File:36. Opening Speeches at Georgia Dedication at Gettysburg September 21, 1961 Page 13 (4995cc10-c5f9-42d7-9cdc-0391e6a88332).jpg

White paper with typed black text

As the wounds of the nation were knit together after the war, attention was directed to ensuring that what happened here indeed would not be forgotten. A battlefield commission under the sponsorship of the War Department devoted years to determining and appropriately marking unit positions and battle actions. Many units erected monuments to their commanders, while many of the states whose troops had fought here erected monuments to their valor. Hence, it is extremely fitting that the state of Georgia, its soldiers who fought here, and its citizens today, should now be represented here by this impressive monument – appropriately made of granite quarried from the same soil from which these Georgia men cam, and erected on the soil where they fought their hardest fight. It is very appropriate, too, that this monument should be dedicated at a time when, all over the nation, the Centennial of the war is being commemorated. We Americans have our share of human frailty. But one of the finer things which we do is to remember, to recall as we are doing today the great historic events, the men who participated in them, and the principles which followed from them which determine much of our present way of life. Here at Gettysburg, the National Park Service is helping to participate in the Centennial Observance by acquiring additional significant parts of the battlefield to the end that they may be preserved,

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