Wichita eagle., 1888-07-04
The Positions of Twenty-Five Years
Ago Assumed as Nearly
as Possible.
Masterly Effort of George William Curtis
Orator of the Day-A Vivid Picture
of the Happenings
OF a Quarter Of Century Ago-The Rise
and Progress of the Nati0n-A Trib-
ute to the Memory Of
the Dead.

GETTYSBURG, Pa, July 3.-There was a
strange similarity between this day and
that of just twenty-five years ago. Then
the armies of Meade and Lee confronted
each other So today the federals and con-
federates were once more on the field, and
again was the one on Seminary ridge and
the other on Cemetery hill. Nothing unu-
sual occurred to break the monotony until
4 o'clock. when the unions and confeder-
ates met once more at almost the same
hour at which they had Joined in deadly
combat twenty-five years ago.
The monuments which were dedicated
today are as follows: The Fifth New York
cavalry, the One Hundred and Forty-sixth
New York infantry, 'Garnard Tigers"
the Sixty-seventh New York, First Long
Island volunteers and known as
"Beecher's Regiment" at which
Rev. Thomas *. Beecher, of
Elmira, n. Y, delivered the Grafton; the
third New York Independent battery, with
Major General Rosecrans as orator; Battery
B, New York artillery and the one hun
bred and thirtieth New York independent
battery.
The Signal Corps association Of the army
of the Potomac held meeting here today.
They determined to erect an imposing tab
let on Little Round Top, commemorative
of the work done by this branch of the
army in the battle. They also elected Gen
eral Jesse Merrill president and decided to
hold their annual reunion at the time and
place where the national encampment of
the Grand Army of the Republic takes
place.
General J. B. Gordon of Georgia, was
compelled by his official position as chief
executive to leave tor Atlanta this after
noon.
At 3 o'clock the procession COM
posed of the same military commands
etery and marched past the rostrum- At
the conclusion of the parade, General Rob
inson, of New York, as presiding officer
requested Rev. Twitchell, of Hartford,
Conn.,, to open the exercises with prayer.
The prayer was listened to with uncovered
heads and when in concluding he began
the Lords prayer the crowd Joined in.
The poet of the occasion, George Parsons
Lathrop. was unable to be present but
part of his poem was read by General
Roratio c. King, the secretary of the soci-
ETY. Of the army of the Potomac, and was
received by the audience with much APP
plause When the orator, George William
Curtis, was presented. three cheers were
called for by General Sharpe and he was
greeted with hearty applause at the con-
clusion of his Grafton.
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS GRAFTON.
Upon this field consecrated by American
valor we meet to consecrate ourselves to
American union. In this hallowed ground
lie buried. not only brave soldiers of the
blue and gray, but the passions
of war, the jealousies of sections,
and the bitter root of all our
national differences, human slavery.
Here long and angry controversies of polit-
ical dogma, of material interest, and of
local pride and tradition, came to their
decisive struggle. AS the fate of Christen-
dom was determined at Tours, that of
American independence at Saratoga, and
that of modern Europe at Waterloo, the
destiny of the American union was decid-
ed at Gettysburg. A hundred other famous
fields there are of the same American
bravery in the same tremendous strife;
fields whose proud and terrible tale history
and song Will never tire of telling. But it
is here that the struggle touched its
highest point. Here broke the fiery
crest of that invading wave of war.
From this field the civil contest, through
renowned campaigns of courageous en-
durance, of fearful carnage. and of accum-
ulating heart break Cor northern and
southern homes, slowly receded toward its
end. This, therefore, is one of the his
toric fields of the world, and to US Ameri-
cans no other has an interest so profound
Marathon and Arbela, Worcester and
Nalmy, even our own Bunker Hin, and
Saratoga and Yorktown, fields of undying
fame, have not for us a significance SO
vital and so beneficent as this field of Get
tysburg.
As we see it today beneath this summer
sun, it is happy valley of golden harvest
fields, of stately woods, of teeming Or
chards, of glistening waters and of cheer
full homes. Beyond those airy walls of
mountain stretches westward to the Sierras
and Pacific. northward to the lakes, south
ward the Gulf of Mexico, and eastward to
the Atlantic, the continental empire of an
industrious and fraternal people. Its great
aspects, its characteristic features are all
unchanged. Over it beam the benignant
heavens, upon its broad aud beautiful ex-
panse lies the benediction of peace. From
the day when the pioneers first reached it
On their western way, on through the grad
ual development of civilization and its
transformation by tranquil industry from
wilderness to garden, it had been the
happy valley that we behold, secluded from
the world, until revealed in a sudden
blaze of glory, with its heights and slopes
and meadows, Seminary Ridge, Culp's
Hill and VOLTS Hill, Round Top Little
Round Top, the Peach Orchard and Gem
etery Hill, all caught up into immortal re-
membranes.
In that fierce light this noble Landscape
rises at once into history and becomes dear
10 the human heart Around Its chief and
central interest gather associations of
felicitous significance, as If the divine
providence delighted to enrich spot so
fair in itself, so precious in its story, with
kindred memories. Like the house of
delegates in Williamsburg, where Patrick
Henry reused Virginia to resistance: like
Fanneil hall in Boston. where Samuel
Adams lifted New England to independ-
ence; like Carpenters hall in Philadel
phia, where the Continental congress
assembled, this field is invested with the
urdying charm of famous words fifty
spoken. While yet the echoes of the battle
might have seemed to linger in the awed
and grieving air, while far beyond the Pc
tomac the hostile armies still lay encamped
and the final issue of the war was
eeiled, stood the sad and patient and de.
soted man, whose burden WAS greater than
that OF any many Of his generation, and as
greatly borne as any solemn responsibility
in human history-the man from whom no
disappointment, no caiumny, nor defeat,