A MEMORIAL TABLET
By, A. N. Husted,'55
"Yon marble minstrel’s voiceless tone
In deathless songs shall tell
When many a vanquished age has flown,
The story, how ye fell."
"Yon marble minstrel’s voiceless tone
In deathless songs shall tell
When many a vanquished age has flown,
The story, how ye fell."
The response to President Lincoln's "Call" of April, 1861, for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion then assuming threatening proportions in our southern States, was prompt and ample. Two elements of our population were quick to fill the ranks of the hastily gathered regiments. First, the fiery young patriots whose blood was all aflame that traitor hands had desecrated the flag of their country.
Second, the large number of wild reckless youths, ever ready for an exciting adventure, who thought the war would be almost bloodless and of short duration- they must hasten to get what fun they could out of it while it lasted.
In but little more than a year the aspect of affairs had greatly changed; the holiday phase of the rebellion had entirely disappeared. The battle of Bull Run, the siege of Yorktown, the seven days' battle before Richmond, and other severe engagements in which thousands on both sides had been killed or wounded; the rebel hosts so successful as to endanger the safety of the nation's capital and threaten the invasion of the free States, had made it only too plain that a life and death struggle between Freedom and Slavery was at hand, and that only by the greatest sacrifice of those who loved their country and would perpetuate its free institutions, could the now "Great Rebellion" be subdued.
Then it was that the cooler patriots and those who hitherto had shrunk from the life of the soldier felt that they, too, were "called." So it came to pass that in the summer of 1862 a large number of the best and bravest of our young men left school and college- dropping their books only to pick up the sword and the musket- rallied to the support of Freedom's flag, and offered themselves to fill up the now more than decimated ranks of the Union Army.
In September of that year, the "Normal School Company," numbering 100, was mustered into the service of the United States "for three years or the war," and soon became an integral part of the "Army of the Potomac," then facing the rebel "Army of Northern Virginia," at Antietam Ford, Md.
Just how many of our "Normal boys" were "boys in blue" we are unable to say. Not all, by any means, of those who joined the army were in the "School" company. Many who did not graduate, and of whose services we have no record, were equally worthy as those whose names are borne on the roll of our Alumni. Of the latter, our Historical Catalogue, so patiently and laboriously compiled by President Waterbury, gives a full report.
That some monumental recognition of these services and sacrifices should be erected by the surviving Alumni has long been felt to be due, not only to the dead, but to the living as well. At the recent Reunion this matter was presented by Rev. Milford H. Smith, 78, and met such hearty and generous response that a sum of money sufficient for the proposed erection- a Memorial Tablet, bearing the names of all our graduates who died in the service of their country- was contributed, and is now in the hands of our Alumni treasurer. This "Roll of Honor" will bear the following names:
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Major Chas. L. Brown, '46, killed at Malvern Hill, 1862. G. Herman Stevens, '46, died of disease at Port Hudson, 1863. Col. Henry D. Hughes, '49, died of disease at Port Hudson, 1863. Capt. Norman Allen, '49, died of disease, 1863. Stephen S. Read, '49, died of disease, 1864. James Griffin, '52, killed in battle near Atlanta, 1864. Lieut. James Cheney, '53, killed in battle of Wilderness,, 1864. Richard D. Carmichael, '54, died of disease at Vicksburg, 1863. Wm. B. Gregory, '57, killed at Pittsburg Landing, 1862. Hubbard H. Barrett, '57, died of disease. George W. Fox, '58, killed in battle, 1861. Wm. C. Hollis, '59, killed at second battle Bull Run, 1862. James R. Sprague, '59, killed on picket in North Carolina. John L. Barrick, '60, died of fever at Washington., D. C., 1862. Lieut. Asa L. Howard, '61, died of fever. Lieut. Wallace R. Hard, '62, killed at Cold Harbor, 1864. Robert B. Darling, '62,killed at Petersburg, 1864. Elbert Traver, '62, killed at Gettysburg, 1863. |
Of the 583 men who graduated previous to 1863, 106 served in the Union Army; eighteen died in the service; nineteen have died since the war and sixty-nine "remain until this day."