AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
faction which came from the sense that to the end they had remained steadfast.
Pennsylvania may well offer her greetings to Tennessee. They have had many like experiences; they have in the past been upon the same side in many contests, and they have had much in common. No other President made a more pronounced and indelible mark upon the events of his time than did Andrew Jackson, and he ever received, in all of his endeavors, the earnest support of the yeomanry of the Keystone State. Without her aid he could not have succeeded. With her support he was invincible.
In the early days the thrifty Germans and the pugnacious Scotch-Irish from the inland counties of Pennsylvania followed the Cumberland Valley into the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and made their homes upon the fertile lands along its beautiful river. Thence, like the Boones, the Lincolns and the Todds, they crossed the mountains in venturesome quest to Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of Tennessee's soldiers who have won renown in the field, and many of her statesmen who have won distinction in the halls of legislation look back to the land of Penn, of Wayne and of Meade as the home of their forefathers.
To these great battlefields, amid your mountains, Pennsylvania sent fifteen regiments and two batteries of artillery. The Seventy-third Regiment, whose monument we are here to dedicate, after having fought with conspicuous valor in the East at Manassas, and in the Shenandoah Valley, with Hooker at Chancellorsville, and with Meade in the decisive battle of Gettysburg, here, upon this field, after a severe struggle upon the front where their colonel was killed, were nearly all captured and sent to the prisons of Belle Isle and Libby. In commemoration of their faithful services and in recognition of their gallant careers the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has erected this monument. In behalf of the Commonwealth, I now accept it and transfer it to you (General Boynton) as the representative of the Government of the United States, with the full assurance that it will be maintained and cherished through all time to come, and that future generations of Americans will here come to be reminded of the struggles and sacrifices of their fathers and to gather inspiration for future deeds of heroism and patriotism.It was a satisfaction to me in this speech, upon the land of Tennessee and in the presence of the Southern people, to
