John C. Robinson. General Doubleday, born at Ballston Spa, June 26, 1819, by reason of his splendid achievement, sterling ability and intrepid gallantry, displayed on Seminary Ridge, the scene of the opening conflict at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, where, just as the combat commenced, he succeeded General Reynolds (killed there) as commander of the first army corps, won undying renown. It was mainly owing to his genius and pluck and dogged determination, battling bravely for seven arduous hours against overwhelming odds and a constantly increasing enemy, that that invaluable vantage ground, Cemetery Hill, was was held by the union army when the evening reinforcements arrived. The possession of this hill, and the ridge south of it which followed as a consequence, helped General Meade materially in defeating General Lee in the final and famous mêleê at the Angle, the third day, popularly known as Pickett's charge, and in which, by the way, General Doubleday also took a prominent and effective part.

called. It was General Doubleday as well who fired the first shot in response to the bombardment of Fort Sumter, which became the signal for the long and widespread (and as he himself says inevitable) operations that ensued; while at Antietam, leading a division in General Hooker's corps, when he fought Stonewall Jackson in the cornfield, General Doubleday proved that he had already

It is stoutly maintained by many of the foremost recognized authorities on Gettysburg that General Doubleday contributed, if indirectly, as much to the final result on that field as any other commander in the engagement, some going to the extent of saying that if it were not for him there would have been no battle of Gettysburg, properly so

the field five hundred in one of the brigades that he faced fell, and a thousand more of them were made prisoners, in open-field fighting. At the commencement of the civil war, while stationed at Baltimore he saved, by a clever ruse, Fort McHenry from being taken by the hosts of secessionists that threatened and surrounded it, though having at his disposal but a small garrison of sixty men. Until incapacitated by a dangerous

wound, necessitating amputation of his leg, received at Spotsylvania, May 8, 1864 (a few days after General Grant began the overland campaign to Richmond), he continued adding laurels to his fine civil war records. At the end of his course in the military academy at West Point he commenced studying law, but the lure of the sword soon induced him to relinquish jurisprudence. If, however, he did not practice law he helped to make laws, for after retiring from the army he was lieutenant-governor, in the administration of General Dix.

The first corps bore the brunt of the opening contest at Gettysburg; reaching the field in the morning with 8,200 men when the sun went down not half their number was available for further fighting in the Gettysburg campaign. General A. P. Hill — and he ought to know said he had never seen the federals to fight as well as that corps did that day.

The General Doubleday statue stands on Reynolds avenue, near the springs road; and, most appropriately, General Robinson's on Robinson avenue. They were designed and executed by J. Massey Rhind, of New York: five other sculptors submitted models for them also. They are nine feet high, and standing on the pedestals, twenty feet above the foundation. The monuments were erected under the supervision of Colonel Clinton Beckwith, of the New York monuments commission.

The ceremonies for their dedication were held Tuesday, September 25th, last, under the auspices of the New York monuments commission, of which Colonel Lewis R. Stegman, of the 102d New York veteran volunteers, is chairman. Colonel Stegman acted as master of ceremonies. Two of his colleagues on the board were absent, General Horatio C. King, on account of illness, and the adjutant general, Brig.-Gen. Charles H. Sherrill, because of pressure of other business. These dedications were among the most

brilliant functions ever witnessed on the battlefield. Delegations, numbering about 160 veterans, from the ten New York organizations in the commands of the two generals in the engagement were in attendance. These are the 76th, 80th, 83d, 84th, 94th, 95th, 97th, 104th and 147th regiments of infantry, and Battery L, 1st N. Y. Light artillery. The procession was led by the grand marshal for the occasion, General John A. Reynolds, of Rochester, and the adjutant general, Major Henry M. Maguire, with whom were aides from the different regiments. Through the courtesy of the war department, Colonel F. B. Jones, U. S. A., assigned a large detachment of troops from the training camp, with a band, for escort duty, which greatly enhanced the ceremonies. Miss Alice Seymour Doubleday, of Quogue, L. I. (a grandniece), unveiled the statue to General Doubleday and Mrs. Robert A. Hall, of Whitehall (a daughter), that of General Robinson.

Corporal James Tanner (register of wills in Washington, D. C.), of the 87th N. Y. (Robinson's brigade, Kearney's division), in whose command he was at the Second Bull Run when wounded so severely that both his legs had to be amputated, in his oration showed that admiration is a source of inspiration. The oratorical honors at the springs road fell to General H. S. Huidekoper, of Philadelphia. He fought under General Doubleday the first day at Gettysburg, where he suffered from a wound that necessitated amputation of one of his arms.

As the undoubted hero of Seminary Ridge, and for that matter the hero of the first day's conflict, on the union side, General Doubleday's military ability was done full justice by General Huidekoper. Among the other speakers was a Southern veteran, Colonel Hilary A. Herbert (former Secretary of the Navy under President Cleveland) of the 8th Alabama, who had a command in General Longstreet's corps in the battle.

