Sherman & Co., Philadelphia.
On the 15th June, 1887, the State of Pennsylvania provided for
the erection of a Memorial Tablet, or Monument, for each of the
Pennsylvania Commands that participated in the Battle of Gettysburg,
July 1st, 2d and 3d, 1863.
At a Re-Union of the 84th Regiment held at Huntingdon, Pa., 21st
September, 1887, Captain Thos. E. Merchant, Gen. Geo. Zinn, Adjutant
Edmund Mather, Sergeant A. J. Hertzler, and Henry L. Bunker, were
appointed a Committee on Monument, with full power to act as to design,
inscription and dedication.
The dates, September 11th and 12th, 1889, were named by the Governor of
the Commonwealth to be "Pennsylvania Days"--Wednesday, the 11th, for
the dedication of the Monuments by the Associations of the respective
Commands; and Thursday, the 12th, for the transfer of the Monuments to
the State.
On the 10th August, 1889, full information of the Day was sent to every
Soldier of the 84th, whose address was known, and the response had in
the attendance of one hundred and forty-six Comrades, coming from all
parts of the State and some from beyond, spoke forcibly to the memory,
and testified clearly to the reality of the old Command. The presence
of so large a number so many years after the War, tended to, and did,
awaken the most earnest feeling, and every one knew how great was the
loss to the Comrades not there.
The introductory words at the Monument by the Vice-President of the
Regimental Association, Captain Robert Johnson, were highly appropriate
to the occasion, and marked the earnestness of the ceremony in which
the Soldiers of the 84th were now engaged.
The Chaplain of the Association, Rev. John P. Norman, Surgeon of the
Regiment, offered Prayer.
Letters from absent Comrades were read by Adjutant Mather.
Gen. Joseph B. Carr, whose Brigade (the 1st, 2d Division, 3d Corps) in
the Gettysburg Campaign included the 84th, had expressed his earnest
wish to be present at the dedication, a feeling on his part highly
gratifying to Soldiers who had served under so able a Commander.
While desiring it to be understood that he was there as a hearer, to
witness the services, he felt that he could not properly refuse to
respond to the request for a talk, which he did most cheerfully.
His words, written in granite, would stand as a Monument of Honor to
the Regiment so long as the stone would endure.
A group picture, taken at the time of the dedication, will be of
lasting interest. At no time since their muster-out had there been so
many Soldiers of the Regiment touching elbow, and never, this side,
will there be again so many.
The Address by Captain Merchant, Chairman of the Committee on Monument,
is published in compliance with the expressed desire of the surviving
members of the Regiment.
[Illustration]
Soldiers of the Eighty-Fourth Regiment
Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers:
If the feeling with which these words of salutation are heard and
accepted, is like unto the feeling that prompts their utterance, then
are we fully compensated in our coming together.
We name the old Regiment, and what recollections crowd in upon us;
memories of the camp, the march, and the field. Some fond--many
weighted with the touch of sorrow felt in its heavy burden even until
now, through all of so much of time.
In the presence of these recollections I could not hope to control
your thought. I would not ask you simply to follow words as I speak
them, but rather that you be all of memory, all of feeling, thinking,
listening the while if you can, but surely thinking. For in thought you
can cover more ground in moments than I could travel for you in days.
Together you comprise the Whole Book, the turning of whose pages wakens
memory to every detail, while from the one individual you can have
no more than the head-lines to the volume whose contents you are so
familiar with.
Together you know what our Regiment was; alone I can but outline to
you, and that roughly, a meagre part of the full story of the 84th.
Its history could be found only in the everything that could be told
by each of all the hundreds, living and dead, who numbered its total
strength. But where your special individual interest lies it is not
possible for me to tread. I wish I could tell the story of every
Company, relate the incidents of every mess, and note the experiences
of every individual.
