On November 15, 1897, the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry dedicated a monument on the same battlefield, honoring the Union soldiers who had died there. In his speech, Captain R. P. Scott says “[This monument] not only recalls to memory their sacrifices, loyalty and unselfish devotion, which many of them sealed with their lives, but reminds us that they gave their services and lives on the field of honor in defense of the Constitution, the Charter of Liberty, Justice and Humanity,” “Yes, thank God. The angel of peace has spread her white wings over our blessed land and we now know but one flag—the stars and stripes — emblematic of the unity of a great nation.” This speech demonstrates how the sense of reconciliation had equally spread to the North. A more significant observation, however, is how none of these speeches at Chickamauga Battlefield mention slavery. This illustrates how the erasure of slavery as a…show more content… The men of the North responded to the call of the sovereign to whose allegiance they acknowledged fealty—the men of the South did the same. It was a battle between rival conceptions of sovereignty rather than one between a sovereign and its acknowledged citizens. We must not be enemies. Though passion may be strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our
