the 12th of June, reached the state line, by way of Warrentown Junction, Herndon and Guilford Stations, Barnesville and Emmitsburg, camping at Wolford's farm on the evening of June 30th, reaching the vicinity of Gettysburg at 11 o'clock in the forenoon of the next day, and were saluted by the sound of cannonading in the direction of Chambersburg. For the first time a northern army seeking a hostile foe stood inside the boundaries of our grand old Commonwealth, and the harvest-gilded valleys of the Keystone state were reverberating the deep-throated echoes of a foeman's cannon. The sons of hardy New England, of the Empire state and the west, were thrilled with intense and consuming interest of the hour, as much so as if the contest about to be waged was on the threshold of their own homes. But the old Eleventh, the heroes of a score of bloody conflicts, breathed their native air, trod their native vales, stretched their line of living valor along the crests of their native hills and battled for the homes of their childhood. Never did men more eagerly seek the field of carnage. The summer sun poured down its tropic heat. The distant ridges were filled with a brave and desperate foe, and whether Virginia or Pennsylvania was to be the seat of war was an open question to be decided by the bloody arbitrament of arms. Never had two great armies been so matched. It was a field which, like Marathon and Hastings and Waterloo, bound up in its issues the destinies of a thousand years of national life. Like Marmont's race with the English across the Spanish peninsula, the two opposing hosts had bent every collective energy to the task of reaching an advantageous position for a northern campaign. But across the path of the rebel chieftain, Meade had swung his magnificent army. Lee, careful, sleepless, tireless in his patient vigilance, mustering the pride of the Confederate hosts under his banner, strove to transplant from the bleeding bosom of his native state to the hills and valleys of Pennsylvania, the eating canker of civil war. Every man comprehended with more or less clearness the importance of the hour, and the veterans of our own gallant regiment fought only as brave and determined men can fight in defense of their homes and their country. As they neared the position to which they were subsequently to be assigned, crossing the field and the meadow, they heard for the first time of the death of the gallant Reynolds. Having gone forward in advance of the troops to select position for the impending conflict, he was killed by a rebel bullet before the fight began. No braver, truer man ever fell in the line of duty on the brink of a great battle. Had it been his to lead the brave men, whom he had so often led, in that bloody fray that followed, those who knew him best knew full well how to the laurels already gathered he would have added imperishable fame. By noon the regiment had taken its position on Seminary Ridge, south of the railroad cut. Scarcely had it halted in this position when General Baxter received an order from General Robinson to send forward two regiments to check the enemy who was advancing on the north side of the railroad cut. The Eleventh Pennsylvania and Ninety-seventh New York, Colonel Coulter in command, were selected for that purpose. Crossing the railroad and moving forward and to the right about a quarter of a mile, they met the advancing foe. held him in check, and prevented him from occupying the position he was so eager to obtain. It was at this point that the old Eleventh Pennsylvania and the Ninety-seventh New York charged and captured part of a brigade of North Carolinians. But the work so well done on this part of the field, and which was so essential to the final success of the Union arms in this great contest, was not accomplished without sacrifice. A list of the casualties will give some idea of the fierceness of the conflict. About 3 o'clock your speaker was wounded and retired to the hospital in the town of Gettysburg. Soon after this our troops fell back to Cemetery Hill, south of the town, where they participated, with the main body of the army, in the contest of the second and third days. Those of you who were present and took part in the first day's conflict will pardon me when I mention the personal bravery of that grand old man, Colonel Wheelock, of the Ninety-seventh New York. He was taken prisoner on the afternoon of the first day, but made his escape a few days later. Surviving the perils of the battle-field, he has since joined the innumerable hosts who have pitched their tents upon the eternal plains on the other side. While occupying a hotly-contested position on Cemetery Hill, Colonel Coulter was ordered to the command of the First Brigade. Not wishing to be separated from his regiment, he secured its transfer also, and during the remaining part of the battle, the old Eleventh was temporarily a part of the First Brigade. The shifting changes of battle found our regiment near the Emmitsburg road supporting the Union batteries in the evening. About noon the next day, July 2d, it was relieved by the division of General Hays and fell back to replenish its exhausted cartridge boxes. In the evening the brigade was thrown farther to the left and suffered heavily from the enemy's guns. About 10 o'clock at night it was engaged, in conjunction with a part of the Eleventh Corps, in front of Cemetery Ridge, and was only relieved at day-break on the morning of the 3d. In the afternoon the regiment gallantly supported the celebrated battery of Captain Ricketts on Cemetery Hill. Here Colonel Coulter was severely wounded, but remained in command. Though decimated and fatigued by the constant vigil of a three days' engagement, the old Eleventh, in support of the Second Corps, participated in the desperate struggle in which the Confederate chieftain was finally