Z34 ii)i!3!iiiiiii:n!iiii>:i!ii Qass. Book. \ I send you herewith a copy of the Report of the VALLEY FORGE REVOLUTIONARY ENCAMPMENT COMMISSION of the STATE OF NEW JERSEY For the Reference Depeutment of your 4hP* Library. Kindly acknowledge receipt to. Yours respectfully, JOHN HENRY FORT, Camden, New Jersey. President. REPORT OF THE ^ju^, Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission OF THE State of New Jersey ^7^>// COMMISSIONERS JOHN HENRY FORT, President A. J. DEMAREST. Treasurer JAMES L. PENNYP ACKER. Secretary GEN. J. MADISON DRAKE DAVID R. MULFORD SiNNicKsoN Chew & Sons Company, Printers 37 AND 39 NORTH THIRD STREET CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY I916 c D. of D. FEB r 1917 K I A DESCRIPTION OF VALLEY FORGE ENCAMPMENT There is no spot connected with the Revolutionary history of our coun- try more sacred than that of Valley Forge. Every patriotic American has read of it, and yet for nearly a century after the famous encampment of Val- ley Forge was abandoned by Washington's army it received but little public consideration. The rain and snow which fell upon the historical fortifica- tions, and the grass and trees, slowly effaced the redoubts and other earth- works thrown up for protection. Briars and wild flowers sprang up in wild profusion and for many years these sacred spots were almost inaccessible. The patriotic people residing in and around Valley Forge, w^hich takes its name from an old forge located on the Valle\^ Creek nearly a mile from the present village, but which was destroyed by fire during the Revolutionary War, have kept alive the traditions and guarded the Camp grounds from desecration and destruction. The encampment is at the confluence of the Valley Creek and Schuylkill ; the former flows down one side of the old Camp ground from Chester County into the Schuylkill on the other. Washing- ton's headquarters was an old stone mansion, originally known as the old Potts farm house. The Reading Railroad which runs along the Schuylkill side of the en- campment has recently erected a handsome $io,000 depot just across the road from Washington's headquarters. Valley Forge is about twenty-one miles from Philadelphia and is now easily accessible either by the Pennsylvania Railroad ; the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad ; by trolley from Phoenixville, five miles distant; or by trolley from Sixty-ninth and Market streets, Phila- delphia, to Norristown. The Camp is picturesquely situated and is comprised of rolling wooded hills, deep ravines and precipitous bluffs along Valley Creek and the Schuyl- kill. In Revolutionary times it was a sparsely settled farming community and was accessible only by rough roads and Indian trails. Being surrounded on two sides by water and bluffs, and by woods on the others, it was a natural fortification and w^as recommended to Washington after the battle of Bran- dy^vine by Col. Lutterloh. The original Encampment was about two miles in length, extending to Port Kennedy on the Schuylkill and stretching in a semicircle across the Gulph Road. The entrance to the Encampment w^as along a ravine and its entrance was fortified by parks of artillen^, two lines of earthworks, forts and redoubts commanding the entire Encampment. While the Encampment comprised a few thousand acres of land, several out- posts and picket lines extended several miles from the real Encampment. The army arrived there December 19, 1777, and before huts could be erected 5 the soldiers suffered terribly from cold in their tents, especially as they were scantily supplied with blankets and clothing. Huts 14 x 16 feet in dimen- sion were erected for the use of the soldiers, and the various old farm houses were used as headquarters for the Brigade and Division Commanders. Sick- ness and disease invaded the Camp, and out of an army of 8,000 men nearly 3,500, it is estimated, died during the six months of encampment. The deaths were so frequent and the firing of the military salute at the funerals being so depressing to the soldiers, Washington ordered it discontinued and three rolls of the drum substituted in its place. It was here that General Von Steuben instructed the undrilled army and brought it up to a state of high proficiency and it was recruited up to about 14,000 men which thereafter were invincible. The Encampment has been restored to its old Revolutionary condition and the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania has placed protec- tions around old historic spots and made them accessible by drives and trans- formed the Encampment into a beautiful park. Washington's Headquarters, the artificers' camp and the various headquarters are all in good condition and easy of access. Fort Washington, Fort Huntington, the Star redoubt, the lines of earthworks, the old Letitia Penn school-house, the old bake-ovens, and the unknown soldiers' graves have all been sacredly taken care of. An observatory has been erected at Mount Joy that affords a view of the entire Encampment, and log huts have been erected in fac simile of the old huts and hospital used by the Revolutionary Army. Some years ago some patriotic ladies rented Washington's Headquarters with a view to creating an interest in the old camp ground, but proving to be a financial burden they were assisted by the Patriotic Sons of America, and through their efforts the State of Pennsylvania made an appropriation for the purchase of the headquarters and a part of the old Encampment. The Act of Assembly created a Commission known as the Valley Forge Park Com- mission and from time to time additional land has been acquired and the prin- cipal portion of the old Valley Forge Camp has been placed in the original condition of the Revolutionary period without destroying or altering any of its features. Valley Forge is one of the most sacred spots known in the Revolutionary history of our country, and while the army was small there were 14,000 troops finally encamped there, being recruited from twelve of the original thirteen colonies. Most of the generals of Revolutionary fame were quartered at Valley Forge, among whom were Major Generals Nathaniel Greene, Alex- ander McDougall, Baron de Kalb, Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Mifflin, Lord Stirling, Charles Lee, Baron Von Steuben and John Sullivan ; and among the Brigadier Generals who commanded various troops were Thomas Conway, of Pennsylvania; John Glover, of Massachusetts; Jediah Hunting- ton, of Connecticut; Henry Knox, of Pennsylvania; Ebenezer Learned, of 6 Washington's Redoubt, built Winter of Mil -IZ. A View of Huntington Redoubt as it appears to-day. 7 New Hampshire; William Maxwell, of New Jersey; Lackland Mcintosh, of Georgia and North Carolina; John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, of Penn- sylvania; John Patterson, of Connecticut and Massachusetts; Enoch Poor, of New York; Charles Scott, of Virginia; Anthony Wayne, of Pennsyl- vania; George Weeden, of Virginia; James M. Varnum, of Rhode Island; Count Pulaski and Louis Lebeque Duportail. Besides these were men who afterwards became eminent in the history of our country, such as Alexander Hamilton, Colonel Trumbel, Timothy Pickering, afterwards a Cabinet officer; George Clinton, afterwards Vice President; Henry Dearborn, afterw^ards Secretary of War; Thomas Hiester, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania; Richard Peters, afterwards Judge of the United^ States Court; John Marshall, then a private in the ranks, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and James Monroe, afterwards President of the United States, and others. While the Valley Forge Encampment marks an interesting era in the historj' of our country, it was so fraught with hardships and sorrow that even Washington, after the close of the Revolutionary War, when visiting Penn- sylvania, did not visit Valley Forge, as its memories were so sad that he did not care to revive them. There are about 3,500 unknown graves there oc- cupied by soldiers who died of smallpox and enteric fevers, and owing to the frozen condition of the ground were buried only a few inches below the soil, and sometimes were covered more with snow than with earth. Only one grave has been identified, that of Colonel Waterman, and in fact when some of the little mounds have been opened to establish them as graves only a limy trace remained to identify them as the last resting places of those who gave their lives for their country. The Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania has brought the old Camp ground up to a beautiful condition and, while preserving all of the Revolutionary features, made it a park that is not only the Shrine of Amer- ican patriotism but also a place of recreation as well as a Revolutionary his- torical resort. Beautiful drives and walks place every feature of the old En- campment within easy access of the visitor, and the Commission maintains a Park Guard who guide the visitors and protect all objects of interest from desecration. Picnic grounds have been established and suitable camping facili- ties, and thousands of school children, accompanied by their teachers, fre- quently visit there, and nearly 300,000 people annually visit this historic spot. While the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsjdvania has placed granite markers upon the sites occupied by the various colonial State troops located there, only five States, namely, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware so far have erected monuments in commemora- tion of their Revolutionary soldiers encamped there. The Commission limits the cost of any monument to $5,000, and the intention is not to make it a park with grand monuments, but in keeping with the spirit of the time and S A View of the Inner Line, Where it Crosses the Gulph Road, Showing the Artillery en park. Graves of unknown Revolutionary Soldiers, who were buried during Winter of 1777-78. purely along Continental lines; therefore, no names may be placed upon any monument excepting those who participated in the Revolutionary War. The New Jersey monument is erected upon the hill occupied by Max- well's Brigade, and the bronze soldier facing the Schu}4kill looks out over the expanse towards the State of New Jersey from which he and his com- panions in arms came. The whole Encampment has a park-like appearance; the grass is kept cut like a lawn, the groves are kept clear of briars, while wild flowers grow in profusion, and growths of laurel dot the hills and roadsides, and hundreds of birds warble and sing their anthems in the groves to the Nation's Shrine in Summer, while the soughing of the trees and the howling Winter winds render a requiem to the unknown dead. 10 REPORT OF THE VALLEY FORGE REVOLUTIONARY ENCAMPMENT COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY The Valle}' Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission respectfully submits the following report: This Commission was appointed by the Honorable Woodrow Wilson, then Governor of the State of New Jersey, under an Act of the Legislature, approved 191 2. The following is a copy of the Act referred to. The Act was prepared by John Henry Fort, of Camden, and introduced in the Assem- bly by Honorable Albert DeUnger: Assembly No. 46. State of New Jersey, Introduced January 15, 191 2, By Mr. DeUnger. Referred to Committee on Claims and Revolutionary Pensions. An Act creating the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission and defining its powers and duties. