Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-09-26

Promptly at noon q 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 dedicatory exercises, intro
duced Vice-President Stevenson, who
presided in the absence of the secretary
of war. He said:
vice-rresident 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
purposes.
This is the fitting hour for the august cere-
monies 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. It notes the anniver-
sary of one of the greatest battles known to
history. Here. in the dread tribunal of last
vail dol ainSt VAL HRrp
brave men struggled and died for the right,
las God gave them to see the righ.
twenty-five years have passed, and the few
survivors of that masterful day-yictors 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 faE..s eternal camping ground,
Their siIet tents spread.
While glory guards with solemn round.
The bivouac of the dead
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 observation-disclosures of common
country. All grateful to God. that in the SUI
preme struggle, the government OF our fathers
our common heritage-was triumphant, and
that to all of the coming generations Of our
countrymen, it will remain IAN indiv1Sible
union of indestructable states"
Our dedication to-day Is but ceremony. In
the words of the immortal Lincoln at Gettys-
burg: But in 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 eloquent 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 Ri. 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 continued:
Standing in this presence, upon this historic
ground. am conscious that no words OF my
own will stir and thrill the survivors Of the
great military events which thirty-twO years
ago transpired in these valleys. and under the
| shadow of these mountains. as will the mention
of Chickamauga. Chattanooga, Lookout Noun
tain and Missionary Ridge.
These names are now historically significant
of great battles, where many thousands Of
brave men, of the same race and language con
tended with each other for victory.
At the mention of them, the eyes Of veterans,
dimmed by age, will kind1e, and for the mo-
ment they will forget the flight OF sims. KS :he
lapse of years, and in Imagination again
plunge into the heady fight.
He then took his hearers backward
for time over the years preceding the
war and recounted the various con-
great struggle. Reaching the time of
81, G-;~ Io
The assault upon Fort Sumter, which oc-
Cured in April, 1851 made any compromise OF
the sectional differences impossible. and fully
justified Mr. TOombS. secretary OF state Of the
confederate government. in saying: THE fir
ing upon that fort will inaugurate civil war
greater than any the world has ever seem
Whatever may have been hoped. believed or
feared by the lovers of peace in the different
sections of the Union before that time, the at
tack upon Fort Sumter rendered civil war
inevitable.
need not speak Of the mili:a-- operations
of the years 1861 and ICE. 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, I'M
vanished tale of the military opera
tions directly leading up to the great
battle for the possession of Chatta-
nooga, fought in the valley of the
Chickamauga, and described from his
point of view. and with the light of
history thrown upon the operations
of others. that terrible and bloody
struggle which terminated through
an unfortunate order or the
misconstruction of an order from
Gen Rosecrans to Gen. Wood in the
defeat of the Union soldiers.
Facts he said demonstrated the des-
pcrate courage of the opposing armies.
which were almost identical in nu-
merical strength.
Two armies of American soldiers, of the ag-
gregate number of 1880, suffered the loss of
3.4i6 killed. 20.907 wounded, without counting
the missing. the casualties of the two armies
was more than 20 per cent OF the whole number
engaged.
We retired from the field defeated, it is
true. but we believed our reverse was the re-
suit of one of those unavoidable accidents
against which no courage or skill could pro-
vide, and were ready on the next day to
fight again with all the courage and confidence
that we felt on the 18th and 10th OF September.
We retired to CHATTANOOGA, and were pursued
aud beleagured by the confederateS until the
18th day of November. when the men who left
the field Of Chickamauga defeated on the Goth
day of September, stormed Missionary Ridge
and fully recovered the prestige of the national
arms.
My comrades. and countrymen, I have thus
, told the story of the battle OF Chickamauga.
1t it brief and necessarily incomplete. Writ
ers, some with historical accuracy, and others.
in the language of romance. have told the tale
of that bloody contest. No man can know
much of the events which did not occur in his
immediate presence on field like this. We
the names OF but few of the fallen. but
". In remember the courage and gaiIantry OF
all tod xTif