Existing comment:
"Dedication"
Reunions:
As the veterans of the Civil War aged, they sought to remember their fallen comrades and to meet again on the fields where they had fought together.
Both Confederate and Union survivors of the Battle of Monocacy organized regimental reunions, usually around the anniversary of the battle.
The number of these reunions peaked in the last two decades of the 19th and first decade of the 20th centuries, and coincided with the growing reconciliation movement between Northern and Southern whites. This movement resulted in the loss of civil rights for African Americans.
Monuments:
Monument dedications provided aging veterans an opportunity to honor and remember their fallen comrades.
Union veterans placed three monuments on Monocacy Battlefield. In 1907, they erected the 14th New Jersey Monument, followed a year later by the Pennsylvania Monument. The third appeared in 1915, to commemorate the 10th Vermont Infantry.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated a monument in honor of its Confederate participants. As part of the Civil War Centennial, the State of Maryland raised a monument commemorating all soldiers who had fought at Monocacy.
"This is, indeed, a memorable day in our lives, the counterpart of which we are not likely to ever see again, but with all our pride and rejoicing comes a feeling of sorrow and sadness. We almost hear a 'voice that is still,' we almost feel a touch of a vanished hand' -- a voice we heard and a hand we clasped, for the last time 43 years ago today. Memory recalls forms and faces that we shall not see again until we 'pass over the river and rest with them under the shade of the trees.... May this monument be an inspiration to future generations."
-- Comrade Henry C. LaRowe presents the New Jersey monument to the Reunion Association of the 14th New Jersey Volunteers, July 9, 1907
"Every drop of blood shed at Monocacy, every life lost, was sacrificed in a noble cause. Those fallen heroes... if they could only know that their lives saved our National Capital from destruction, would willingly exclaim: 'I die content, I gave my life to my country.' ... "
-- Sgt. Newton Terrill, 14th New Jersey Volunteers |