"The pageant has passed. The day is over. But we linger, loath to think that we shall see them no more together,-- these men, these horses, these colors afield."
Joshua L. Chamberlain
A short biography of Joshua L. Chamberlain
Pat Finnegan's Tribute to Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
A few pictures from Maine
This photo says it all......where the greatest of men and military leaders lies in peace here in Brunswick, ME at Pine Grove Cemetery
Joshua's home
Learn about the War Between the States at the place where it all began
The following are several preservation groups I belong to. Please stop by their sites and do what you can to preserve the history of the wonderful country that we call the
UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
"Poor is the nation having no heroes...shameful is the one having them that forgets."
Civil War Preservation Trust Brian Pohanka's Remarks at the Civil War Monument, First Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, N.Y., Memorial Day (May 30), 1992
Ladies, gentlemen, guests, comrades, it's truly a pleasure to be here today. This is a spot I've come to once before, walked over it, looked at the (grave)stones, and thought about what they meant and conjured up in my mind's eye images, because this place is filled with images. Images of the swamps of the Chickahominy; images of the "Sunken Road," swept with bullets and blood, at Antietam; images of a stone wall at Fredericksburg; images of the shell-torn earth at Petersburg. Places where those interred here today, and in many cases all but forgotten today, save by a few, save in the memory of that few. Places where they fought and suffered and bled and many of them died.
There was a turn-of-the-century American historian and philosopher who once said, "There is no dream but deed; there is no deed but memory." Those (buried here) were men of dreams. They dreamed, as James Rorty did, of "leading in the cause of Ireland," as he put it. And they dreamed of this country, their adopted land. And gave their lives … risked and gave their lives, in its defense, in its cause.
'BY THIS WORN AND BATTERED MEMORIAL, IS SACRED GROUND ...'
And it is for us today, not only this handful gathered here today, who truly care about these men and their sacrifice and their deeds, but about all those to whom we can spread the word. And all that we can do and encourage others to do to see that their last resting places are honored and properly marked and preserved. It is for us to carry their dream forward and hand it to future generations.
This very ground we stand on today, by this worn and battered memorial, is sacred ground because around this memorial were buried numbers of the fallen. We stand here today on their last resting place. Men like Major William Horgan, who fell at Fredericksburg, and Patrick Clooney, who died at Antietam, and many others rest around this memorial.
And as we go and decorate the graves for the next few minutes you'll see the last resting places of James McKay Rorty and Timothy O'Meara, another unsung hero of that war, who risked his life to get the wounded and the defeated away from the disastrous battlefield at Balls Bluff, where troops were literally drowning in the Potomac River. He went back across that river to save his comrades because of those ideals that he valued. He later gave his life in the charge on Missionary Ridge. It is said that General Grant wept over O'Meara's body.
And it is men like that and countless others that I don't know of, that probably none of us here know of, who may rest here in unmarked graves, men like the commander of the Irish Brigade, Col. (Richard) Byrnes of the 28th Massachusetts. He rests here in an unmarked grave. There are so many projects that await county associations, historical organizations, people who care. Because we must do what we can to carry that memory of that dream, and those deeds into the future. Because there is no deed but memory. Without memory, we have no deeds. So remember, and honor these brave men, these brave souls. Thank you.
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Please do your part in the goal for preservation of the Pennsylvania momuments at Gettysburg.
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This one is near and dear to my heart - Gettysburg, my greatest love
We love and miss you, Michael - your family & friends
"We could not look into those brave, bronze faces, and those battered flags we had met on so many fields where glorious manhood lent a glory to the earth that bore it, and think of personal hate and mean revenge. Whoever had misled these men, we had not. We had led them back, home."
