Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-10
JUST WISCONSIN G1MAIIY
wv THIN the last half dozen years
Wv great sums of money have been
expended by many states of the

w great sums @ S Of money no SGns~ ne~e yssfa been
expended by many states of the |
Union in the erection of memorial !
monuments to their soldier dead on
various historic battlefelds. The work
is still going on and the government is
doing much to help, SCI, 500 being given
by congress recently in one lump to pay
for suitable cenotaphs in honor of regu-
lar army organizations which fought
at Gettysburg. Meanwhile the great
fighting ground at Chickamauga, now
national park, is to be thickly sprin-
lIled with works of art in imperishab BILE
granite and bronze which record the
deeds of both Union and Confederate
troops, and the same sort of patriotic
enterprise Is being manifested at Antie-
tam, at Vicksburg and at the field of
Shiloh.
The finest monuments on any of our
battlefelds are now being put up at
VickSburg. One of them, erected by
the state of Illinois at a cost of $780,
000 is of granite and bronze. 1t has
the form of n temple, nearly circular,
forty-eight feet in diumeter at the base
and fifty-eight feet high, with a porch
upheld by columns. Another by Iowa,
Is equally beautiful in its way, con-
sisting of half circle of columns, with
elaborate decorations, including tab
let's. The fighting ground at Vicksburg
is on bluff one hundred and fifty feet
above the river, and its most striking
feature geographically is a ridge on
which the Confederate works and bat
teries were situated.
AT Antietam, which saw the hardest
days fighting of the Civil War, ten
thousand men being killed on both
sides. all the states that were repre-
sented by troops are erecting monu-
ments. Not long ago Ohio dedicated
ten such memorials to her regiments in
one bunch on that field Perhaps the
most interesting of them was a huge
granite block with, IA bronze tablet
which represented, in quasi-pictorial
fashion, a boy making coffee at camp
fire
The boy was William Mckinley, at
that time II years old, who. finding
nothing else so useful for him to do,
spent his time during the battle in
preparing a great quantity of the hot
and stimulating beverage so that it
might be ready for the worn out sol
diers after the fight was over. 1t was
typical of his thoughtfulness for others
"a trait dominant in his character
through life. .....a..--.' ...,
Collection at Gettysburg
The states have spent over 50, 900, 900
for reglmental monuments at Gettys-
burg, where the work has been going on
for twenty-five, years In most in
stances where such a memorial was to
be put up the state has contributed
certain amount of money and the sur
vivors of the regiment have furnished
The balance. Originally the battlefield
park at Gettysburg was controlled by |
private individuals, who bought pieces
of land and erected shafts or other
commemorative structures upon them,
but all Of this property has now passed
into the hands of the government. The
money recently appropriated by con-
gress will go much further than an
equal amount expended by organiza-
tlons, because monuments, like any
thing else, are cheaper by the quantity.
Furthermore, the government memo
rials are likely to be better artistically
and more tasteful. A special commits
sion will choose the designs and the
secretary of war will give final de-
cision upon them.
Three hundred and sixty Union regi-
ments and batteries We're engaged in
the fight at Gettysburg and today they
are represented by $50 monuments
costing from 5000 up to $4,000. One of
the most costly of the cenotaphs was
erected by New York The spectacle
presented by the historic field is ex-
traordinary, and a foreigner overlook
ing its sprinkling of granite shafts
might mistake 1t for Mohammedan
cemetery, so frequently does the cres-
cent appear as a design carved in stone
The crescent was the emblem of Gen.
Howards Eleventh corps Up to the
present time the southern states have
taken comparatively little interest i'm
the Gettysburg park, and there is only
one Confederate monument on the field
Honorine Both Armies
The Chickamauga-C Chattanooga park,
on the other hand. was started with the
idea of representing both sides impair
tally Every southern state has had a
commission OF it's own to help i'm the
enterprise and Kentucky, Missouri,
Tennessee and Maryland, because theyl