VICKSBURG
By
J. FRANK HANLY
Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham
New York: Eaton and Mains
Copyright, 1912,
By Jennings and Graham
DEDICATION
OF THE
INDIANA MONUMENTS
AT
VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI
December 29, 1908
J. Frank Hanly
Vicksburg
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of theIndiana-Vicksburg MonumentCommission:
To you this is no new stage.Its remotest confines wereonce familiar. You lookedupon it, front and rear.You stood before its footlights. Youknew its comedy—its tragedy. Youhad honorable and distinguished castin the great drama that gave it famein every land beneath the sun andplace in the country’s every annal—adrama real as human life in tensestmood—in which every character wasa hero, every actor a patriot, and10every word a deed—a drama, thememory of which is enduring, fadeless,and the scenes of which takeform and color even now and risebefore you vivid as a living picture.How clear the outline is:
Time: The Nation’s natal day,forty-five years ago.
Place: This historic field; yonmajestic river; that heroic city there—abeleaguered fortress, girdled withthese hills.
Scene: The river’s broad expanse;Admiral Porter’s fleet—grim enginesof war, with giant guns and floatingbatteries, facing deep-mouthed andfrowning cannon on terraced heights;the intrepid Army of the Tennessee,with camp and equipage, occupying11a line of investment twelve miles inlength, with sap and mine, batteryand rifle pit, marking a progress thatwould not be stayed, fronting asystem of detached works, redans,lunets, and redoubts on every heightor commanding point, with raisedfield works connected with rifle pits,numerous gullies and ravines, nature’sdefenses, impassable to troops;all in all more impregnable thanSevastopol; with here and there ensanguinedareas where brave menmet death in wild, mad chargeagainst redoubt and bastion; or fell,in the delirium of frenzied struggle,on parapets, where torn and raggedbattle flags borne by valorous arms,leaped and fluttered for a moment12amid cannon’s smoke and muskets’glare, only to fall from nervelesshands, lost in the chagrin and griefof repulse, crushing and disastrous.
Denouement: Fortifications sappedand mined! A city wrecked, subduedby want! An army in capitulation!A mighty host, surrendered!Flags furled! Arms stacked! Onehundred and seventy-two capturedcannon! Sixty thousand rifles taken!Twenty-nine thousand four hundredand ninety-one men prisoners ofwar—hungry, emaciated, broken, dejectedmen, worn by sleepless vigil,the ordeal of war, the alarm of siege—menwho suffered and endured,but would not