The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-16

ing bayonets when rebellion threatened the
nations life, surmounted by the figure in
bronze of Vermont's great volunteer sol.
der overlooking the field of his most bril-
liant achievement with the same calm but
determined expression that was on his face
when he saw the great charging column
steadily moving down upon his little com
maud, and when he seized as with the in
SEPARATION of genius, the advantage which his
position afforded and accomplished the most
decisive results The directors recognize
that this structure fittingly and noby com
memorates the men in whose honor it is
erected, and appreciate the high duty rest
ing upon the association to preserve it in
its beauty and glory The directors also
desire me to say that in like degree do they
recognize their duty as to the other monu
ments which Vermont has erected i'm espe-
cial honor and commemOratiou respectively
of the state on other parts Of this memoir
able field.
From the summit of Round Top to the
fancy town Pike, guarding the left flank of
the army, and at the same time within ready
call of any portion Of the line as reserve
was the position of the First Vermont Brig
ade, whose history is commensurate with
that of the Potomac army, and whose fame
is unsurpassed in military annals On that
line, on the avenue bearing the name of their
corps commander the great Sedgwicl, is the
lion in granite, fitting type of the courage
and quality of the brigade, aroused by the
noise of the battle, and ready to spring on
the prey that should venture to cross his
path.
In front Of Round Top the First Vermont
cavalry followed the heroic Farnsworth in
that reckless, but most gallant, charge upon
the lines of Laws infantry brigade, a charge
as certainly into the jaws of death as that of
the cavalry at Balaklava but most import
ant, and perhaps absolutely essential as a
| flank movement to relieve the pressure on
the left center, which Pickett's and the
| other divisions of Longstreet's corps were
making by their renowned charge. This is
the well-selected location for monument
| to the brave riders in eighty-siX battles and
engagements of the war in which they par
| ticipated.
Away to the front, beyond Seminary
Ridge, from which the enemy made his ia
nous assaults on the second and third days
of the battle, a Vermont company in the
First Regiment of United States sharp
shooters discovered and defeated the move
ment of LongStreet to gain the Round Top
and turn the Union left flank on the second
day of the battle, and with their comrades
of that regiment delayed the movement by
skillfu and hard fighting, until dispositions
| were made by Sickles to meet it. On that
extreme front tittingy stands an elegant
| marble column to tell the story to genera
tions to come of the gallant and important
service of these brave rihemen. Between
that and the cavalry monument, near the
! Slider House, another historic point of this
field, two other companies of Vermont
| sharpshooters in the Second regiment of
that famous command, first received the adj
vance of Longstreet's corps, as it swept like
tornado from the crest of Seminary Ridge
into the ravine between the Round Tops,
| which has been appropriately designated as
" DEVILS Den," and there those skilled
marksmen chung with such pertinacity and
until so enveloped by the foe in front and
TANKS as to have acquired for the place the
sobriquet Of the Hornets Nest" There a
granite figure of a hornets nest, with appro-
pirate inscriptions, silently but potently
tells the story of heroic duty for this little
force of determined patriots.
Speaking for the directors, whom | now
represent, this brief allusion is made that
the representatives of the Green Mountain
state may know that the Gettysburg Battle
field Memorial Association has not over
looked the fact that the descendants of
| Allen and Warner, and the other heroes
who held the mountain Businesses in the
stormy days of the revolution, made on this
field one of the grandest pages OF American
history, and that it is in full appreciation of
this fact that the association accepts the
sacred trust now reposed in it by the noble
state that never failed in patriotic duty.
Senator Edmunds' Grafton.
To-day, on a battlefield in the great state
founded by William Penn, the foremost
man of peace, we dedicate the monument
our small and distant state, the child of war.
erects to the memory of her soldiers who
shared, somewhat conspicuously, in the
great and decisive battle that in 1868, very
near the anniversary of the founding of the
republic, was fought to victory for liberty
and law along the now sunny and silent
wales and hillsides where it stands among
many similar memorials, pdrS inter partes
The states in which equal laws
were equally administered for the preserva-
ton of the just liberties and equal rights OF
all the people far outstripped those in
which slavery was a feature of the social
and political system in every element and
step of civilized progress. The inevitable
elimination of these politically connected
but hostile social systems came in the re-
bellion of 1861. 1t lasted long enough, I'M