"Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to the 1st Monday in October, at 9 o'clock, A. M.

W. A. STRONG, Town Clerk.

"At a special Town Meeting held pursuant to adjournment, Oct. 3d, 1870, for the purpose of appropriating money from the town treasury to build a monument in memory of the Soldiers and Sailors who fell in the war of the rebellion against the government of the United States-Present, W. A. Strong, Clerk,-Wm. Cothren, Moderator, the following votes and resolutions were passed.

"Voted, To appropriate the sum of one thousand dollars, to be drawn from the town treasury by the Selectmen, and laid out and expended by them, in addition to the sum of about fifteen hundrrd dollars raised by individuals, for the erection of a suitable monument to the memory of all soldiers and seamen who were residents of said town, or belonging thereto at the time of their enlistment, and who have died in the military or naval service of the United States, in the war against the government of the United States. Said appropriation to be expended in conformity with Sections 39, 40, 41 and 43 of a statute law of Connecticut, entitled An Act concerning Communities and Corporations, and that the location of said monument be fixed by a Committee, consisting of Hon. Origin S. Seymour and Hon. John H. Hubbard, of Litchfield, and Hon. Robbins Battell, of Norfolk.

All

"Voted, That the above vote be passed upon by ballot. legal voters of said town who desire to vote in favor of said proposed vote, will deposit in a box under the supervision of the moderator of this special meeting, a ballot with the word "Yes" written thereon. All voters who are opposed to the passage of said vote, will deposit a ballot with the word "No" written thereon. And said box shall be kept open in this special town meeting for the purpose of balloting upon said vote, until 4 o'clock P. M., when said votes shall be counted and declared,

"The votes in said box having been counted by the moderator, Clerk, and one of the Constables of the town (Stephen H. Crane),

after the closing of said box, the following result was declared, by the moderator, in open meeting:

For the appropriation,

Against the same,

158

61

"The resolutions were therefore declared to be passed.

"Voted, to dissolve this meeting.

Attest:

W. A. STRONG, Clerk.

Sufficient funds being now provided to accomplish the work intended in a creditable manner, plans, specifications and prices were solicited from contractors, and in due time the Plymouth Granite Company were engaged to furnish the monument, Meanwhile, the surviving members of the 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery, of which a large number of the dead soldiers had been members, had been invited to hold their annual re-union here, at the time the monument would be erected, and assist in the solemn ceremonies of its dedication. Everything was, therefore, made ready. The whole town engaged in the work of preparation for the reception of the invited guests. Not only the 2d Heavy, but all the surviving soldiers of the town, from all the regiments, together with the near relatives of the deceased soldiers, were invited to attend, and take part in the honors of the day.

The dedication of the Soldiers' Monument to its patriotic purpose, occurred on the 26th of September, 1871. The surviving soldiers above mentioned by special invitation, provided an escort and guard of honor, to the long procession of distinguished invited guests, near relatives of the deceased soldiers, whose memory the monument perpetuated, and civilians, who swarmed in from the counties of Litchfield, Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford. It rained in the early morning, but the clouds broke away, and the ceremonies proceeded as arranged. Woodbury has had many public celebrations, but none has ever been conducted with a more hearty enthusiasm and general acquiescence, than this. Previous to the march of the Regiment, Deacon P. M. Trowbridge, who was very nearly interested in the soldiers' welfare during the war, addressed the surviving veterans. When the procession to the monument moved, the entire street, some two hundred feet wide, was packed from fence to fence, from Deacon Linsley's house to

that of Hon. N. B. Smith, a distance of nearly a mile. There could not have been less than seven thousand persons present. Good judges estimate the number as a larger. Everything proceeded in accordance with the pre-arranged plan, at the monument, which is erected in the south central portion of our extended village, on a beautiful eminence at the intersection of four ways, a most lovely place for the purpose, being the same place which had formerly been occupied by the Second Ancient Church for the period of nearly seventy years. The monument was built by the Plymouth Granite Company, of Waterbury, B. P. Chatfield, President, from pure white granite from their Quarry at Plymouth. The lower base is six feet square and twenty inches high, surmounted by the subbase, four and a half feet square and fourteen inches high.' Over this is the die, three feet square at the base, and three feet ten inches high. At the corner are ornamental consoles, and the plane surface is paneled, the panels being finely polished, and containing the names of the deceased soldiers. The pediment cap is three feet ten inches square, and one foot high. The plinth on which the shaft rests, is three feet square, and two feet seven inches high. On the front side, the State coat of arms is handsomely chiseled in bold relief. Above this rises the shaft, beautifully proportioned, and twenty feet in heighth, making the total altitude thirty feet. It tapers gracefully, terminating at a point. The general order of architecture is Corinthian, the outlines are sharp, and the whole effect is excellent, reflecting great credit on the taste of the designer, R. W. Hill, Esq., of Waterbury, as well as on the Plymouth Granite Company.