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of Neiu Jersey : 1. The Governor of this State is hereby authorized to appoint five per- sons, residents of this State, who shall constitute, and are hereby appointed. a board of commissioners by the name and style of the "Valley Forge Revolu- tionary Encampment Commission." The term of such commissioners shall be for five years, and no member of such commission shall receive any com- pensation for his services, and in case of death or vacancy, the Governor shall have the authority to fill such vacancy. Three of such commissioners shall constitute a quorum at any stated or specially called meeting. 2. This commission shall elect a president, secretary and treasurer from their number, and said commissioners shall have power and authority to arrange with the State of Pennsylvania for the use and occupation of the lands occupied by the New Jersey troops at Valley Forge Encampment, West Chester and Montgomery counties, during the years of one thousand seven hundred and seventj'-seven and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, and have the same suitably marked with granite posts and a granite shaft bear- ing the inscription of the names of the troops, and the commanding officer or officers, and such other inscription as shall be suitable to commemorate the memory of the New Jersey troops quartered there during the Revolutionary War. 3. The said commission is hereby authorized to expend the sum of five thousand dollars for the erection of a granite shaft and markers. 11 And the said commission is hereb}^ authorized to enter into negotiations with the State of Pennsjdvania, or the Valley Forge Encampment Park Com- missioners, for the erection of said markers and granite shaft, and to advertise for proposals for marking the site occupied by the New Jersey troops during the years one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, and for all such other matters that are in- cident thereto, not exceeding the appropriation herein made for the same. 4. This act shall take effect immediately. It seems passing strange that from June i8th, 1778, until January 15th, 19 1 2, no effort had been made to secure the passage of an Act for the erection of a monument to mark the site occupied by the First New Jer- sey Brigade Infantry Line, composing a part of Washington's Army at Val- ley Forge. This Brigade, generally known as Maxwell's Brigade, was one of the most famous bodies of troops in the Revolutionary Army, and the con- ception of the idea of the erection of the New Jersey Monument at Valley Forge was largely through the efforts of a patriotic organization whose members, by personal sacrifices and at considerable expense, not only helped to secure the passage of the Act creating the Valley Forge Revolutionary En- campment Commission, but greatly lessened the expense to the State in the ceremonies of the corner-stone laying, as well as greatly assisting the Com- mission on several occasions with the free use of their automobiles and highly appreciated services at the dedicatory ceremonies, for which the Commission wishes to return its thanks. Camden Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, deserves great credit for the assistance given the Com- mission, and Mr. Frank T. Albright also for exploiting the project in the press of the entire State of New Jersey. The following letter, issued by Camden Lodge, gives an account of the whole matter. After the passage of the Act and the appropriation of $5,000, Governor Wilson appointed the Commission : CAMDEN LODGE, No. 293, BENEVOLENT AND PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS Of the United States of America. Camden, N. J., December 12, 1912. Dear Sirs and Bros.: At a meeting of Camden Lodge of Elks held on W'ednesday evening, December 6, 191 1, Bro. John Henry Fort, who spoke at the Memorial Service of Norristown Lodge of Elks, gave a glowing description of a visit to Valley Forge, near Norristown, Mont- gomery and Chester counties, Pennsylvania. Bro. Fort described in detail the present condition of the old Revolutionary En- campment and stated that the State of Pennsylvania had purchased the old historic site, and under a Commission was having it restored to its original condition, which was rendered feasible by reason of a map recently discovered in a museum, in Holland, by a French engineer for Gen. Washington, that showed ever)' detail of defence, loca- tion of troops and General Washington's Headquarters, as well as those of the other 12 generals. The camping grounds have been beautified by fine roads and paths and the redoubts, forts and earthworks uncovered and even fac simile huts erected to cover every detail and cannon of the Revolutionary t3pe placed in the park, as designated on the old map now in possession of Cornell University. Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and other States of the original thirteen Col- onies who had troops there have erected, or are about to erect, granite markers to commemorate the location. Pennsylvania has erected at great cost a granite equestrian statue of Major General Anthony Wayne and magnificent granite columns surmounted with bronze eagles. The Valley Forge Park, as restored, is one of great beauty, and with the beautiful Schuylkill and Valley Forge Creek flowing around the sloping hill- sides of Valley Forge makes it one of picturesqueness and loveliness. Hill after hill rises and falls in the distance, and here were quartered in 1777 and 1778 the 8,000 young soldiers of noble sires from the thirteen old Colonies who battled for freedom. Thirt)-five hundred of them died here and are buried in the Valley Forge Park with unmarked graves. And yet, with all these discouragements, Washington here recruited and drilled his army, by aid of Baron von Steuben, to a high efficiency and to a strength of 14,000 invincible men. There were a number of troops there from New Jersey and some were buried in those unmarked graves. It was from near here Washington marched to Trenton and van- quished the Hessians; marking the roads and snow-covered fields with the blood from the feet of his shoeless soldiers. As the site occupied by the troops from New Jersey, then one of the Colonies, has never been marked, Bro. Fort moved that a committee of three from Camden Lodge of Elks be appointed to solicit, by letter, the aid of every Elks' Lodge in New Jersey, requesting the Senator and Representatives from the county in which the Lodge is situated to vote for the enactment of a law providing for the appointment of a Commission by the Legislature to obtain all data necessary to locate the site and obtain permission to erect a granite marker and suitable stones to commemorate the memory of the officers and men who heroically represented New Jersey in the great sufferings and heroic acts performed by them at Valley Forge. The idea is also to have the act carry with it an appropriation of not less than $5,000 to cover the expense of the marker and other small granite posts needed to fix the boundary. As Valley Forge is the Mecca of American Independence, hallowed in the memory especially of those residing in the thirteen original States, may we ask your co-opera- tion in this work and have j-our secretary, under the seal of the Lodge, write your Senator and Representatives, urging their support of this project? The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is patriotic as well as benevolent. As Jerseymen let us honor the memory of those who gave us our Flag and Nation by erecting a shaft on the site where they made such noble sacrifices. Fraternally j^ours, John Henry Fort, President of Committee. The Commissioners appointed bj^ Governor Wilson were: John Henry Fort, of Camden, designated bj- the Governor as chairman. A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken. David R. Mulford, of Bridgeton. James L. Penn3'packer, of Haddonfield. General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth. 13 Upon receipt of notification of his appointment as Commissioner and as having been designated by the Governor as chairman, John Henry Fort called a meeting of the Commission, by letter, in the parlor of the Home of Cam- den Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, v^^hich had previously placed the Home at the service of the Commission: Camden, May 29, 1912. My Dear Sir: Having been designated by Governor Wilson as Chairman of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Monument Commission, — but which more properly under the Act is designated as President, — I hereby notify you that a meeting of the Commission will be held in Camden at the Elks' Building, Broadway and Federal street, on Tuesday forenoon, June 12th, 1912, at n o'clock. As the Lodges of New Jersey of the Order of Elks were strong supporters of this bill as a patriotic organization, they have asked the honor of having the first meeting held at the Camden Home, and will entertain us with lunch after we have finished our business. The Lodge has appointed a com- mittee who will look after us and after lunch convey us in automobiles to Valley Forge where we will meet a delegation of the Pennsylvania Valley Forge Park Commis- sion, who will formally give us permission to locate the monument upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade under General Maxwell there in 1777-1778. As the Patriotic Order Sons of America and kindred orders have largely been in- strumental in the creation of Valley Forge Park, you can understand why they are so interested in this matter. In order to avoid dragging the Commission needlessly here several times, as I pre- sume you are all business men, and as the Act provides no expense account, I have made all necessary inquiries from the Pennsylvania Commissioners and arranged de- tails that are necessary and formal. I enclose you clipping from Camden Post-Tele- gram which explains the matter. I find a strong sentiment hereabouts in favor of a big demonstration when the monument is dedicated, but could only say we had no money under the Act to do it and was told the several organizations of a patriotic Order would arrange for a parade without expense to the Commission. I promised to bring the matter to the attention of our Commission and mention it now so you can think over the matter before we meet. I presume at our first meeting we can do little beyond authorizing proposals for designs and plans and specifications for the monument. If it is to be dedicated this Fall immediate action should be taken. I have had one offer submitted