The Portland daily press., 1889-10-09
Maine al Gettysburg
Record Of the Dedication Of the MOnu.
meHtS Erected By the State.
Tour Of The Maine Veterans Over the
Great Battlefield.
Stories Of the Conflict Told Amid the
Old Scenes.
Addresses Of Generals Chamberlain,
Conner and Smith.
Colonel Clark s. Edwards at the
Pifth's Monument.
Some History that Should Never Be
Forgotten in Maine.
Addresses Of Generals Chamberlain,
Conner and Smith.
Especial Correspondence Of the Press ]

Especial Correspondence of the Press
GETTYSBURG, Oct. 8, 1889
Both the battlefield and the battle Of Get
tysburg have been described often and ably
Both Union and Confederate soldiers who
acted great parts in the tragedy tweDty-six
years ago have given to the world splendid
descriptions of what they and their comrades
did. as well as of the historic hills and fields
on which they did those deeds. An accom-
plished foreign soldier, too, has given to the
results of his laborious study of this battle,
an expression in narrative that delights the
reader with its cearness, with its just and
discriminating use of adjectives, and with
its quiet but telling force as it enforces the
truth, too often obscured in more glowing
narratives, that great battle is q great kill
ing. To describe battlefield and battle so
illustrated would be both useless and pre-
sumptuous 1t is enough to say that the
twenty-five square miles around Gettysburg,
within which the battle was fought, is a
stretch Of country of unusual beauty, with
diversity of ridges and hills, little valleys
ard broad expanses OF cultivated fields,
groves and thickets, the strong positions of
which render it as charming to the eye of the
soldier as to the eye of the artist. 1t will he
useful and necessary also for the reader to
remember that the battle of Gettysburg oc-
cuped three hot July days; that the Con-
federate army, fresh from the profitable
overrruning of the rich country as far as the
environs of Harrisburg, came down to Get
tysburg from the west and north; that the
Union army, anxious for the defence of
Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia,
came up for the south and east; that the
battle of the first day was fought north
ard west of the village by the First and
Eleventh corps of the Union army, which
had arrived at Gettysburg before the enemy
and taken position to hold him back from
it.; that these corps, after fighting a great
battle, were driven back through the town to
arefuge ON Cemetery Ridge; that on the
second day other corps having arrived, the
Union line extended from Culp's Hill along
Cemetery Ridge, with disconnected line
thrown out to the Emmettsburg Road and
Peach Orchard, there turning at nearly a
right angle and extending back to the Devils
Den at the foot of Little Round Top; and
that the battle of this day consisted in the
driving in of this angular line (Sickle'sl IN
great battle late in the afternoon, and 10 an
Independent assault on Cemetery Hill Ia
the evening; that on the third day the Union
line extended like an immense fish hook, the
bend lying ON Culps and Cemetery hills and
the shank extending far across to the Round
Tops while the days battle consisted OF
Pickett's magnificent, but futile endeavor to
break the part Of the line lying In the lower
ground between Cemetery Hill and Little
With these leading facts thoroughly UNDER
stood the reader will be able to understand
the parts borne by the Maine regiments,
. and brigades of tine army, were present at
every doubtful and dangerous place. Had
some prophetic intelligence, anxious for the
future fame of Maine soldiers. selected on
June 30th the spots where Maine troops
might distinguish themselves, in the coming
three days, the positions could hardly have
been improved. 1t will be impossible, inter-
estiDg as it would be, to convey in language
the descriptions of the deeds of the Maine
regiments that have been given today. by
men who fought and commanded here
twenty six years ago. Their words were too
modest and brief to satisfy their auditors;
but with the slopes hillocks and groves
where the fighting was done lying before
them, with the positions and movement of
friend and foe pointed out so that the iinagi-
nation was almost satisfied with Its own
picture, the briefest and most modest MARIA
tive grew eloquent. Never before since the
battle, probably never again, will so many
participants from Maine regiments gather
on this field What they said with the old
scenes about them, Is worth preserving,
though il can only be preserved shorn of the
interest and deprived of the illustration.
which the place and the occasion have given
to 1t once only.
The Maine party, to the number OF two or
three hundred, started out by carriages very
early this morning to visit the Maine Monu-
meDts Governor Burleigh and General
Charles Hamlln rode in the first carriage,
members of the staff followed, and then
came Hon. Hannibal HamliD, Major s. w.
Thaxter, General Spldpn Common, members
of the Commission, Colonies of Maine regi-
ments, and other veterans and visitors, The
first monument visited was that OF the
Second Maine Battery, which Was COM
manded In the battle by General james A.
Hall The monument stands on the Cham
bersburg road, northwest of the village, just
over the fence on the northerly side OF the
road ION the map the position OF the bat
terry Is on the wrong side OF the road. The
location of the monument Is one OF great
beauty 1t is set in cultivated field, as are
almost all the monuments, but 1t is on the
summit of a gentle declivity that falls away
to the northwest, in an even slope That the
battery must have commanded Tor long
distance. Far beyond this slope, in the dim
distance rise the mountains OF the Blue
Ridge. The monument Is large shaft, sur
mounted by five granite cannon balls, and
bearing these Inscriptions:
Halls Second Name Battery
First Brigade
Second Division
first Corps.
July So, 1858.
Casualties
men killed
10 men wounded.
1t may be said of this monument as it may
of all the Maine monuments, that 1t Is
imposing and In good taste. Other States
have erected more costly memorials resplen-
dent with bronze and statuary: but there Is
not one Of the simpler Maine monuments
hest monument Of another State aud there
attract the approving attention of the passer-
py; tDe commissioners have chosen taste.
~ ana SUBSTANTIAL designs wrought In the
Granite OF our own State.
Ge-aral Hall was unable to be present to
explain Lle part taken by his battery, a
circumstance which was much regretted So
General Hamlin introduced Major Stevens,
of the Fifth Battery. who briefly explained
the prominent part borne by the Second
Battery in the first days fight
Sixteenth Maine.
From the Second Battery's monument the
company drove to the monument of the Six
feenth Infantry. The Sixteenth's monument
is a simple obelisk, about twenty or twenty
Eve feet high. The State of Maine coat O
Arms ornaments one face Of it, On othe
faces are these Inscriptionss
sixteenth Maine Infantry,
Julv lst 1868 fought here from 10 o'clock unit
an NJ when the division was lorced 70 Ie =, lr
command of General Robinson 10 roht Near n
W Nm road, as indicated by a markt
there. with the orders ITO hold the poS'ion az a'
COST
July End and Sd. In position with the DiVisio
on Cemetery Hill.
CASUALTIES.
Killed; ;.....s.......... 2 officers ~ = men y
Wounded........... 80. % 4.
aptured.................11 l4o
Strength Of Regiment. rs 200
On the fourth face are draped flags.
At this monument General Charles w
Tilden, who commanded the regiment Il