The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-09-28

IL NhNAAAhAC1 OtlIOf CGCE vi hCNa
Tennessee; Urban A. Woodbury., Yer
mont; w. n. Upham, Wisconsin.
Governors Morton and Holcomb ar
rived just in time to reach the field
and witness the exercises. Missouri,
Florida and North Carolina were rep
resented by delegations of distin-
guished citizens, and to crown all
were the almost innumerable host of
survivors of the battle who had come
to fight it all over again and to re-
joice in its final issue and who repre-
sented nearly every state in the coun-
try. Especially noticeable were the
veterans who came from Louisville
wearing their G. A. r. buttons.
Early arrivals on the grounds were
entertained by a drill of Battery F,
Fourth artillery, under command Of
Capt. Sidney Taylor, and by a bat
TALON or regimental drill, under Col.
Poland, commanding Camp Lamont.
These evolutions exhibited to the
spectators the new tactics and field
movements suggested by the board of
tactics and drills.
Promptly at loon a salute of forty
four guns announced the beginning of
the execution of the programme so
long arranged and looked forward
to. Music by the band of the
Fourteenth regiment, in camp on
the field, followed, and at subsequent
intervals it also was heard
with delight. The addresses of
Senator and Gen. John NJ. Palmer, of
Illinois, and of Senator and Gen. John
b. Gordon, of Georgia, were preceded
by the singing of America" by the
audience, and followed by "Auld Lang
Syne."
Gen. J. S. Fullerton, chairman of the
National Park commission, and, as
such, Secretary Lamont's representa-
tive, charged with the duty of direct
ing the d~edicatory exercises, intro
duced Vice-President Stevenson, who
presided in the absence Of the secretary
of war. lie said:
vice-President Stevenson's Speech.
am honored by being called to preside over
the ceremonies of this day. BY solemn de-
cree OF the representatives OF the American
people this magnificent park, with its Won
drous associations and memories. is now to be
dedicated for all time to national and patriotic
purposes.
This is the fitting hour for the august ceFe-
monies We now inaugurate. To-day. by the
act OF congress Of the United States, the Chick
amauga and Chattanooga National Military
park is forever set apart from all common
uses sOlemnly dedicated for all the ages to
the American people.
The day is suspicious. 1t notes the anniver-
sary Of one Of the greatest battles known to
N-N--- H. H. -.
resort. valor commended against valor. Here.
brave men struggled and died for the right,
las God gave them to see the RICH"
twenty-five years have passed, and the few
survivors OF that masterful day-victors and
yanquished alike-again meet upon this MEM
orable field. Alas, the splendid armies which
rendezvoused here. are now little more than a
procession of shadows.
ION flames eternal camping ground,
Their silet tents are spread,
While glory guards with solemn round.
The bivouac OF the dead"
Our eyes now behold the sublime spectacle
OF the honored survivors of the great battle
coming together upon these heights
once more. They meet. not in dead
ly conflict. but as brothers, under
one flag OF q common
country. All grateful to God. that in the SUI
PANAiC ~ FOfNl nv VI ldluCLS
our common heritage-was triumphant, and
that to all OF the coming generations OF our
coultrymen, 1t will remain An indiviSible
union OF indestructable states"
Our dedication to-day is but q ceremony. In
the words OF the immortal Lincoln at Gettys-
burg: But in a larger sense, we can not dedi-
cate. We can not cOnsecrate. We can not
hallow this ground. The brave men living and
dead. who struggled here have consecrated 1t
far above our power to add or detract."
will detain you no longer from listening to
the eloQuen. words OF those who were par.ici-
pants in the bloody struggle-the sharers alike
In its danger and its glory.
Gen. Palmer's Grafton.
Prayer was offered by Rt. Rev. Bish-
op Gailor of Tennessee. The first adj
dress was that Of Gen. Palmer, who
prefaced his Grafton with eulogistic |
remarks on the brave officers and men,
living and dead, who participated in
the sanguinary struggle being COM
memorated, and continues:
Standing in this presence, upon this historic
ground, l am conscious that no words of my
own Will stir and thrill the survivors of the
great hillary events which thirty-twO years
ago tranSpired in these valleys. and under the
shadow Of these mountains. rs will the mention
OF ChickamaUga. Chattanooga, Lookout Noun
tain and Missionary Ridge. I
These names are now historically significant
Of great battles, where many thousands Of
brave men, of the same race and language,co con
tended with each other for victory.
At the mention of them. the eyes of veterans,
dlmmed by age. will kindle. and for the mo-
ment they will forget the flight OF time. and the
lapse OF years, and in imagination, again
into the heady fight.
He then took his hearers backward
for n time over the years preceding the
war and recounted the various coz
and issues that led up to the
great struggle. Reaching the time of
the firing upon Fort Sumter, he said:
The assault upon Fort Sumter, which &C.
CURED in April. 1861 made any compromise of
the sectional differences impossible. and fully
Mr.. TOOmbS, secretary OF state OF the
government. in saying: The Ar
Ing upon that fort will marguerite a civil war
greater than any the world has ever seen"
Whatever may have been hoped. believed or
by the lovers Of peace in the different
OF the Union before that time. the at
tack upon Fort Sumter rendered a civil war
Inevitable.
Ineed not speak OF the military operations
,t the years 1851 and 1N62. nor of the events
which occurred elsewhere than upon the thea
Ter included in the operations OF the armies
which encountered each other here.
The speaker then told the plain, un-
vanished tale of the military opera
lions directly leading mp to the great
for the possession of Chatta-
1OOga, fought in the valley of the