to me, and I presume there will be several. Kindly answer and inform of your being present on the date arranged. I am most respectfully yours, John Henry Fort. The Commission met on June 12th, 1912, agreeably to said notice, and was called to order by the designated chairman. The Act of Assembly creat- ing the Commission providing that it should elect its own officers, the Com- mission accordingly elected the following officers for the term of its exist- ence: President — John Henry Fort, of Camden. Secretary — James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield. Treasurer — A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken. 14 The officers elected dul_v accepted the positions. The president of the Commission then formally extended an invitation to the Commissioners to dine with a committee of the Camden Lodge of Elks in the Home (which was previously appointed to entertain them). He also informed them that after lunch the committee would escort them to Valley Forge in automobiles as the guests of the committee on behalf of the Lodge. Having finished all business, the president informed the Commissioners that he had, from his nearness to Valley Forge and to avoid unnecessary expense to the State for traveling expenses of the Commission, visited the Valley Forge Park Com- mission of Pennsylvania to obtain full information as to what must be done before steps could be taken for the erection of the monument to the New Jersey troops quartered there during the winter of the years 1 777-1 778. The president explained in detail that the old camping grounds were now owned by the State of Pennsylvania and had been restored to their ancient state as far as possible without destroying the historical and military features. He also stated that the State of ALnine, then a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, had erected a granite shaft brought from Maine upon the site occupied by its troops, and the State of ]\Lassachusetts had recently erected a granite Exhedra upon the site occupied by its troops, and that the State of Pennsylvania had previously erected granite columns at the entrance to the position of the grounds occupied by its troops, the columns being surmounted by magnificent bronze eagles, and also had erected a magnificent full-sized equestrian statue to Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne. He further explained that the State of Pennsylvania had created a Commission which had entire charge of the Valley Forge Encampment, and had purchased some five hundred acres of the old Valley Forge Encampment, and had restored the forts, redoubts, roads, earthworks and all military features of the old Camp as well as at places erecting log huts in fac simile of the original ones used by the Continental Army at Valley Forge. He stated also that the Commission had restored Washington's head- quarters and marked the sites by small granite shafts with suitable inscriptions on bronze tablets to locate the position occupied by each body of troops en- camped there, and had laid out a beautiful concourse or boluevard for the use of vehicles and pedestrians. In order to erect a monument or other struc- ture to commemorate the site occupied by any troops President Fort explained it was necessary to obtain the consent of the Valley Forge Encampment Com- mission, created under an Act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and submit all plans for their approval. On application the Commission would select a site as near as possible to either Regimental or Brigade headquarters. President Fort explained that he had, on invitation of the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, visited it in company with President Wil- liam H. Sayen, Dr. John H. Jordan, secretary, and Mr. W. A. Patton, who kindly took him with them on one of their official trips, and with the assist- 15 ance of Colonel S. S. Hartranft, superintendent of the Valley Forge Park, escorted him to the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade during the time the old Encampment was occupied by the Continental Army, 1777-1778, and he was accorded the honor of selecting the site for the New Jersey Monu- ment which is as near Brigade headquarters as it is possible to ascertain. By means of an old camp map, drafted by Maj. Gen. Duportail, chief of Wash- ington's staff, and discovered by ex-Governor Pennypacker in a museum in Antwerp, and now in possession of Cornell University, the various sites have been correctly marked and further verified by contemporaneous maps in the Commission's possession. Reproduction of a Hospital Hut, built upon the Original Site Occupied 1777-78. The Commission then adjourned to the call of the president, and after dinner, as the guests of the Camden Lodge of Elks, accompanied by thirty members in nine automobiles furnished by members of the Lodge, proceeded to Valley Forge, about twentj'-one miles from Philadelphia. Upon arriving at Valley Forge, a trip was made through every part of it, and the Commis- sioners and visitors alighted at Washington's headquarters, where they were met by Col. Hartranft and Mr. J. P. Hale Jenkins on behalf of the Val- ley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, who escorted them to the site selected for the erection of the New Jersey Monument. It was then ex- plained that the cost of the monument was limitd to not more than five thou- sand dollars for each State, and that this ruling must be observed. A chest- 16 nut stake had been driven to mark the site and the Commission unanimously accepted it. The Commission, at its first meeting, authorized the president and the secretary to draw up advertisements for proposals and publish them four times in the following papers: The State Gazette, Trenton; Daily Observer, Ho- boken ; Evening News, Newark ; Post-Telegram and Courier, Camden. PROPOSAL FOR GRANITE MONUMENT, To be erected at Valley Forge Park, Montgomery County, Pa Proposals are invited for the erection of a granite shaft and markers to be located at Valley Forge Park, Montgomery County, Pa., by the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, under the laws of New Jer- sey, to mark the site occupied bv the New Jersey troops quartered there, 1777- 1778. All information will be furnished and bidders are to submit designs from suggestions of Commission, price not to exceed $5,000. Quality of granite and weight of each block or shaft is to be given and dimensions of each and height of monument. Bids to include foundation, bronze tablet or tablets and coat-of-arms of State, etc., and erection ready for unveiling. Five blue prints drawn to scale must be furnished for Commis- sioners to study ten days before filing of bids. All persons desiring to bid, applying before July I, 191 2, will be fur- nished with letter containing more specific details. The Commission reserves the right to reject any or all bids. Bids must be in by August i, 191 2, and the Commission will meet at the State House, Trenton, N. J., at 1 1 A. M., to open and examine them. A certified check for $200 must accompany each bid. For further information address and submit proposals to John H. Fort, President Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, 311 Market Street, Camden, N. J. Attest: — James L. Pexnyp acker, Secretary Commission. In response to these advertisements a number of proposals were received. The Commission at the time designated met at the oflfice of the Adjutant General, in the State House, in the city of Trenton, where the bids were opened. Every bidder was given an opportunity to come before the Com- mission and fully explain details and specifications and submit models, blue prints or drawings of the proposed monument. The Commission notified the bidders that it reserved the right to examine the plans and specifications and announce the result at a later day. All the bidders had been given previously a copy of a tentatively adopted design for the monument and figure and noti- fied that the plans submitted must be changed from a granite statue to bronze, of the United States Government standard. All the plans for the monu- ment were afterwards submitted to the Valley Forge Park Commission of 17 Pennsylvania, which selected the plans of the O. J. Hammell Co., Pleasant- ville, N. J., as acceptable providing that the figure of the soldier as well as the inscription tablets should be changed to bronze instead of granite. This change, with the elaborate granite monument submitted by that company, added several thousand dollars to the expense, but by reducing the ornamenta- iton the company was able to of^er the Commission a more substantial monu- ment than the first design, which being acceptable to the Valley Forge Park Commissioners of Pennsjdvania, was duly approved, and at a meeting of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey, held at Trenton, in the Adjutant General's office, was accepted and the contract awarded to the O. J. Hammell Co. for the sum of five thousand dollars, the amount appropriated by the State of New Jersey and fixed as the maximum and minimum cost of any monument to be erected by any State at Valley Forge Park. Assistant Attorney General Gaskill very kindly drew the con- tract, which was afterwards executed and filed in the office of the State Comp- troller, after being approved by Governor Woodrow Wilson. Camden Lodge of Elks, having so generously entertained the Commis- sion at dinner and allowed the use of its Home for meeting purposes of the Commission and assuming the expense of providing automobiles to convey the Commission to Valley Forge, General J. Madison Drake submitted a resolu- tion that Camden Lodge of Elks be invited and accorded the honor of laying the corner-stone of the monument on Tuesday, the twelfth day of November, 19 1 2, and that the President of the Commission, as a member of the Lodge, be authorized to extend the invitation and make all arrangements for the lay- ing of the corner-stone. Camden Lodge of Elks accordingly issued the following letter of invita- tion to the thirty-five Lodges in the State of New Jersey and nearby Lodges of other States: CAMDEN LODGE, No. 293, B. P. O. E. Camden, N. J., October 22, 1912. Exalted Ruler and Bros.: On Tuesday, November 12th, Camden Lodge, by invitation of the New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, appointed under an Act of the Legislature to erect a monument at Valley Forge upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, under General William Maxwell, 1777-1778, will lay the corner-stone. This honor is conferred upon our Lodge because it assumed the initiative in supporting Bro. John H. Fort in his efforts to get the Legislature to pass an Act and an appropria- tion for a monument to mark the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade at that grand old historic encampment ground. The Grand Exalted Ruler has granted a dispensation to Camden Lodge, under the seal of the Grand Lodge, and a committee has been appointed for the purpose of ar- ranging details for a