File:10. Press Release by NPS for Dedication of Tennessee Memorial, before July 3, 1982 Page 1 (35a1eddc-6f8b-400e-a43c-51a7b9ede689).jpg

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A monument to the soldiers from Tennessee who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg 119 years ago will be dedicated July 3 at the national military park. Tennessee is the only former Confederate state whose troops fought at Gettysburg which has not erected a monument on the battlefield. At the ceremony, to be held at 2:30 p.m., Lt. Gov. John S. Wilder of Tennessee will present the new monument to James W. Coleman, Jr., Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of the National Park Service. The ceremony will take place at the monument location, the spot where Tennessee soldiers joined other Confederate regiments as part of General James Longstreet’s unsuccessful assault on the Union lines. The assault took place July 3, 1863, the third and last day of the battle. The monument portrays life-sized figures of a drummer boy, a flag bearer and an infantryman. The figures stand on a granite base that bears an outline of Tennessee. The monument is the result of a fund-raising campaign sponsored by the Tennessee Monument Commission. The effort to commemorate the role of the Tennessee soldiers in the Civil War battle began at the celebration of the Civil War Centennial in 1963. At the time, the Tennessee representatives discovered that no monument existed to honor the 1st, 7th and 14th Tennessee infantry regiments. “So we decided to do something about it,” said Donald A. Ramsay, Sr., a retired professional engineer from Nashville and former member of the Advisory Council of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission. After two unsuccessful attempts to get state funding for the project, Ramsay stated, the Tennessee Monument Commission was formed and undertook its own fund-raising drive. “Thanks to strong support from the United Tennessee Veterans Association as well as from the Jaycettes and other organizations, we have now raised almost the entire $25,000 we need for the monument,” Ramsay said. To help the citizen effort, the Mason and Dixon Line, In., of Kingsport, Tenn., transported the granite monument to Gettysburg without charge. The Decherd Marble and Granite Company of Winchester, Tenn., that made the monument, sent experts to Gettysburg to supervise it's erection.

• Keywords: Gettysburg; Gettysburg National Military Park; monuments; memorials; Photography; virtual experience; battlefield