" Let it be our bounded duty and work, to bind up the wounds and build up the waste of war. God has softened the hearts of those who here on both sides fought with heroic valor."

Bvt. Brig. Gen. William Noble

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - July 1, 1884

Contents

Introduction

17th Annual Reunion - 1883

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Gettysburg Reunion - 1884

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Gettysburg Reunion - 1889

Title

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Reunion Photographs

Shell Island, CT reunion

Our train left New Haven for New York, at seven o'clock Monday morning, October 21^st, arriving at Jersey City, about ten o'clock. Here we met a large number of excursionists, who like ourselves, were bound for the world renounded battle-field. At about 10:30 we left the depot of the Pennsylvania railroad, in a train of five cars. The passengers were composed of veterans of the Seventeenth and Twenty-seventh Regiments Connecticut Volunteers and their friends. The entire party numbered two hundred and eleven persons. The distance from Jersey City to Gettysburg is nearly two hundred and fifty miles. During the morning we had been favored with more or less rain, but before we reached Philadelphia the clouds were nearly all gone. Luckily there were no parlor cars on the train, which fact served to make the entire party more social, and it would be difficult to find a jollier two hundred.

At Philadelphia a stop of thirty minutes was allowed all who desired to take dinner at the depot restaurant, many, however, preferred to use the half hour in looking about the Quaker City, and then eating lunch on the train. While we were at the depot we saw an immense number of G.A.R. men in uniform, taking the cars for Norristown, to attend the funeral of General Hartranft, to whose memory, all the flags in the city were at half mast. While in the city we had a hasty view of the Mint, State House, Masonic Temple, and the celebrated Wannamaker clothing house. We left Philadelphia at 1:30, making excellent time, through a most beautiful country to Harrisburg, which place we reached about five o'clock. Here we were delayed a short time by a hot box. Leaving Harrisburg we crossed the Susquehanna river and through Bridgeport, thence to Carlisle, where is located the Government Training School for Indians, from here the train dashed on at a good rate until Gettysburg was reached, at about seven o'clock, where there seemed to be more hack drivers and boarding-house runners then there were veteran soldiers, the latter, however, were ordered by Colonel Blakeman to "fall in rapidly," and soon marched to the McClellan House, which had been assigned as the headquarters of the two regiments. A large number of the party, however, put up at the Eagle Hotel. After supper many of the vets strolled about the town to see if they could find any familiar traces of '63. The town is said to have increased about one-third since the war, but among the business streets, we could see but little change from what it bore five years ago. The majority of the houses are of brick, as are also many of the sidewalks. The present population of the town is about 4,000.

At 9:30, Tuesday morning, the Seventeenth regiment, headed by the Gettysburg G.A.R. band, and escorted by their comrades of the Twenty-seventh, marched to their monument, which stands on the lane skirting the foot of East Cemetery Hill. The exercises of the dedication, were then conducted according to the programme, as follows: Prayer by Rev. Beverley E. Warner, of Christ Church, Bridgeport; Presentation of monument, Sergt. P. Wade; Unveiling by Miss Henrietta Huss, daughter of Henry Huss; Acceptance by General William H. Noble; Oration by Rev. A. R. Thompson, D.D., formerly pastor of the South Church, Bridgeport, and now pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of New York; Reception of the monument by Hon. J. M. Krauth, District Attorney, Adams county, Pa.; Benediction by Rev. B. E. Warner.

ORATION OF REV. ALEXANDER R. THOMPSON. D.D.

The dews and rains of heaven for more than a quarter of a century have been obliterating the traces of the stupendous conflict that once swept over this broad valley. In the peaceful quiet in which it lies this autumnal day, but for its memorial stones, no stranger could suspect that once, its bosom had been furrowed by terrific war. There are but slender signs to show that its grain fields were ever trampled by the feet of contending hosts, and its green award reddened by the life-blood of brave and heroic men. We may thank God that so He has been pleased to order the never broken procedure. That spring-tide showers, and summer sunshine, and autumn winds, and winter snows do faithfully their kindly work. That the ploughshare turns again the furrow, and harvest fields invite again the reaper; that new banners of beauty are hung upon the bending boughs; and that all His cosmic forces hasten to smooth and soften the traces of conflict.