special train via the Reading Railroad (Philadelphia Terminal), for November 12th, 12.30 o'clock, returning about 5.20 from Valley Forge. There will be at least two hundred members from Camden Lodge, many accompanied by their ladies and friends. A brass band will enliven the occasion. The corner-stone ceremonies will be entertaining and all the exercises under charge of the Elks. IS As this monument was largely obtained through the assistance of the Order of Elks in New Jersey, it is eminently proper that it should be represented at the corner- stone laying, and we ask you to have your Lodge represented by either a delegation or \our Exalted Ruler, that the public may see that the Order of Elks not only professes to be patriotic but is indeed so. The round-trip ticket from Philadelphia is $i.oo, and to secure a special train two hundred responses from members are required. Kindly advise us if your Lodge will be represented and by about how man\'. Let the Order of Elks show its appreciation of the honor. Fraternally yours, John Henry Fort, Attest: Chairman of Committee. A. J. MiLLiETTE, Secretary. Camden Lodge of Elks ha\ing accepted the invitation to lay the corner- stone, the contractor, under instructions of the Commission, immediately pro- ceeded to lay the foundation. The foundation is of concrete and was laid under the personal supervision of the Valley Forge Park Commission Supei- intendent, according to the Commission's standing rule. On November I2th, igi2, everything being in readiness, the members of Camden Lodge of Elks, accompanied by a number of ladies, friends and members of other Lodges, proceeded to Valley Forge in a special train at the expense of the Lodge members, for the purpose of laying the corner-stone. The Order of Elks is a patriotic as well as a benevolent organization, and a special dispensation was granted by the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Grand Lodge of the United States of America, and a Special Ritual was prepared for the occasion by John Henry Fort, Past District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler of New Jersey. The Grand Exalted Ruler previously granted the following dispensation : Superior, Wis., October i6, 1912. To the Officers and Members of Camden Lodge, No. 2Q3, B. P. 0. Elks: In accordance with request of Brother E. Wilmer Collins, Secretary, under date of October 12, Camden Lodge, No. 293, is hereb}' granted a special dispensation to take part in the laying of the corner-stone of the monument to be erected at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to mark the site occupied by New Jersey soldiers camped there during the Revolutionary War. This dispensation is granted under Section 121 of the Grand Lodge Statutes. Fraternally, (Seal Grand Lodge.) Thomas B. Mills, Grand Exalted Ruler. The services were performed in the presence of the Valley Forge Revo- lutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey and a representation from the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania. Senator William T. Read, of Camden County, and Senator Isaac T. Nichols, of Cumberland County, who advocated the passage of the bill in the Senate, were present as guests of the Lodge, and after the ceremonies made appropriate addresses. 19 The officers of the Camden Lodge of Elks, after an invocation bj^' Reverend Holmes F. Gravatt, took their positions and laid the corner-stone, the Elks Quartette rendering appropriate songs. RITUAL FOR LAYING CORNER-STONE OF NEW JERSEY MONUMENT AT VALLEY FORGE, PA. Exalted Ruler: Brother Esquire, you will form the Lodge by placing an officer at each corner of the proposed monument; the Inner Guard and Tyler near the Esteemed Leading Knight; the Secretary and Treasurer at my right and left. Esquire: Exalted Ruler, your orders have been obeyed and each officer is at his respective station. (Members in half circle behind Exalted Ruler.) Exalted Ruler: My Brothers, the Lodge is now open for the laying of this cor- ner-stone, but before proceeding with so sacred a service, it is proper that we invoke a Divine blessing upon our work. (Minister offers Invocation.) Exalted Ruler: My Brothers, we are assembled here to-day to perform one of the most memorable events in the history of our Lodge, as well as in the history of New Jersey. We have been called upon by the Commission appointed by the Gover- nor of New Jersey, in accordance with the provisions of a law of that State, to have erected upon this sacred spot, a monument to mark the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade of the Continental Army, which was encamped here during the Revolutionary War in the winter of 1777-1778. It was here Washington, Lafayette, Wayne, Von Steuben and the men who fought for our liberty before the United States was formed assembled; it was from near here Washington began his march to Trenton that resulted in the defeat of the Hessians; it was here, amid these hills and valleys, his army took refuge after defeats and discourage- ments ; and here, starving and dying, many of his young soldiers, in devotion to him and the cause of liberty, gave up their lives. Here he came 'mid howling storms of win- ter and in these hills they camped, and in log huts and tents faced not only cold and privations, but sickness and starvation ; and here, out of 8,000 who followed him, lie 3,500 in scattering and unmarked graves. Many of these were Jerseymen, and the New Jersey Brigade had nearly 2,000 of its 5,008 men encamped here. So, my Brothers, it is grandly fitting that a monument should be erected upon this sacred site where they suffered, and where the immortal feet of Washington, Lafayette, Gen. Maxwell and other heroes have trodden. May this corner-stone and monument forever endure as a marker for this hallowed spot, and to indicate to our children's children and all their remotest posterity the price paid by these men for the liberty they enjoy. (The stone is set by the workmen.) (Music.) (Esquire hands the Exalted Ruler a trowel, bottle of water and one of red wine.) Exalted Ruler: My Brothers, there will be four bases for this monument, and symbolically they represent the four cardinal principles of our Order, Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity; so may we as Elks together with all Americans act with Charity to all mankind, with the realization that Justice should regulate not only our 20 individual lives but all of our American institutions; and may we forever regard with Brotherly Love those nations and peoples who helped us in our early struggles for freedom, and thus, with Charity and Justice, combined with Brotherly Love, strive with all Fidelity to build up our Nation and our patriotic Order so that the cause of human- ity may be enhanced, and our growing power used only for good and to help free all mankind and bring them together in one common brotherhood. This water, from its purity, I sprinkle upon this stone in commemoration of the pure and undying love we bear our ancestors who suffered here in our behalf. This wine, typical of the blood shed by the early patriots, I sprinkle in commemoration of the sacrifices made by them in their struggle for freedom; and with this trowel I spread the cement of Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity, hoping it may bind our nation closer together in one Great Brotherhood. My Brothers, as you know, the Order of Elks is patriotic, the flag of our country adorning our altar; therefore I deposit in this corner-stone the flag of our Nation, so that if ever in the future centuries this stone shall be disturbed, it may inform those then living that we were patriots as well as Elks. (To the Architect.) Worthy Sir: Having thus laid the foundation-stone of this structure, I now de- liver to your hands, as Architect, these implements of your profession, intrusting you with the superintendence and direction of the work, having full confidence in jour skill and capacity to conduct and complete the same. (Music.) (Tribute to the Flag.) Exalted Ruler: As this cement binds these stones together, so let us all during our lives stand together for our Nation's good, and may the Divine cement of Brotherly Love unite us, one and all, as living stones in the foundation of the great monumental temple above, the house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. May the all-bounteous author of Nature bless all those in charge of this work with an abundance of the necessaries, conveniences and comforts of life; prosper the erection and completion of this monument ; protect the workmen against every acci- dent; long preserve this structure from decay, and grant to all of us a proper appre- ciation of our cardinal virtues, Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity. Amen. Exalted Ruler: Brother Esteemed Leading Knight, have we in Charity per- formed our duty here? (Response) : We have. Exalted Ruler: Brother Esteemed Loyal Knight, have we in Justice performed our duty here? (Response) : We have. Exalted Ruler: Brother Esteemed Lecturing Knight, have we performed our duty here in the spirit of Brotherly Love? (Response) : We have. Exalted Ruler: Officers and Brothers, what say you? (All) : Exalted Ruler, we have. Exalted Ruler: Then, my Brothers, by virtue of the authority in me vested by the Grand Exalted Ruler, I declare this corner-stone duly laid for the erection of the 21 monument thereon, according to the principles of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and may it endure in the memories of our people forever. (Music.) (Band.) (Taps.) (All sing "Star Spangled Banner.") At the conclusion of the laying of the corner-stone a copper box was inserted in it which contained a full report of the proceedings and copies of the various Philadelphia and Camden daily papers, badges of visiting Elk Lodges, a copy of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Grand Lodge and By-Laws of Camden Lodge, with a roster of its members and all the data that might enlighten future generations if the corner-stone is ever opened. The copper box was hermetically sealed. It was donated by Martin J. Frand, of Camden. The contract for the monument, after being duly executed by the Com- mission and contractor, was approved of by Governor Woodrow Wilson, as well as the specifications which provide that the monument be made of Barre, Vermont, granite, and weigh in itsi entirety 106,000 pounds. The figure to be of bronze. United States Government standard, 90 per cent, copper, as well as the tablet and coat-of-arms of the State of New Jersey. The coat-of- arms to be taken from an impression of the original seal of the State of New Jersey in the office of the Secretary of State, at Trenton. The monument to be ten feet eight inches at the base and consist of four blocks of granite symbolical of the four regiments of the New Jersey Brigade quartered there from December 18, i777, to June 18, 1778, and to be surmounted by a die on which rests a shaft and on this a pedestal surmounted by an eight-foot bronze figure of a