Many the time we have recalled our comradeship, more especially
with those with whom we were brought in the closer association. It
would be a pleasant theme were I at liberty to name the latter and
their never-forgotten deeds, that I might place on record my keen
appreciation of their kindly acts at a time when kindness was most to
be valued, and fidelity most to be prized. But in whatever I do upon
this occasion, I stand reminded that I am not to tread over again my
individual walk, nor speak again my personal conversation. What is
said--what is done--shall be, so far as may be, of all for all.
Not many of us had the opportunity to know very much outside the limits
of the Company; and fewer of us beyond the limits of the Regiment.
And it was well for good service that the majority of soldiers were
content with the work assigned them, and gave but little heed to the
details of location of armies or corps, and but little thought to the
place of divisions or brigades.
Who was the best-posted man on the news? Who the readiest army talker?
Who the general of the camp? The soldier who was not to be found in the
place his enlistment called for at the time when his presence would
have told the most. It was well for the service that he did not number
many.
The good soldier ought not to think it strange, that while in
everything he did his duty well, he does not know much of what was done
by regiments other than his own, and would be at a loss to name the
number of his brigade. Nor must he think that the comrade who stood
side by side with him is the only one mistaken as to the occurrences
of the day. It would not always be well to accept a soldier of F Co.
as a conclusive witness of what took place in E, if there was dispute
as to the bearing of the line, or question as to who were the first to
advance; and yet, no one will bend the ear more gladly than myself to
the recitals of a soldier in fact, because I know he gives us the truth
as he believes it. And if from the data thus gathered, I count that his
regiment was killed, or permanently disabled, _twice over_, I attribute
the outcome to a lack somewhere in the arithmetic, and not to a vice in
the teller. And, in this connection, we must not overlook the fact of
the years that have rolled by.
Twenty-four years and upward in the circle of time measures the
distance of our close, very close, comradeship. Years more than many of
us had numbered prior to the beginning, four years before, of the long
campaign. The time that preceded and that which has followed, make up
the life ordinary. The long four years was the life within the other
life. In it was contained the greatest of all wars from the world's
beginning--the war against the Rebellion of '61.
Hirelings were not upon either side. It was man against man in the
fight. Soldier pitted against soldier. Each individual fighting the
issue which so nearly concerned himself. It was the greatest of
rebellions against the grandest of governments. If successful, to the
world it would have been the greatest and grandest of revolutions.
It was not a conflict forced merely for the perpetuation of slavery. It
was the institution of the crown, and not preservation of the chattel,
that most moved the men who moved the South from '89 to '61.
One people in Government, and yet in sentiment and practices as far
removed as two nationalities.
Forced together for mutual protection, yet from the beginning
thoroughly divided in appreciation of the powers of a free Government.
In human direction, it was but a run of time when, as a Government for
the whole people, the central power would be called upon to assert
itself by the power of might.
Neither of the existing conditions would have won to the United States
a constitution for their government such as was fixed upon and has come
along, in its working, through all of a hundred years, without a break
in any of its provisions. Every line of it, as to matters upon which
men could differ, was agreed upon for submission to the States, because
necessity admitted of no other course for them, and live. Well was it
for stability of government that, when the substance had passed the
gauntlet of discussion, the words had been so well placed, that not a
letter was found astray when the great test came. No document of State
has, or ever will, surpass it in sublimity of thought, arrangement of
detail, clearness of expression, or force of power.
In the assertion of the binding powers of this Constitution, the 84th
had a part, and _you_ were a part of the 84th.
Your Regiment was to you the command which centred your soldier life.
And well content may you be in the fact that its character secured for
it a reputation which, to every one of us, has been a thing of just
and affectionate pride. I studied that character at a time when I felt
it was everything to me. My varied experiences in the several positions
in company and regiment, which I occupied, enabled me to found a
judgment which has been very clearly and most positively strengthened
by every knowledge since acquired. The tenor of that judgment you will
gather as I proceed, in an imperfect way, to tell you a part of what
you did in three years and nine months of soldier life.