The exercises at the monument opened with a dirge by the Newtown Cornet Band. This was followed by an introductory address by the writer, President of the day, as follows:

SOLDIERS AND FRIENDS:-It was a beautiful custom of the aboriginal inhabitants of this lovely valley, when the chief of their people, or a distinguished brave died, to make his grave beside some rippling water, or some ever murmuring cascade, and lay their forest paths beside his resting place, and, ever after, each hunter in pursuit of game, and each warrior on the war path, cast a stone upon it, as a mark of reverence and respect to the honored dead. Thus in process of time a notable monument arose from

1 On the sub base is the inscription, "Erected to the Soldiers of Woodbury who died in the Rebellion of 1861."

these individual and reverential offerings. In like manner do we to-day raise this monument of stone, beautified by the hand of art, and erected on the very place occupied by an ancient church of God for nearly seventy years; to the good, and true, and brave men, who went forth from among us to suffer and to die in defence of the dearest rights possessed by any people. It is a sublime a glorious honor, when a whole community assembles, with its highest and loveliest ones, to do honor to its martyred dead. It is a scene sublime, and an act historic, that will be handed down the ages to those who shall come after us. It shall stand as an example of all that is tender and noble in a people's gratitude.

It is with solemn awe that we approach the ceremonies of the day. We would do fitting honors to the loved and lost. We would tread lightly over the sacred dust of our slumbering heroes. We would perpetuate their deathless fame. We can never forget what they dared and suffered for us. They have written their names on a scroll of bright memories. We will ever revere those who fell in the strife. We have carved their names in enduring granite. Never, till the hills melt with fervent heat, shall this memorial which our hands have made, cease to remind us and our descendants of the glorious dead. Till then, the successive generations will never cease to remember the brilliant deeds of an honorable ancestry.

Shall we call the Roll? Shall we recount the names and deeds of this glorious Roll of Honor? Shall we speak of Barnum, who, tenderly and carefully reared in our midst, in the first bloom of glorious manhood, when the first cannon thundered forth its traitorous threat in the harbor of Charleston, and Fort Sumter made a feeble reply, rushed eagerly to the front with the first volunteers, and who, after an honorable career, and after deserved promotion, received his death-wound in the bloody vale of Cold Harbor? Shall we speak of Dutton, young, educated, socially connected with the best in the State, established in the profession of the law at Litchfield, with high hopes and brilliant prospects, who left all, and came to Woodbury, when the first insult was offered to the flag at Sumter, drilled the awkward squad on our North Cemetery Plains, day after day, went gladly to the front, and, finally, in that cruel and unnecessary massacre of Cedar Mountain, after deeds of daring equal to the boldest, and after the eighth man who bore the colors in the van, had been shot, seized the standard of the Union and fell, covered with many wounds, breathing out

his

young life in the flame and smoke of disastrous battle? He lies sweetly sleeping with the "unknown dead," though his honored father, the late Governor Dutton, while guerillas swarmed thickly around, sought his body, with tears. Shall we speak of Whitlock, the genial and whole-souled friend, one who went out and in among us, admired and beloved of all, one who would go further, and do more than most, to fulfil a social duty, who, patriotic, to the full degree, incensed by his country's wrong, volunteered as a private, won his way to promotion, and while in the article of death received his Lieutenant's commission, too late to comprehend that his just ambition had been rewarded? Shall we speak of Conrad, the gentle and the true, enlisting in that drear winter, when hearts were faint, and many thought the issue doubtful, serving with equal fidelity and hope, whether in the old 13th Conn. Vols, or the 1st Louisiana, and at last falling by severe di3ease in the far south, and giving up his life in the holocaust of the Union, receiving his commission on his death-bed, and now sleeping in a patriot's grave in the National cemetery on General Jackson's battle-ground of 1815, below New Orleans? Shall we speak of the next in rank, though non-commissioned, the true, the faithful Orton, who, from all-controlling conscientious motives, bade adieu to wife and children, and all the hopes and roseate tints of life's young morn, served faithfully in the field, and fell, mortally wounded, at Winchester's bloody field? Shall we speak of his comrades, whose life-blood enriches the same ensanguined plain, and wooded slopes? Then name with honor the patriotic Barney, Bunnell, Flushmen, and Locklin? Do we remember Newberne? Castle, Cogswell, and Patterson, ascended thence to their rest.

Do we recur again to Cold Harbor, with its fire of Hell from the left? There fell Briggs, Crommey, Galpin, Kane and Wheeler. At Hatcher's Run, Allen and Walsh breathed out their heroic lives. At New Orleans, James L. Atwood and Abram A. Warner were a patriotic sacrifice. In the death-giving swamps of Alexandria, Harvey H. Fox, Polley, Charles and Horatio Thomas, and White, offered up their lives that the country might be saved. Do we call to mind Sherman's glorious march to the sea, and the scaling of Kenesaw mountain? Then we shall never forget those two brave and noble boys, who went out with the Woodbury Reds, Myron G. Bishop and Charles A. Squire, who went down amid the glare and smoke of battle on that bloody mount. He who remembers the Heights of Fredericksburg, will never forget