Continental soldier uniformed and equipped after the style of West's painting of soldiers in Washington's Army crossing the Delaware. The uniform purposely showing wear and rents from service and the hat and shoes as well. The figure being wrapped in a tattered blanket, well-worn, fluttering in the wind and the scarf around the neck also. The soldier clasp- ing a flint-lock musket to his breast, the design showing him as on picket duty. The monument was faithfully produced from the design and is a mag- nificent specimen of the sculptor's art. The bronze work is of a high grade and was executed by the John Williams Co. Inc., of New York, M^hich does most of the work of that kind for the United States Government. The model for the figure was made in Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, by the celebrated sculptor, John Horrigan. The monument was made in Barre, Vermont. The Commission spared no effort to obtain every detail as to quality and design and was disposed to use stone from New Jersey, but after careful inquiry found that our State 22 23 had no true granite of a character suitable for this structure. The figure, as stated, was first moulded in clay at Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, and at the invitation of the contractor President Fort, under instruction of the Com- mission, went on there and inspected it and made several changes in the de- tails of the figure and dress, enhancing the idea of a well-worn uniform, tat- tered blanket and battered hat, without giving the soldier the appearance of being ragged. The monument has a large bronze tablet on the front, bearing in large block letters the inscription: "Erected By The State of New Jersey Upon The Site Occupied By The New Jersey Brigade Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General, WILLIAM MAXWELL. First Regiment, COL. MATHIAS OGDEN. Second Regiment, COL. ISRAEL SHREVE. Third Regiment, COL. ELIAS DAYTON. Fourth Regiment, COL. EPHRAIM MARTIN. December 19, 1777— June 18, 1778." A cartouch also contains a bronze cut of the original coat-of-arms of New Jersey above the tablet. A copy of the Original New Jersey Coat-of-Arms. The eighteenth day of June, 19 13, was set for the dedication of the monument, as on that date, in 1778, General Washington received informa- tion that Lord Howe had evacuated Philadelphia and immediately hastened the New Jersey Brigade, under Brig. Gen. William Maxwell, and Morgan's Regiment of Riflemen — who was also a Jersej^man — in hot haste after Lord Clinton in his retreat across the Jerseys to South Amboy, while he got the rest of the army in readiness to follow the next day. Considerable detail work was necessary before the erection and dedica- tion of the monument. It was necessary to obtain written permission from the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, both as to the site selected for the erection of the monument and also for designs, inscriptions on tablets and rules and regulations governing the park, as well as for the erection of 24 x^*^^ 1 1 i^^ if 7 K a grand stand and for the location of the battery of artillery for firing a salute on the day of dedication, which written permission is herewith filed, together with the correspondence: CamdeNj N. J., June 13, 1912. Hon. John JV. Jordan, Secretary Valley Forge Park Com., Philadelphia, Pa. My Dear Sir: The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey, consisting of John H. Fort, of Camden (president) ; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield (secretary) ; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken (treasurer) ; David P. Mul- ford, of Bridgeton, and Gen. J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, met yesterday in Camden at the Home of Camden Lodge of Elks, by invitation, and after organization and com- pletion of routine business incident to the occasion, visited Valley Forge and were officially shown the site designated by your Commission upon which is to be erected the monument and markers of the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade of Stirling's Division during the years 1777-1778. Mr. Samuel S. Hartranft and Mr. J. P. Hale Jenkins kindly met us and pointed out the site marked by a stake, and the New Jersey Commission is highly delighted with your selection. Under the Act creating our New Jersey Valley Forge Revolu- tionary Encampment Commission, we are authorized to arrange with the State of Penn- sylvania or the Valley Forge Park Commission for the use and occupation of the lands occupied by the New Jersey troops at Valley Forge at that time, and I was instructed to ask your Commission for a letter officially giving us the authority to proceed. It is our desire to advertise at once for proposals for design and bids for the erection of the monument as the funds are available. We must make a detailed report of our transactions and will want a letter to show we have received official permission to erect the monument. In your letter will you also give us the conditions upon which the monument is to be erected, such as cost, material, whether any expense will attach to maintenance of the grounds we occupy, etc. ? We understand our design must be approved by your Commission, and ask con- firmation of this. The New Jersey Commission feels that the dedication of this monument should be made an eventful day, and would ask permission to occupy a suitable portion of these grounds that day for a grand stand and possibly a tent in which to entertain State officials and invited guests, and permission if we can arrange it for locating a battery front or somewhere to fire suitable salutes and of marching from the depot to the monument in parade form or otherwise. Of course, the Commission will see that nothing is of a character that will offend the proprieties of the occasion. As we wish to proceed in the matter, a prompt answer will greatly oblige the New Jersey Commission. I have the honor to be respectfully yours, John Henry Fort, President, New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Monument Commission. VALLEY FORGE PARK COMMISSION. Office, 1414 South Penn Square, Philadelphia, Pa. (Coat-of-Arms.) Created by Act, May 30, 1893. Commissioners, W. H. Sayen, President, 1414 South Penn Square, Philadelphia, Pa. J. P. Nicholson, Vice President, Philadelphia, Pa. 26 John W. Jordan, Secretary and Treasurer. J. P. Hale Jenkins, Norristown, Pa. M. G. Brumbaugh, Philadelphia, Pa. W. A. Patton, Radnor, Pa. Richmond L. Jones, Reading, Pa. John T. Windrim, Devon, Pa. Samuel W. Pennypacker, Schwenksville, Pa. T. E. Wiedersheim, St. Davids, Pa. Philadelphia, July 19th, 1912. John H. Fort, Esq., President, Valley Forge Revol. Encampt. Commission of the State of Neiv Jersey. Dear Sir: I beg to inform you that our Commission has approved the site selected for the erection of a monument on a part of the ground occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, while encamped at Valley Forge. The following are the regulations of the Valley Forge Park Commission with regard to memorials: (i) All designs for monuments must first be submitted to the Commission for ap- proval. (2) It is hereby made the fixed policy of the Valley Forge Park Commission, and it is ordered, that no statement or fact shall be inscribed upon any stone, tablet, or memorial, and placed or erected within the limits of the Camp ground until after written or printed citations of the authorities upon which it is based have been filed with the Commission and approved by them. (3) No stone, tablet or permanent memorial to be placed or erected within the limits of the Camp ground shall contain the names of those interested in its location or erection, or the names of any other persons, than those existing during the period of the War of the Revolution. It was the opinion of the Commission that the figure of a Continental soldier, which is proposed to surmount the shaft, be cast in bronze and not cut in granite. The bronze figure is more attractive and durable, and the cost approximately the same. Permission will be given to your Commission to erect a grand stand and a tent in which to entertain your State oflicials and Invited guests, and also the location for a battery of artillery to fire a salute, on the day of dedication. It will give us pleasure to facilitate the work of your Commission In Its laudable and patriotic work. By order of the Valley Forge Park Commission. W. H. Sayen, President. John W. Jordan, Secretary. In the original appropriation onlj' $5,000 was allowed for building the monument and markers, so the Commission merged the markers into the monument, designing a block for each Regiment, and all four blocks sur- mounted by a shaft forming a monument to the Brigade. The site was care- fully selected and is near the Letitia Aubrey old stone school-house, which was used by the New Jersey Brigade as a hospital. The Brigade was for a time the life-guard of Washington, whose Markee was pitched near the site of the monument for several weeks before he accepted the old stone mansion near the present depot, at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill. At 27 that time the men were quartered in log huts and the remains of some of the old bake-ovens are near by. The monument is at the top of the hill, and the site was chosen from maps and old records locating "Maxwell Brigade on the Hill." The monument faces that part of the inner drive or concourse known as Maj. Gen. Lafayette Avenue. This avenue was built by the Penn- sylvania Commission since the State acquired some five hundred of the thou- sand or more acres occupied by the Continental Army, and should not be con- fused with the roads marked on the maps as Camp Road and Gulph Road. The New Jersey Brigade was encamped between the two, near where they come together. The Gulph Road is about three hundred yards in front of The old School House, built by Letitia Aubrey, 1705. Used by the New Jersey Brigade for some time as a Hospital. the monument. The camp ground of the Brigade is also near the inner breastworks. The Brigade when it left Valley Forge was accredited with having eighteen hundred and thirtj^-two men on the muster roll. It was In- fantry Line, and enlisted under the laws of the State of New Jersey. It consisted of four regiments and was from different parts of the State, then consisting of thirteen counties instead of twentj^-one, as now. Its commander, Brigadier General Maxwell, was of Irish birth, coming to America with his father when only a boy and soon entered the military, becoming a Colonel of one of the regiments and afterwards being appointed as Brigadier General of the First New Jersey Brigade, consisting of the First, Second, Third and 28 Fourth Regiments. The Brigade did splendid service and was in every bat- tle of consequence with Washington from Brandywine and Monmouth to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. It was entirely a Jersey Brigade, both as to men and officers, and was classed as one of the finest in the service. There were a number of