For the moment it moves aside, and where it was, and within the lengthening of its shadow, we see them all, and as we glance from right to left, from front to rear, one is taken from here, another from there, one by one, from the highest in rank to the lowest, from the oldest in years to the youngest, the man and the boy; first the 230 in the time of the War, then the many who have left us in the days that have intervened; and then comes the Shaft into the space which was made for it. We look upon it now, and know that it stands for them. The time is coming when it will stand for all whose names made up a Regimental Roll.
Then, and not till then, shall we know that our work here is fully done.
Two years ago, at the Reunion held at Huntingdon, a Committee was appointed to secure for our Regiment the benefit of the Act of Assembly appropriating money for the purchase of Monuments for Pennsylvania Commands and their erection on the Field of Gettysburg. I will not enter upon a recital of the details of that Committee's work, but simply report that it is completed.
In so far as it may be the part of the Committee so to do, I now on its behalf turn over to you, Captain Johnson, as the Vice-President of the Regimental Association and its acting President, and as such the Representative of the Survivors of the 84th, this Memorial of its Service in the War of the Rebellion.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
—Obvious print and punctuation errors fixed.
—The transcriber of this project created the book cover image using the front cover of the original book. The image is placed in the public domain.