There are no words at our command wherewith to describe the events which are inseparably linked in human memory, with the place wherein we are assembled; and it is a relief to know that it is not incumbent on us to attempt their description. They have been described by the only men who were competent to describe them. We are far enough removed from them in years to have given opportunity to the men who were actors in it to have written out with skillful pens the eventful story. Far enough away to have had the intensity of emotion on both sides the awful conflict, drift away like the cloud of smoke that envelopes and obscures the arena of struggle, and in the calmer, clearer light to have allowed men who were capable, on either side of the gigantic encounter, to build up a literature of it, which shall go far toward recording its complete history. It is enough that in its broad outline it reveals itself to us. For more than that, one must of needs turn to the recital of the men who were in it, who are the only men who are able to give it. Our coming hither to-day is to do honor to the brave men, living and dead, who bore their faithful part in the awful crisis, and so far to allow the memories of it, at once tremendous and tender, to sweep over us, as to render to them the honor which is their due.

It is easy now, as it was less easy in the time of it, to see that the terrible three days' conflict, which swayed and swept over these fields and ridges, was fairly a turning point in the war. Its tidal wave was from this to recede. And although there were months and years of determined struggle yet to follow, ere came its end, the place whereon we are standing, marks the line at which the recession began. Almost simultaneously with this, the opening of the Mississippi by the fall of Vicksburg, and the extended ocean blockade completed the beleagurement, which was the beginning of the end. But for what took place here, where we are to-day gathered, this beleagurement would not have been completed; and that not completed, who can tell what the end would have been! The significance of the event of which this was the arena cannot be overrated. The array of force was simply stupendous. Other great encounters in the world's history, even other whole wars, sink in comparison with it. Their numbers were smaller. The interests involved in them were far less significant. Thermopylae was to save the Grecian states from Asiatic semi-barbarism. But what were the Grecian forces there, sublime as was their valor, compared with the forces here! And what a shadow of a republic was Greece compared with this mighty republic of the West. The battle of the Granicus was to let in the flood of Grecian light and civilization on Asia. But who can forget that it was a step in the pathway of the stupendous ambition of Alexander of Macedon! Waterloo saved Europe from the domination of Napoleon. But it was dynasty against dynasty; and the people, as the people, of what account were they held to be! The whole Crimean campaign did not involve the forces or the interests involved in this one field of Gettysburg. For here on both sides, the stupendous forces of the mightiest republic that ever the sun has looked upon were gathered for an encounter, the issue of which involved the fate of a continent, the fate of millions upon millions, the fate of human kind the world over. Across the sea jealous governments looked on and hoped for such an event to the struggle as should give pause to the mighty march of human manhood, and leave the Republic of the West denationalized and denuded of its gigantic vigor. They were destined to be disappointed. The republic was to live in its majestic strength. The army of the South advanced under magnificent leadership. Its ranks were filled, and filled with veterans. Its organization was of the utmost efficiency. It had no divided counsels. Its confidence in its leaders was complete. Its courage and purpose were most determined. It had been recruited out of homes. Men fought in it with the love of wife and children at their hearts. It was met here by an army like itself. Made up of men born on the soil, or who, wherever born, had American citizen written over their hearts. These men fought for altar and hearth-stone! With homes behind them for which they knew that they were fighting. Under leaders who valor and wisdom had been proven over and over. These men knew that they were fighting their own battle and were sure that they were in the right, and so, stood in the way of the tremendous force arrayed against them. Back and forth swayed the tide of success through those three ever memorable days. Now on this side, now on that. But their sturdy resistance through those three days of awful strain and struggle, on this memorable field, breasted, and finally turned back the tide of battle, and opened the way for the immeasurable results which for six and twenty years have been coming of that great encounter. The whole history of it can never be written. There are salient points of it that are graven indelibly on the memories of men. But how much is there, known only to God, that proved the quality of the men on both sides in this fearful fray? Who will ever be able to write in full the history of the rank and file of those great armies, who knew how to do and die, the mortal remnant of so many of whom lies all around us, and others sleep amid the ashes of their kindred? What comprehensive recital will ever be able to give this in full detail?