Jerseymen in other commands at Valley Forge, some with "Light Horse Harry", General Lee, and some in the Artillery service with General Knox, and some with the New York troops, but not assigned as Jerseymen. There is no possible way of ascertaining how many Jerseymen died at Valley Forge and where they are buried. Of the thirt^-- five hundred who died of the first army of eight thousand there, only one grave was marked, that of Colonel Waterman, of New England. There was no fighting done at Valley Forge, it being selected for winter quarters, and while there were skirmishes on the out-posts and fighting in defending provisions stored in nearby towns, the Camp at or near Valley Forge was never the scene of any engagement. The deaths there were from smallpox and enteric disejises incident to the lack of food and clothing. Even two hun- dred horses starved to death, and the men in many instances were almost naked in a winter of unusual severity in that bleak and exposed place. In fact, a terrible blizzard struck the army before it had time to prepare huts to live in, and the high winds drove the smoke into the huts, so that many were affected with eye trouble as well. In designing the monument frequent trips had to be made to Valley Forge and various historical data examined to make the figure and inscrip- tion on the tablet and coat-of-arms exact and historically correct, and loca- tion had to be taken into consideration for height and contour of monument, every detail having to be verified, necessitating thirteen different visits to Val- ley Forge. The Commission, having no money to arrange for the corner-stone lay- ing or dedication of the monument, carefully went into the details of the expense. Camden Lodge of Elks assumed the entire expense of the corner- stone, laying, paying nearly three hundred dollars for a special train, besides all other attendant expenses. It was found that the expenses of the dedica- tion involved the transportation of troops, a band, a battery of two guns for firing a salute, erection of grand-stand, automobiles, printing of invitations and programs, decorations and other incidental expenses involving an estimated expense of about two thousand dollars. The Legislature of New Jersey was again appealed to for an appropriation of twentj-five hundred dollars, which was approved by the Senate but never passed the House, but in the closing hours of the session eighteen hundred dollars was included in the an- nual appropriation of the Committee en Appropriations which w^as passed and approved by the Governor. From this amount was erected a grand- stand seating one thousand people, decorations for it and draping the monu- ment for unveiling, four companies of Infantry of the Third Regiment, a 29 two-gunned Battery from Camden with thirty-six horses and. twenty-one men, Bossell's Third Regiment Band with forty pieces, five thousand invita- tions, envelopes and stamps, five thousand programs, expenses of Commission, transportation of Battery and horses by special train, subsistence of men, and hire of five large automobiles and five twenty-passenger sight-seeing cars to convey the Governor, Staff, Commission and visitors from the depot to the monument and return, over a mile apart. Arrangements were also made with the Reading Railroad in advance for a special train for conveyance of the military, guests and the general public at a uniform rate of transporta- tion from Philadelphia to Valley Forge and return of seventy-five cents. Five thousand invitations were mailed to attend the dedication to United States Senators and Congressmen of New Jersey, to the State Senators and Assemblymen, also the Judges of the Supreme, Circuit and County Courts of the State; to every State, county and city official, the entire clergy of the State, members of the Bar, physicians, all the patriotic organizations, as well as the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of New Jersey; Sons of Veterans, and special guests. Itemized bills were filed with the State Comp- troller, verified with affidavits, and the entire expense was sixteen hundred and fifty dollars, leaving a balance of one hundred and fifty dollars, which lapsed back into the State Treasury. The Commission delegated the President, John Henry Fort, and the Treasurer, A. J. Demarest, to visit Washington to invite the President of the United States, Honorable Woodrow Wilson, to be present at the dedi- cation and deliver an address. He informed them that he would certainly be glad to be present and asked that a formal letter of invitation be sent him. He was forced to decline, as his letter herein published shows, but very graciously designated his daughter, then Miss Eleanor Wilson, to unveil the monument. An invitation was also extended to Acting Governor James F. Fielder, who accepted: VALLEY FORGE REVOLUTIONARY ENCAMPMENT COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY. Camden, N. J., April 17th, 1913. Hon. Woodronx) Wilson, President of the United States of America, IVashington, D. C. My Dear Sir: The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of the State of New Jersey extends to you a most cordial invitation to be present and deliver an address at the unveiling and dedication of the monument which is to mark the site occupied by the New Jersey troops of the Continental Army at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778. The dedicatory exercises are to be held at Valley Forge on Wednesday, June i8th, 1913, at two o'clock in the afternoon. A special train will leave the Reading Railroad Station, Philadelphia, at about one o'clock. The Commissioners are not unmindful of the fact of the many demands made upon your valuable time, but inasmuch as this is a New Jersey affair with which you have been so intimately associated from its very conception, we beg leave to submit the fol- lowing for vour consideration: 30 31 The bill creating the Valley Forge Commission was signed by you as Governor of the State of New Jersey. The Commission which has worked so zealously to erect a monument which will be a credit to the State was appointed by you. And now that the work of the Commission will be ended on that day, the people of the great State of New Jersey are looking to you, as President of the United States, to set your seal of approval on the work of your Commission by your presence on that occasion, and thus join with your neighbors in paying tribute to its honored dead. It is the wish of the Commission that one of your daughters unveil the monument on this day; and we trust that one of the young ladies will find it possible to honor us by being present for this purpose. I take the liberty of enclosing herewith a copy of order of the dedicatory exercises. Respectfully yours, Jno. H. Fort, President. A. J. Demarest. The White House. Washington, April 34, 191 3. My Dear Mr. Fort: I do not know any invitation that it has been harder for me to decline than your kind invitation to be present at the unveiling and dedication of the monument which is to mark the site occupied by the New Jersey troops of the Continental Army at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778 ; but I foresee only too clearly that it would be folly for me to promise to go. I am denying myself a great pleasure, but it seems a clear duty to do so. I do not know how my daughters will feel about your kindness in suggesting that one of them should unveil the monument. I shall be pleased to put the matter before them. Cordially and sincerely yours, WooDROw Wilson. Mr. John H. Fort, Camden, New Jersey. On June i8th, 191 3, the President of the Commission, John Henry Fort, Treasurer A. J. Demarest and Mrs. James L. Pennypacker, wife of the Secretary of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, met Miss Eleanor Wilson and Miss Hagner, private secretary to the President's wife, at the West Philadelphia station and, with the exception of Mr. Fort, accompanied her to Valley Forge in the private limousine of Mr, William C. Davis, who kindly extended this courtesy to the Commission as a member of Camden Lodge of Elks. At I P. M. a special train left the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, for Valley Forge, and arrived safely at the new ten thousand dollar depot, located opposite Washington's Headquarters. The train was in two sections, one carrying the Governor, Staff and troops, and the other the civilians. The troops upon detraining were formed in line and Acting Governor Fielder, his Staff, the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, guests and visitors formed in procession and marched or rode to the monument. The monument was draped with an American Flag and the grand stand with 32 The Monument Erected by the State of New Jersey at Valley Forge June 18th, 1913, to the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, on the site it occupied there December 19th, 1777, to June 18th, 1778. Colonial colors and Colonial flags. The Battery, which had arrived upon a special train in the morning, was placed in position near the monument, and as the Governor and suite arrived, iired a salute of thirteen guns in his honor. A printed program of buff and blue, Continental colors, had been arranged giving the details of the ceremonies, a picture of the monument, Acting Governor Fielder, Miss Eleanor Wilson and the Commission. After arriving at the monument the troops were formed into a three-sided hollow square around the monument, and in the presence of about three thousand people the ceremonies were begun. It was one of the most interesting crowds of spectators ever assembled at Valley Forge. In the crowd were men and women from every county in the State, and many of them were descendants of those who one hundred and thirty-five years ago were soldiers in the four regiments constituting the First New Jersey Brigade encamped upon the spot which the monument was to commemorate. There were representatives of the Grand Army of the Republic who had fought in Mexico and in the late Civil War, Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, Sons of the Revolution, and persons from every rank of life in the State of New Jersey. It is doubtful if any event of this kind ever received more publicity by invitations sent out and press notices before and after the dedication than the dedication of the New Jersey monument at Valley Forge. Full detailed accounts of the dedicatory services were published in the Philadelphia and Camden papers and those of nearby towns, as well as the Associated Press dispatches, many of them being illustrated with sketches. The moving-pic- ture artists were present, and the whole ceremonies were exhibited several days afterwards in the theatres all over the United States. (Invitation.) The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of the State of New Jersey Requests the Honor of Your Presence at Valley Forge, Wednesday Afternoon, June Eighteenth, at Two O'clock, At the Ceremony of the Unveiling and Dedication of the Monument Erected Upon the Site Occupied by the New Jersey Brigade Infantry Line, Continental Army, During the Winter of 1 777-1 778. Members of the Commission. John H. Fort, Camden ; James L. Pennypacker, Hnddonfield ; A. J. Demarest, Hoboken ; Gen. J. Madison Drake, Elizabeth; David P. Mulford, Bridgeton. Trains Will Leave the Reading Terminal Station, Philadelphia, At One O'clock and Return at Five O'Clock. 