The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-03-15
WHITE-HAIRED HERO.
A Monument to John Burns at Get
tysburg-Bret Harte's Poem.
New York Sim

A monument to John Burns, the citi-
zen hero of the battle of Gettysburg,
has Just been erected by the state of
Pennsylvania. 1t is situated in the open
fields near Reynolds woods on the
western ridge of the first days field. 1t
was there that John Burns won re-
nown.
The monument shows q bronze figure
OF heroic size, standing On a great
bowlder OF battlefield granite. On the
face of the bowlder is the following
inscription:
MY thanks are specially due TO
citizen of Gettysburg named John
Burns, who. although over 20 years OF
age, shouldered his musket and offered
his services to Colonel WisteT. One
Hundred and Fiftieth Pennsylvania
volunteers. Colonel Wister advised him
to fight in the woods. as there was
more shelter there. but he preferred 70
Join our line of skirmishers in the open
fields. When the troops retired he
fought with the Iron brigade. He was
wounded in three Iaces.-GettysbuTg
Report Of Major General Doubleday.
On the right side of the bowlder is the
coat of arms of Pennsylvania.
Tall and spare. John Burns was an
eccentric, white-haired man o. 20 years
when the battle took place. n whom
the Oldest citizens of the town -emem-
Der as quite old-fasfioned al mat
ter-of-fact slow to argue. bun quick to
act"
On the morning of the first days
fight he was driving his COW to pas
ture when news reached him that the
confederates were coming and that an
engagement was expected. Hurrying
20 his home, he took down from the
old Hfnf1nn1r aud
started along the CEambersburg pike
in the direction of the firing.
Reaching the Union troops on the
ridge, where the opening shot of the
battle was fired. he presented himself
to the commander of the One Hundred
and Fiftieth Pennsylvania volunteers
and asked permission to fight. Cob
oneI Wister advised him to take up a
protected position among the trees to
the left.
But Burns. with a hand as steady as
man OF half his years Joined the
skirmisheTs in the open fields. Dressed
in a suit of brown buff. with a coat Of
blue and a be'l-crowned old white hat
his appearance aroused the soldiers
jokes. They greeted him with cheers.
and, as Bret Harte's poem tells the
story, hailed him with:
How are you, White Hat?' Put her
through
Your heads Ievelr and Bully for
YOU,
But they only jeeTed him for a mo-
. ment for
Something the widest could under
stand.
spake in the old mans strong right
hand
And his corded throat, and the lurking
EwnV-1
/ OF his eyebrows under his old bell
crown:
Until, as they gazed, there crept in awe
Through the ranks in whispers, and
some men saw
In the antique vestments and long
white hair
I The Past of the Nation in battle there:
And some of the soldiers since declare
That the CLEAN Of the old white hat
afar,
Like the crested Dlumes Of the brave
Navarro,
! That day was their OTifiamme of war 4"
He fought with the troops until
/ o'clock in the afternoon. when he fell
with a bullet in the ankle. When the
/ Union troops reiterated he was left ly-
! ing on the field.
Mr. Bush of the Twenty-s regf-
I ment of North Carolina volunteers. who
participated in the attack on the Union
| line where Burns was fighting. tells the
| following story:
ION the afternoon of July l. when
I our company was in the very hottest
/ part Of the engagement, I noticed an
old man dressed in brown jeans and
armed with a long fiintlock gun, fight
/ ing desperately in the front of the
Union lines. And. a little later. when
I the federals made their last stand. di-
TeCtly in the rear of the seminary,
/ saw the jeans-clad warrior fall dead p
I But Burns was not dead. He sur
vived his wounds and lived until Feb
/ ruary (. 1872