His brief and impromptu address was in the finest taste, eliciting all-round applause, which could not be warmer if he spoke to a southern audience. All the addresses were by veteran speakers but one, that of Francis M. Hugo, secretary of state, who appeared as the representative, for the occasion, of the Empire State, which, as he pointed out, won that title from Virginia a hundred years ago, the year, singularly enough, when General Robinson was born; and that New York has ever since maintained that pride of place goes without saying. At Gettysburg, in the federal army, New York had the most troops and Virginia on the other side, so that both states were rivals and to the front again in 1863, with New York once more preeminent.

Mr. Hugo then drew attention to the fact that it was exactly a century ago as well that the first sod was dug for the construction of the great Erie canal; and another item in the history of that year, 1817, of which this State had additional reason to be proud was the enactment, during the administration of Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, of the law ordering the total oblition of slavery in all its counties after Independence Day, 1827. Mr. Hugo paid a glowing tribute to the memory of General Doubleday, at whose statue he spoke, for his distinguished services at Gettysburg and many other scenes of strife during that prolonged herculean struggle of the early sixties, the outcome of which has been to make this nation the greatest democracy in the world; and for anything

and everything required to keep it so henceforth there was not the slightest doubt in his mind that the Empire State will be always available and advancing to an effective and exemplary degree. One of the most popular contributions to the literature of the Spanish-American war is a battle ballad by a by a New York man (Colonel Roosevelt, among others, has put his stamp of admiration on it); and another poem by the same author, J. I. C. Clarke, recited by him at the General Doubleday dedicatory exercises, should also find a place in anthologies to be compiled hereafter. Partly on Gettysburg, partly on the civil war in general and its heroes, on both sides, and brought down to date by happy and clever allusion to the new national and international crisis, "Guns of the Old and the New " is a masterpiece, and a masterpiece in Homer's hexameters.

"Glory, strong Doubleday! Ever may hours of impending calamity

Fall upon shoulders like thine, and before thy memorial I swear it.

Holding thee peer of them all who here thundered to fame and reward.

Robinson, thou who in manfulness checked the fierce onset, thy statue,

adjutant general, Colonel Meredith L. Jones, of General Doubleday's staff, Charles A. Shaw, secretary of the society of the army of the Potomac, Rev. Wm. T. Pray, J. I. C. Clarke, Colonel Frank West, U. S. A., Colonel John P. Nicholson, chairman, and Colonel E. B. Cope, engineer, Gettysburg National Park Commission, General Henry S. Huidekoper, Corporal James Tanner, Colonel Americus Whedon, Colonel S. C. Clobridge, Colonel S. C. Pierce, Colonel Samuel M. Morgan, commandant Soldiers. and Sailors' Home, Bath, Colonel Hilary A. Herbert, Captain C. St. John, Charles S. Barker, Captain George K. Collins, Thomas McConekey, H. W. Burlingame, Major Charles E. Fiske, Colonel John H. Cochrane, who recited a poem of his own at the General Robinson dedication.

Dr. J. Stewart Doubleday, Stewart W. Doubleday, F. N. Doubleday, Robert A. Hall, Wm. E. Cary, Clinton E. Collier, Victor Richardson, Martin Rust, Wm. Donald Mitchell, Captain George P. Morgan, Colonel John Gribbel, Colonel Frank Sellers, Wm. H. Lakeman, J. Quincy Adams, F. N. Lewis, Charles Schoeneck, Peter Kappesser,

bronze than wert thou."

Among those attending the dedications were: Senators Alfred J. Gilchrist, James A. Emerson, George A. Slater, John D. Stivers and George L. Thompson; Assemblymen: Robert P. Bush (also a veteran), Erastus C. Davis, E. A. Everett, Abram P. Lefevre, Bert Lord, Peter P. McElligott and H. Edmund Machold.

Francis M. Hugo, secretary of state, Merton E. Lewis, attorney general, Brig.Gen. W. W. Wotherspoon, superintendent of public works, John C. Clark, civil service commissioner, John C. Birdseye, and Wm. B. Landreth, deputy state engineer.

General John A. Reynolds, the grand marshal, Major Henry M. Maguire, the

Vallette, George W. Steele, Isaac Thomas, Captain George A. Hussey, Captain Arch. B. Snow, Major Alex. Barnie, H. D. Mack, Llewellyn J. Hall, Aaron N. Burr, John S. Seaman, Peter W. Ostrander, Wm. H. Shelton, John H. McGean, Daniel J. O'Mara, Josiah C. Long, Hiram Osborne, Samuel Avery, Wm. H. H. Pinckney and James Whitlock.

The official party for those celebrations. also participated in the exercises for the dedication of the memorial to the 104th new York Regiment (Wadsworth Guards) at Antietam, September 27th, at which United States Senator James S. Wadsworth, Jr., and State Senator John Knight delivered addresses, being interesting résumés of the great topic of the day and the engagement