34 35 PROGRAM. (First Page.) Part First^ Formation of Parade. Assembling at Washington's Headquarters and March to Monument. Third Regiment Band. Battalion of Third Regiment, National Guard N. J. Division Naval Reserves, N. J. Valley Forge Park Commission. Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission. Governors James F. Fielder and John K. Tener.* *Not present; represented by ex-Governor Pennypacker. Orator and Guests. United States Senators and Congressmen. State Officials, Civic Organizations and Citizens. (Second Page.) Part Second^ Dedication Ceremonies. Salute to the Governor by Battery B, N. G. of N. J. Invocation, Rev. Otis A. Glazebrook, D. D., Elizabeth, N. J.* *Not present ; invocation delivered by Rev. James W. Riddle. Music by Third Regiment Band, Joseph Bossle, Sr., Chief Musician. Doxolog}^ by Band and Audience. Presentation of Monument to the Governor of New Jersey by John Henry Fort, President Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission. Unveiling of Monument by Miss Margaret Wilson. Salute to Original States, 13 Guns. Music, "Hail New Jersey," Dr. Schaaf. Acceptance of the Monument by the Governor of New Jersey and Presentation to the Governor of Pennsylvania. Acceptance of the Monument by the Governor of Pennsylvania and Formal Delivery to the Valley Forge Park Commission. Acceptance of Monument by Hon. William H. Sayen, President of the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsjdvania. Music, "Spirit of '76." Oration, Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, President Rutgers College. Music, "Songs of the Nation." Voluntary by Band, "A Tribute to Friends and Foe." Benediction. Conclusion. Farewell Salute of One Gun. "Star Spangled Banner." Taps. After firing the salute to the Governor, John Henry Fort, President of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey, addressing the audience, said: "We are present to-day under the provision 36 37 of an Act of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey to unveil a monu- ment erected upon the site occupied by and to be dedicated to the First New Jersey Brigade, but before proceeding upon such an important event it is proper that we should invoke the blessing of a Divine Providence," and in- troduced Rev. James W. Riddle, A. M., of Valley Forge, who offered an in- vocation. This was followed by the singing of the "Doxology" by the au- dience and the choir of St. Paul's P. E. Church, of Camden, accompanied by the band. After this John Henry Fort, President of the Commission, form- ally presented the monument to the Governor of New Jersey in an appro- priate speech, given in the newspaper accounts. At the conclusion of his speech Mr. Fort introduced Miss Wilson, stat- ing that while the program showed that Miss. Margaret Wilson was to un- veil the monument that in reality it would be unveiled by Miss Eleanor Wil- son, the President's youngest daughter, who for some reason had later been selected. Mr. Fort stated that President Wilson had always been a provident man and had evidently provided against such events by having three daugh- ters, so that while Miss Margaret was absent to-day we still had the honor of having a daughter of the former Governor of New Jersey, and now the President of the United States, to unveil the monument. Then, amidst a thunder of applause, Miss Wilson pulled the cord releasing the flag, and with a salvo of thirteen guns to the thirteen original States, and the band playing "Hail New Jersey", the flag gracefully fell to the base of the monument. For a moment the audience stood silently inspecting the monument and the colossal bronze soldier surmounting it, and then broke forth into tumultuous applause. Governor Fielder then formally accepted the monument from the New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission and pre- sented it to ex-Governor Pennypacker on behalf of the Governor of Penn- sylvania, who in turn then presented it to the Valley Forge Park Commis- sion of Pennsylvania, and it was accepted by the Hon. William H. Saj^en, President of the Commission. The speeches are printed also in the newspaper clippings accompanying this report. After the acceptance of the monument by the Valley Forge Park Com- mission, Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, President of Rutgers College, delivered the oration : ORATION OF DR. W. H. S. DEMAREST, PRESIDENT OF RUTGERS COLLEGE. On Decernber 19, 1777, Washington went into winter quarters at Val- ley Forge, On June 18, 1778, the army left the camp for the field again. On June 19, 1878, the one hundredth anniversary of the evacuating of the camp was celebrated with due ceremony in memory of the men who were at Valley Forge during that winter. Immediately upon this centennial celebra- 38 A View of the New Jersey Monument at Valley Forge as it unveiled, June 18th, 1913. tion associations were formed and movements promoted looking to permanent memorial of the soldiers and the scenes of those memorable daj's. Govern- ments are not always ungrateful, and Acts of the United States Congress and Acts of State Legislatures encouraged the noble sentiment of private citizens and forwarded the practical work undertaken by them. The State of Penn- sylvania, as was natural, acted most promptly and most largely. This ground of the encampment was acquired, a park dedicated to patriotism was created and monuments have been erected. The State of New Jersey, by Act of its Legislature, 1912, officially took its place in the memorial movement. To- day, June 18, 1913, the 135th anniversary of the evacuation. New Jersey's monument is dedicated. It is all a commemorating of singular devotion and suffering, singular patience and sacrifice. National pride and filial respect find few scenes in our American history, or in all history perhaps, more worthy of remembrance. In stress of circumstance which we find it hard to imagine, in experience in which we find it hard even by wildest fancy to place ourselves in our times of peace and comfort, the spirit of our fathers erected its own enduring monu- ment in the hearts of the children, heirs to the rich heritage purchased with their blood. It is not they alone who fight in the forefront of the battle, or they even most of all, who deserve the monument in solid stone or steadfast memory. They also serve who only stand and wait. There are honors of the camp as great as those of anj^ battle-field. There were heroes of the new patriotism as noble in the huts of Valley Forge as on the field of Monmouth. It falls to us to rehearse in some brief fashion the cause of war, of field and camp, related to that fateful winter we commemorate and the men we honor here to-day. The new cause had not gone well through those lat- ter months of 1777. Defeat rather than victory, depression rather than en- couragement, had befallen the Continental troops. Brandywine (September 11) and Germantown (October 4) not, it is true, without their compensa- tions, marked the path of disaster. Lord Howe with his forces now occu- pied Philadelphia. Winter had come on. The wisest disposing of our forces was not an easy problem. Should they remain in the field, pressing the campaign as best they might, engaging the enemy as chance might offer, or should they go into camp, ceasing for the time the urgent warfare, wait- ing the new season and a new call to arms. If they should go into camp, it might be at Wilmington or Trenton. But Wilmington was not strategic, and Trenton was not secure ; the one was not apt to any needed and swift action; the other would always be in peril of the foe. Council on the ques- tion was held November 30. There was divided judgment on the question. The decision at the last had to be Washington's alone. He decided on a camp life for the winter ; he decided on Valley Forge as the place of the camp, a place first suggested perhaps by Colonel Lutterloh at the Council of November 30. That his going into camp should meet sharp criticism was not strange. There were those ready enough to find fault with him on any pretext. There were those who in all honesty and eagerness felt that patriotic zeal and the exigencies of the cause demanded persistently active campaign. The Council of Pennsylvania officially and vigorously disapproved. Amid the many things that stir our admiration for the great leader of our cause during those months of mighty stress upon all his resources of brain and heart and character, this is not the least, that he ordered the army to encamp, and that he chose this place for the encampment. It was a strategic place. 40 S -o 41 Washington, giving reasons for choice, says: "These cogent reasons have determined the General to take post in the neighborhood of this camp and, influenced bj' them, he persuades himself that the officers and soldiers with one heart and mind will resolve to surmount every difficulty with a forti- tude and patience becoming their profession and the sacred cause in which they are engaged. He himself will share in the hardships and partake of every inconvenience," General Howe himself, after a long winter of restraint from attack, wrote the minister at home, April 19, that in spite of the enemy's diminishing by desertion and detachment, "their situation is too strong to hazard an attack with a prospect of success." It was well related to the British camp in the great city — to watch it ; and to guard eastern Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey. It lent itself well to adequate defense, bj'^ its ridges, its well fortified slope. It was situated in a country which naturally should have been abundant in supplies. So the army that was weary and bruised, leaving Whitemarsh December 11, marched its short but painful way to this place, then wooded and bleak, arriving December 19, to make its home here while a half year dragged its slow course; and in January, 1778, a Commit- tee of Congress visited Valley Forge, endorsed the action taken and pledged full support. In the native confusion and the solitude the great commander saw a sol- diers' city in the making. Huts sprang up ; streets of rude habitation shaped themselves; the camp life began its monotonous routine. The story had begun which was to be forever strange and awful and glorious, the story which we enshrine to-day. For the winter weather came in bitterness of cold and storm. The snow fell and drifted and made the camp a prison. Supplies failed; food and clothing, needed and expected, failed to come. Without blankets the soldiers lay sometimes on the icy ground ; with shoes worn out and clothing tattered, they shivered and froze. Without meat and bread they grew weak and nigh starvation. Sickness spread throughout the camp. How many of the eleven thousand there died we do not know; it is estimated that three thousand were buried in the camp or near by; one-third are reported at one time unfit for service. The commissary department, commanding sub- stantial supplies, in utmost inefficiency, failed to get them to the camp. Con- gress was without its earlier strong men and failed to grasp and master the situation. Officials named by Congress for immediate duty were unequal to it. In this country roundabout were farmers well nigh exhausted by the exactions of war ; some of them disaffected to the national cause, some of them eager for British coin rather than Continental paper. General Varnum writes to General Greene: "The situation of the camp is such that in all human probability the army must dissolve." In all this distress, almost at once acute and continuing acute for weeks, Washington remained supremely the master of the situation. His letters from Valley Forge are masterpieces of a noble mind, of a military genius, and of a scholar in the English language. He does not fail to clearly declare the stress of circumstances, to arraign the parties who seem to him at fault, to applaud the soldiers who endure all privation with him and to keep his spirit in control over himself and his followers. In the midst of that bitter fellow-suffering with those who gave his word obedience came the "Conway Cabal," the treacherous plotting and undermining by officers in high place. Gates, Conway, Mifflin, revealed to him and defeated with prompt self- assertion. 