File:William Beard Judge Advocate-in-Chief SCV to Clark Stratton Asso. Director NPS Sept. 30, 1965 (0766ac1c-670d-4d4a-9600-dc1c0d62a434).jpg

White paper with typed black text

Mr. A. Clark Stratton, Associate Director, National Park Service Interior Building, Washington D.C. 20240 Dear Mr. Stratton: Words are inadequate to express our great appreciation of your being present in the Gettysburg National Military Park on August 25, 1965. Your gracious and most appropriate speech of acceptance was most pleasing to the audience. It was a great honor for the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans to have you present on this occasion to accept the statue, the cost of which was contributed by the eleven original Confederate States and the three Border States, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. In behalf of both organizations and all of the members, I desire to extend our very deep thanks and gratitude for the wonderful cooperation we received from Mr. Kittridge Wing, Superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pa., and from the members of the Department of the Interior with whom Mrs. Smith and I met in Philadelphia. Without the suggestions from your staff and without the highly efficient, patient and interested cooperation of Mr. Kittridge Wing, this monument could never have been completed. Our people are proud, indeed, that we were honored by your presence at the dedication and acceptance of the statue to the memory of the Soldiers and Sailors of the Confederacy on August 25, 1965. It has been my privilege to visit the Historic places which are now a part of the National Park System, including Vicksburg, Mississippi; Chancellorsville, Virginia; and Manassas Battle Field, Virginia, and several other places. I have been greatly impressed, not only with the courtesy of the personnel in these National Park Service Centers, but by the great intelligence, efficiency and interest shown by the personnel toward all visitors. The National Park Service, Department of Interior, is indeed a government agency of which we can be very proud and which is rendering a most distinct and valuable service to the people of the United States, and all other persons who visit these shrines. Without your services, many of the Historic Shrines of which we are so proud, would long ago have lost their attractiveness and interest.

• Keywords: gettysburg; battlfield; education; virtual experience; photography; monuments; memorials