The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-14
FIND NEW TOMB.
Bones of Martyrs Who Died in
Prison Ships
During the Revolutionary War
Are Fittingly Inferred.
COLUMN OF GRANITE
Rising to a Height of 27O Feet
Marks the Spot.
President Elect Taft Is Orator
of the Day.

New York, Nov 14-With military
pomp and impressive ceremony the
prison ship martyrs" monument in
Brooklyn was dedicated today. Presi-
dent-elect Taft made a special trip
from Hot Springs, Va, to deliver the
Grafton. Secretary of War Wright on
behalf of the government made the
presentation address and Governor
Charles E. Hughes, on behalf of the
state accepted the memorial. To pre-
cede these ceremonies at Fort Greene
park, where the monument has been
erected. was a brilliant military, naval
and civic parade in Brooklyn, in
which detachments of the artillery
and navy national guard Grand Army
of the Republic and patriotic societies
took part.
After more than a century of agita-
ton by individuals and organizat tions,
bones representing approximately 49,
600 martyrs" of the Revolutionary
war, who died on the prison ship
Jersey" and other lesser vessels in
Wallabout Bay. Brooklyn, lie at last
in f1ttingly marked burial place, for
which the government, New York
made contributions An imposing
Doric column of garnite. 270 feet
high, surmounted by a funeral urn
and flag staff, rises above the tomb
at Fort Greene Park. Brooklyn, and
its dedication today was marked by
a remarkable military parade of near
ly 10000 soldiers and marines and
memorable addresses by President
Elect William H. Taft and Governor
Charles E. Hughes.
Big Procession.
The procession of naval and military
ORGANIZATIONS said TO he one of the
largest in the history of Brooklyn, the
tremendous outpouring of people from
all over Greater New York, crowding
denSely the line of march, and at Fort
Greene park massed by tens of thous-
ands. presented an inspiring spectacle.
Major General Charles F. Roe, COM
manding the national guard of the
state, was grand marshal of the pa
rade, which comprised four divisions
troops attached to division head
quarters, First and Second brigade
headquarters and the naval militia.
In these were included two sQuadrons
of cavalry, three batteries of field ar
tilIery, two organizations of the state
signal corps, one field hospital corps,
three coast artillery regiments, head
ed by General David E. Austen; the
Seventh, Twelfth, Fourteenth, Twenty
third Fourty-seventh, Sixty-frst and
Seventy-second infantry regiments of
the national guard; fourth division of
the G. A. R., veterans associations and
mounted police and many military and
other bands.
The vicissitudes of the remains of
the sailors and soldiers who died of
fever and starvation, and rotted in the
foul hulks of the British prison ships
long anchored in Wallabout bay,
which they polluted, have been many,
and have caused more than one out
burst of public indignation. 1t was in
1892. at Brooklyn town meeting, that
definite steps were first urged to
properly bury the remains. Nothing
was DONE however. until 1903, when
the Tammany society secured funds
for temporary wooden tomb, which
was constructed on Hudson street. To
this the bodies, dug from the trenches
along the Wallabout banks where they
had been hastily inferred, were re-
moved.
With passing years the structure
fell into decay, the bones became ex-
posed and children played with them.
Public feeling became aroused, and in
1875 the City of Brooklyn removed
all that could be collected, several
loads of them, to tomb at Fort
Greene park under the stairs of the
entrance. where they had been until
work had begun on the present hand
some memorial which the late Stan
ford White designed, and which rep
resents about 100000. To these
bones were added, four years ago, af-
ter q public service at Plymouth
church, many more, filing about eight
coffins. which had been unearthed in
of warehouses at the