What human heart can ever fail to say: Alas, that such an onset there must ever needs have been! But that it was; and that so it was carried on; and that so it ended, remains indelibly written.

In the calmer light of the years which have followed it, we are better able to see whence came its terrible necessity.

We shall have no adequate view of this great problem, unless we can climb to a point of observation high enough to carry our vision over centuries.

The value of individual human nature, and from that, its sanctity in the sight of Heaven, and the steady evolution of this in successive ages, underlies all human history. There were ages in that history in which this was no recognized factor. Either it was never suspected, or if some gleam of it crept into human thought and utterance, it was treated only as the dream of an impracticable enthusiasm. Millions lived and died, and still this imperishable item entered not into human computation. Slowly, so slowly as scarcely to provoke notice, like the waste of the granite, or the building up of the coral it began to reach a point where it forced itself on human reckoning. The awful eighty yars war in the Netherlands, under William, the Silent, and his brave son, Maurice, was its first appearance above the sullen waters of human life and endurance. Higher it rose in the English Revolution, under Cromwell. And still small enough for the great ones of earth, either not to notice it or else to despise it, God, who had kept for it this grand western continent, brought it over the sea and gave it here, in the later ages, its opportunity. It had to fight every inch of is way. The mighty forces of earthly power were at length awakened to its importance, and were resolved on its destruction. France with her Indian allies, and later England in her blind arrogance, would have made an end of it. But neither France nor England could turn back the tide of God's almighty providence. So long as there was resistance to it from without, that resistance only developed its strength. And none could stay it. Its crucial testing came when thee was no longer any resistance to it from without, and it had grown in conscious inward strength. But in that conscious strength came the startling revelation that it did not fairly comprehend itself. But at length, that, gradually, but irresistibly forced itself upon it. Entirely within itself arose questions which would not, could not be shoved aside. Complicated with related though subsidiary and yet momentous issues, this grand substrative question forced itself upon the new nation: Was it a nation? Or was it only a congeries of sub-nationalities? In the complexity of its chosen form of self-government was the whole republic one nation, or was it only a collocation of self-centered governments, any one of whom might at will isolate itself? Perhaps such a question could not have been foreseen; or if foreseen by prophetic eyes, might be supposed to have been adequately provided for. But it had not been provided for, perhaps could not have been. And so at length it must be met. The occasion came, the occasion which was not the cause. It was met. And it has been settled. AT what fearful cost we know. But the result has been reached. The republic is one nation, henceforth indissoluble. All men know it. In the terrible struggle in which that question came to its settlement, one mighty momentous step was taken in this place wherein we are to-day assembled. And this place is the memorial, not alone of the grandeur of the nationality of the republic, but of the dauntless courage and magnificent heroism and vigorous character that were manifest in reaching the sublime issue. The whole nation has come to know itself, and the world across the ocean has already taken such notice of it as will make it slow henceforth to call it in question.

A quarter of a century seems long doubtless to eyes that look forward to it. But in the advance of human events it is not long. It is but a small item. And yet what results have in this last quarter of a century been following the events of which this place is the memorial. We are consciously one nation. Sectional divergencies are at an end. The whole land is one. And all of it belongs to every part of it. Has the sun in the heavens ever looked on a mightier struggle that came to a swifter healing? How rapidly the men that were left of the vast armies returned to their places in home, and mart, and field and forum. In the grand struggle men contended as only freemen can contend. And the struggle over, the reconciliation has been grandly, securely such as only freemen can make. How rapidly has the bitterness passed away! How fairly and fully are we one people again! No fierce retributions, nor recriminations; no hideous attainders. The healing is as swift and sure as the hurt was sharp. And that will go on until it is complete. Let no man question it. The new generation, the land over, accepts the result. With the old generation will pass away all that had better pass away. Each part of the land gives freely of its confidence, of its capital, of its enterprise, of its industries, of its methods, to every other part. Its white-winged ships upon the sea, its busy lines of railroad and telegraph, its enterprising sons, weave over the whole country a network to bind it in conscious unity. And this will increase year by year, until it is complete. Let us thank God for it!

