Ursinus College - Ruby Yearbook (Collegeville, PA)

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WASHINGTON'S MONUMKNT. SCIIWKXKSVII.I.K. The snot where Washington laid the | lnns for the battle of Germantown. I-OKT WASHINGTON. VAI.I.KV FOR OK. Tlie redoubt which guarded the approach to Va'iey Forge fioni Philadelphia.' WASHINGTON’S 11 HADijl'ARTJvRS. VAU.IvY l'ORGli.

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the flash of guns. In 1777 the American Army encamped on both banks of our beautiful Pcrkiomen, the lines reaching from Trappe to Kvansburg. General Washington himself had his quarters in the house now occupied by Mr. Casselberry, of Kvansburg. Here in this latter place, in the I episcopal Cemetery, is to be found a vault bearing the inscription, “One hundred Revolutionary heroes lie buried here. The epitaph tells its own tale- -a hundred patriots under Captain Howard, of Maryland, laying down their lives for liberty. Such incidents as these have clothed these old, gray hills in glory. From Evansburg the army marched to Schwenksville. and here, at Pennypacker’s Mill, the commander-in-chief matured the plans for the battle of Germantown How tl'.at battle ended is well known. How the army deployed and attacked the enemy with the greatest daring, lias gone down into history. How the accident of a heavy fog aided the British in their defense and lost the battle to the American Army is well known. Defeated but not broken — for liberty can never be broken the troops marched back to their old bivouacs at Schwenksville, and on the 12th of December, 1777. in the dead of winter. Washington ami his army went into winterquarters at Valley Forge What scenes of hardship this wilderness witnessed has been told again and again. Could the hills but speak, they would tell of anquish and suffering that would chill the blood of men; and all for liberty. Around these highlands, studded with bracken and bush, there are scattered the breastworks and the forts where the soldiers dwelt, but the patriots themselves have gone. And yet we need them not to tell the hardships and the glory of the past; their bones and flesh and blood have commingled with this dust, and the soil is eloquent with their praise. Von mounds, which they built upon the mountain side, saw it all. “ Dumb witnesses of the heroic past, you need no tongue! Face to face with you we see it all. This soft breeze changes to an icy blast; these trees drop the glory of the summer, and the earth beneath our feet is wrapped in snow. Besides us is a village of log huts ; along the ridge smoulders the fire of a canip. The sun has sunk, the stars glitter in the inky sky, the camp is hushed, the fires are out, the night is still. All are in slumber save where a lamp glimmers in a cottage window, and a passing shadow shows a tall figure pacing to and fro. The 16

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cold silence is unbroken, save where on yonder ramparts, crunching the crisp snow with wounded feet, a ragged sentinel keeps watch for liberty.” But from the fame of Valley Forge and the memory of its patriotic deeds we turn, and with swiftly-treading feet march through well-nigh another century. Again our country is in commotion, again the thunder of battle is heard throughout the laud, and again our district adds to the glory of the moment. There in yonder cemetery of Montgomery, where the evening sun lingers lovingly among the monuments of the historic dead, lie in sleep the men who fought the nation s TOMIl OF C.KXKKAI. HANCOCK. NOK K IST( WN. battles. In yonder corner, where the weeping willow drops her tear upon the vaulted tomb, lies in state the hero of Gettysburg, Hancock, the “ Superb.” To trace the career of this groat general from his lowly birthplace, at the foot of that nearby hill, through his boyhood days and among the battlefields linked insolubly with his name, would be a pleasing task were time to allow it. In the mind’s eye we see him sweep over the fields of Chaneellorsvillc, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania. Again we see him storm the heights of Fredericksburg and hurl back the Confederate chaige in shattered and broken columns at Gettysburg. “God lives; he forged the iron will That clutched and held that trembling hill. God lives and reigns , he built and lent The heights for Freedom's battlement. Where floats her flag in triumph still. tS