3-017-093 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Dedication of the Monument on the battle-field of Bull Run, Virginia, 1865. 'Two battles - that of July 21, 1861, and that of Aug. 29, 1862 - were fought between the Confederates and Federals in the plain traversed by the small river called Bull Run...A monument has I now been erected on each of the battle-fields. These monuments are of chocolate-coloured sandstone, thirty feet high...The monument on the first Bull Run field is situated on the hill in front of the memorable stone house, on the spot where the 14th Brooklyn, 1st Michigan, and 1st and 2nd Maine were most hotly engaged, and where Ricketts and Griffin lost their batteries. The shaft...bears upon its top a hundred-pound shell. On the pedestal, at each comer, is a shell of similar size...Our Illustration represents the scene at the consecration, or "dedication" as it is called in America, of these monuments. The religious exercises were conducted...by the Rev. Dr. M'Murdy, who read an appropriate service, which was followed by a hymn written for the occasion by Pierpont; a military parade by the 5th Pennsylvania heavy artillery, Colonel Gallup; and a salute by the 16th Massachusetts battery...A large party of visitors had come from Washington to be present on this occasion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.