overthrown in his last despairing effort to win the ensanguined field. Immediately after the failure of Pickett, in his last tremendous charge, Lee began to withdraw his forces and the field of Gettysburg was won. Years have elapsed since these hills reverberated to the thunder of the enemy's cannon. The soil, once red with patriot blood, grows rank with tangled grasses, or is starred with summer flowers. The eternal hills, lifting themselves toward the heavens, silent as though the spirit of solitude sat enthroned upon their changeless summits, give no sign of the red current of battle that, twenty-seven years ago, rolled around their rocky bases. But the level light of the western sun touches with softened ray the granite slabs and monumental shafts that mark the final resting places of the ashes into which has mouldered the brave hot hearts who fought, who fell, who died that the Union might be preserved. They were willing to wash out the footprints of the rebel foe with their blood, and count it a joy to die. But, ah! Not here alone lie our fallen comrades of the old Eleventh. Along the bloody trail of war, at Bull Run, whose dual disaster twice made the nation tremble, on Antietam's historic field, on Fredericksburg's luckless plains, in the Wilderness, at Petersburg, on Virginia's hills and plains, wherever raged the deadly fight-there may be found the graves of our brave and honored dead. It would be a grateful task to recall the instances of personal heroism and bravery in which the history of the regiment abounds, but time would fail to speak of it all, and it would seem invidious to speak of some. I may be, I know I shall be, pardoned if I tarry here, in passing, to say, that while the records of this Commonwealth endure, Pennsylvania will do well to honor the name of General Richard Coulter. Wounded again and again, with indomitable courage and endurance, he led the old Eleventh gallantly in all its famous fights. Cool, brave, even-nerved, well-balanced, self-poised, he possessed the highest instincts of a true soldier, united with the manliest attributes of a true man. Long may he live to meet and mingle with the survivors of that gallant band he so often led to victory and never deserted in defeat. But I cannot if I would, I would not if I could, forget the uncrowned and unsung hero of the knapsack and the musket. History furnishes no parallel to the gallantry of our citizen soldiery, the courage and grit of the American volunteer. The perils and hardships of war were his. His were the lonely vigils of the picket beat, and the dangers by flood and field. Upon his brave heart and conscience lay the political destiny of this great republic. The nation placed her life in his hands. And on a hundred bloody battle-fields he proved himself sublimely worthy of the trust. Among this unselfish host of brave, true men, none were more brave and true than the soldiers of the old Eleventh. Their bones lie on every great battle-field of the east, and the records of southern prisons show the names of some of our gallant boys, not permitted to share a soldier's death on the field of battle, but dying like some ancient martyr in love with his God and his country. To him, to the common soldier, to our dead comrades, whether here beneath his native soil he sleeps, or under the softer skies of the sunny south-land, we turn in grateful, tearful remembrance. We rear these monuments to their honor and in their memory. But in the unborn ages yet to come, long after we too shall have passed away, a saved and grateful republic will rear in history an everlasting memorial to their devotion and their valor, more changeless than brass and more enduring than marble, and that shall exist as long as these voiceless hills bear testimony to Gettysburg's fateful day; and among the immortal names preserved as those the nation delights to honor in all the future, a high and honored place shall be forever held by the old "Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers." And now, to the memory of our fallen companions of the old "Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers," the heroic dead who lost their lives in the service of their country, and to the regiment in whose ranks they fell, this monument is solemnly dedicated by their surviving comrades. May its silent presence teach more eloquently than language can express, the lessons of patriotism and self-sacrificing devotion to country. DEDICATION OF MONUMENT C 23D REGIMENT INFANTRY SEPTEMBER 12, 1889 ADDRESS OF COLONEL JOHN F. GLENN OMRADES:-We assemble here to-day to unveil a statue that surmounts our monument, that we had the honor to dedicate some two years ago, and it is with feelings of gratification that I extend congratulations to the Twenty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers and comrades of Shaler's Brigade, for such a large attendance of their survivors on this hallowed ground--and in their name I most heartily thank our friends who have honored the occasion by their presence. To the State of Pennsylvania we extend our grateful thanks for the gift which I now unveil, that of a Birney Zouave--and in saying this I assure the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania of the gratitude of all the survivors of the Twenty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. M ADDRESS OF WILLIAM J. WRAY R. Secretary and Members of the Gettysburg Battle-field Memorial Association :-On August 6, 1886, the Survivors' Association of the Twenty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and their friends, had the honor to dedicate and turn over to the keeping of your Association this tablet, that marks the position of the Twenty-third during the action of July 3, 1863. On that occasion, General Alexander Shaler, as orator of the day, after reviewing the action of Gettysburg, and history of the regi |