Men of Connecticut, your ancient state is only just to herself in sending you hither to-day to plant here her memorial of her gallant children who had their part in the eventful struggle. Her history reaches back to the dim far off period when the grand idea of human life of which we have been speaking, was lifting itself sturdily against the oppression of the infatuated princes of England. Her motto is "Qui transtulit sustinet:" He who has transplanted, nourishes. It was the resolute faith in God, and the reverential fear of Him in which had been founded her earliest colonies, which had chosen such a motto. And her history has justified it. There has been no pause in the evolution of the Divine purpose. There could be none, cost what it might. She, as do others, remembers what it cost. And tenderly cherishing the memory of her faithful children, she sets here their memorial. Their fidelity, their courage are not to be forgotten. All honor to her brave dead! All honor to her faithful living! The summer days return as in a dream, when the white tents of her 17^th Regiment gleamed on the sward where the blue waters of the Sound run up and kiss the shore. There went forth in that battalion brave men who were not to return: Walters, Fowler, Wilcoxson, Moore, and their gallant comrades; and brave men who were to come again with spotless escutcheon, and some with honorable scars, like the gallant leader, who wears so gracefully the star so chivalrously won. Let us remember too the mothers who gave their sons, the wives who gave their husbands, the households which sent their best beloved in the time of need and trial. Heavenly blessings be upon them! Their sacrifice was accepted of Heaven.

Veteran soldiers of the 17^th Regiment; brave, true, faithful men, this memorial stone, unveiled by the gentle hand of the fair child of one of your number, will remain to tell to generations yet unborn the significant story. Amid the lavish plenty and solid freedom, and secure equity, and hospitable welcome to all men, it will stand to tell that by such men as you, under God's providence, such a goal was won. Your valor, your purpose, your endurance, your privations in camp and march, and field, your honorable wounds, the life devoted of your comrades were not in vain. The nation is one. More than this memorial stone, the stupendous civil and social blessings which make our country what it is are its witnesses. Long after this memorial stone shall have crumbled, the generations to come will apprehend the results that came of this mighty struggle, in a united country, and a beneficent government, and a prosperous people.

God bless our whole land, and prosper it! And let all the people say, Amen!

Governor Bulkeley's letter was read by Sergeant Patrick Wade, Jr., at unveiling of Seventeenth Regiment Monument:

State of Connecticut, Executive Department)

Hartford, October 15, 1889 )

GENERAL FRANK D. SLOAT,

My Dear Sir: I have deferred answering your kind invitation to accompany the veterans of the Seventeenth and Twenty-seventh Connecticut Regiments on their pilgrimage to the historic field of Gettysburg in the hope that I could find it possible to return an acceptance, but am compelled now to express my regrets at my inability to make the journey with you, and to participate in the ceremonies of dedication and transfer of the monuments erected there to the illustrious sons of Connecticut that participated in that decisive battle of the rebellion.

Yours Truly,

M. G. BULKELEY.

The monument of the Seventeenth Regiment C.V., consists of a granite base five feet and three inches square, with rock face finish. On this are two plinths, one bearing in large raised letters, with polished faces, the words, "17^th Conn. Vols." On these plinths rests a massive die, on the front of which is cut in bold relief the State, and United States coat of arms, with the State motto "Qui transtulit sustinet" in polished letters cut on an artistic scroll underneath. The other three sides are polished and lettered as follows:

On the left face, "17^th Conn. Infantry, 2d Brigade, 1^st Division, 11^th Corps."

On the right, "This monument is erected by the State of Connecticut to honor her brave sons."

On the back, "After a fierce contest with Early's Division at Barlow's Knoll, on July 1^st, marked by monument there, this regiment formed in line of battle on East Cemetery Hill, and on the evening of July 2d, took position here, and was engaged in repulsing the desperate night assault of Hayes and Hokes' Brigade."

A moulded cap rests on the die and from the springs a shaft about nine feet high, on the front of which is beautifully carved a wreath of polished oak and laurel leaves. Near the top of the shaft is a large polished crescent, the corps badge of the regiment.

The whole is surmounted with a moulded cap with gables on each side, on two of which are the polished figures "17," and on the other two polished corps badges. The entire structure is over twenty feet high.

At the close of the exercise several photographers secured views of the monument together with the veterans and their friends.

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