The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-11-19
PENNsYLVANIA'S MONUMENTS AT
CHICK ANAUGA.


This week has witnessed very elaborate
ceremonies performed by the veterans
and other citizens OF PENNSYLVANIA in
and around the battie-felds of Cbicka-
manga. Lookout Mountain. Missionary
Ridge, and Chattanooga, upon defeating
Pcnnsylvania's monuments there and
turning them over 10 the national gov
eminent. On Monday Governor Hastings,
Governor of Pennsylvania, received the
monuments from the Battlefield Com
mission and turned them over to the
United States. and. in doing 1t ne deliver
ed a speech from which we make the
following extracts. He said:
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The surviving veteran soldiers Of Penn
sylvania who participated in the battle in
and about Chattanooga thirty-four years
ago have assembled here to-day 10 dedi-
cate with appropriate ceremony the mon
uments erected by the authority of our
Commonwealth in honor OF tho service
here rendered 70 their Sountry
With warm hearts and uncovered heads,
We salute the great state OF Tennessee.
The cordiality Of our greeting, your UNI
bounded hospitality ana your knightly
welcome have touched those cords OF
sympathy and fraternity which, better
than words. are told in the trembling lips
and fearful eyes OF those who are here
from the Ncrth. Wherever in this great
assemblage "A gray uniform Is seen we IN
stinctively feel and know that tho gray
coat is buttoned across breast that feels
q soldierly sympathy; that the hand eX-
tended is the hand of welcomed that the
words YOU utter are the words Of SINGER
fly and hospitality; that your sympatheS
are our smypathies; that our monuments
are your monuments, and the nag that
waves before us is the emblem of our
common heritage and the shrine OF our
common devotion.
standing here on Orchard Knob, where
once stood host Of illustrious men, ana
among them Grant, Rosecrans. Thomas,
sherman. Sheridan and Granger, we turn
10 Lookout Mountain standing as silent
sentinel OF the heroic past, and we may
almost see tho enduring bronze belted 10
the rocks 10 Tell the coming generations
where brave soldiers scaled the heights,
and among them Geary and his men, or
Pennsylvania. onder through tho mists
and the scattering foliage of autumn We
catch a glimpse of monuments that mark
The field of Chickamauga, and there be-
fore us are the lOwlands across which
marched the armies that fought their
way 10 the summit OF Missionary Ridge.
These are the fields once contested by
Bragg, Longstreet, Polk. Breckenridge,
Hood and Buckner, commanders ana
armies both, whose galiantry ana courage
evinced the characteristics that make the
American soldier the peer OF any since
time began --.-
You have seen the evclutions Of
third OF a century. and you doubtless
wonder why. in the providence OF God
Il became necessary long ago that Vete-
ran should struggle against veteran,
battery against battery, OF witness the
charge OF the war horse whose neck
Is clothed In thunder" 70 perpetuate and
strengthen a nation. How useless and
reckless and unnecessary it all must
now appear TO you. But out of the re-
collection OF the thunder Of battle how
grateful 1t must be to-day TO the brave
men who struggled on both sides 10 real
ize that out OF II has come nobler and
xrander nation than before had ever been
contemplated.
Time is a healer as well as a destroyer
Time has cooled the ardor; has tempered
the Judgment; has healed the wounds
and has meilowed-aye. obliterated - all
sectional animosties. Time was the
hospital, the nurse, the Christian COM
mission, tho holy cvansel that sat by the
bedside OF war and restored TO strength
and beauty incompatible a nation almost
divided. Times cruel sentence is not
vet execrted, nor Will II DO for you until
these heroic fields shall no longer be the
witness OF reunions such as these But
those who come after you will surely keep
alive the story Of your yalor and devo-
ton; and with them
mo more shall the war cry sever,