42 With him was the persistent spirit of the soldier in the ranks. Amid the death and sickness, amid the nakedness and hunger, the desertions were not many, and mutiny did not rise. It was hard to wait; it was hard to suffer; it was hard to be in want for others' fault; it was hard to endure for what seemed a losing cause ; it was hard to trust the government. Com- plaints there must have been and restlessness, protests and self pit}^ But through it all, the patience, the endurance, the actual waiting, the loyal sub- mitting, the endless hoping for the day of new life, of busy conflict, and far reaching triumph. Washington himself wrote to Governor Clinton: "Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings to a general mutiny and desertion." Under date of March 20, he wrote: "By death and desertion we have lost a good many men since we came to this ground and have endured every species of hardship that cold, wet and hunger, and want of clothes were capable of producing." And under date of April 21, he wrote: "No order of men in the United States has paid a more sacred regard to the proceedings of Congress than the army; for without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth it may be said that no history now extant can furnish one instance of an army's suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude." And most remarkable withal, there was in time the training, the organiz- ing, the strengthening, the compacting; of a force that was to be as great at leaving Valley Forge as when it came, and vastly stronger, more efficient. Baron Steuben brought his old-world discipline to the task. Devoting himself to the cause of the new Republic, he cast his lot with the leader at Valley Forge. Washington was to make the winter tell all it could for the army in its grasp. A whole new organization seemed the thing. And the man for the undertaking he found in Baron Steuben, of Frederick's Staff, and hero of the Seven Years' War. He succeeded Conway as Inspec- tor General. The Baron himself tells of the problem he faced, the troops disorganized, depleted, weakened. By the system he established, the drill he imposed, the spirit he infused ; by his wisdom and his strngth, his military genius, he wrought out with Washington a force that had in it the prophecy of signal success. The army lingered at Valley Forge until the British moved from Phila- delphia. On May 7th a great celebration and religious thanksgiving for the acknowledging of the independence of the United States by France was held. Before leaving, Washington, as directed by Congress, administered the oath of allegiance to all officers; several stood forth at a time, each with a hand on the Bible, to swear their loA'al service to their country. Swiftly on the news of the evacuation of Philadelphia, June 18, Sir William Howe having given way to Sir Harry Clinton, the army moved toward the pathway of the British. And the full, fierce rush of war was again begun on the battle-field of Monmouth. So much in swift picture as back-ground of the men whom we to-day count primarily ours, the men of New Jersey who here camped, suffered, endured, died, triumphed. They were the men of New Jersey's new enlist- ment, the Second Establishment, as it was called. They were known as the "Jersey Line" or Maxwell's Brigade. The First Establishment of New Jersey had been organized in the autumn of 1775. Act of Congress Septem- 43 ber 1 6, 1776, called for the Second Establishment. The State of New Jer- sey acted in conformity September 26. In October the troops, the First Establishment, were at Ticonderoga, and rumors were rife of the disaffec- tion of New Jersey soldiers. On the 25th of that month a committee of the Legislature of New Jersey, John S. Symmes and Teunis Dey, reviewed them. The committee reported November 22, relating "the sad conditions of the soldiers," but showing also "the unquenchable ardor with which they entered the service of their country." And the organizing of the Second Establish- ment was begun. Most of the men in the old enlistment were ready to en- list again; some officers were elected as early as November 28. Four Bat- talions were formed, the first fiilly organized December, 1776; the second early in February, 1777; the fourth late in February; the third was not in the field until the end of April. On October 23, 1776, Colonel William Maxwell was made Brigadier General by Congress. He assumed command of the four New Jersey Battalions, which thenceforth bore the name "Max- well's Brigade." In May, 1777, they were placed in the division of the American Army commanded by Major General Adam Stephens, of North Carolina. They were encamped for a time at Elizabethtown, Bound Brook, and Spanktown (Rahway). Late in the summer they had moved a little southward, and they were not far away when Lord Howe's fleet came up Chesapeake Bay. While the eighteen thousand troops of the British fleet were disembarking on the 25th of August, a picked corps of our men under General Maxwell protected the front of the American Army. From that time until Brandywine, September 1 1 , the Jerseymen were in constant action, in repeated skirmishes. At Brandywine, the battle was opened by a portion of the Jersey line, who stayed in action through the day; General Maxwell and General Stirling as well, of New Jersey, were in gallant action. For a time events moved fast. Philadelphia was occupied on September 26. The battle of Germantown, October 4, soon followed, in which the Jersey Line fought in the division of Lord Stirling, who gained no small distinction. With North Carolina troops, under General Francis Nash, Maxwell's Brigade formed the left wing of the American Army under Stirling. The First Battalion was especially conspicuous, suffering a heavy loss of officers and men. Then came the march to Valley Forge, December 19. How many of the New Jersey men went into camp we do not know. It might be sup- posed the whole Brigade. It may at least be fairly inferred that most of it was there. But the whole encampment numbered but about eleven thousand men, and the Brigade would number over five thousand. It is scarcely probable that half the camp at Valley Forge was of New Jersey men. It is interesting to note that at the moment New Jersey soldiers were thus withdrawn from their own State, Congress was moved to urge measures for the protection of that State. In December, 1777, Congress "Resolved that General Washington be informed that, in the opinion of Congress, the State of New Jersey de- mands, in a peculiar degree, the protection of the armies of the United States, so far as the same can possibly be extended, consistent with the safety of the army and the general welfare, as the State lies open to attack from so many quarters, and the struggles which have been made by the brave and virtuous inhabitants of that State, in defence of the common cause, cannot fail of ex- posing them to the particular resentment of a merciless enemy." To which Washington replied from Valley Forge, December 22d: "As to Jersey, I am sensible of her sufFerings and exertions in the present contest, and there 44 is no State to which I would more willingly extend protection — but I can- not in degree expected and desired divide the armj'." Tenacious in his judgment that he has chosen the wise and necessary course in going into camp rather than taking the field, in holding New Jersey soldiers in the camp, he nevertheless writes in this letter of the alarming deficiency or rather total failure of supplies, and in a letter of the next day, December 23, says there are but three choices, to starve, to dissolve, or to disperse in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can. It was at the war's end, as Con- gress voiced it at that day, that New Jersey's loss in men and property was greatest perhaps of all the thirteen States. The paths of war were every- where across the State and often trod. Her devotion was equal to lier deprivation. Her services and sacrifices deserve the enduring remembrance of sister States, and she deserves high place upon the roll of honor. Her militia was loyal to Washington, and for a time composed the greatest strength of his army. Washington's own esteem for New Jersey, her people, soldiers, spirit, is displayed in other letters from Valley Forge, as in one of February 16, where he recognizes the generous provision of supplies by the State, as by Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, and in one of June 10, where he says: "I would do injustice to the States of Maryland and New Jersey were I not to add that they are likely to get their regiments nearly completed." Governor Livingston finds occasion to write Washington, under date of March 2, 1778: "I am happy to find that the State of New Jersey possesses so great a share of your esteem." ^Maxwell's Brigade was indeed one of the crack Brigades of the army. At Valley Forge Washington camped with it for a time. And for a time it was his body-guard. When the awful winter was past and spring too was gone, at the movement of the British, June 18, the Jersey Line was detached and sent with Morgan's Riflemen to harass Lord Clinton in his march across the Jerseys — and this it did per- sistently — and on June 28, it joined the left wing of the army and fought on the home field of Monmouth. The men we honor were thus at the very heart of things in the crisis days of the Revolution — at the turning of the tide of fortune — at the heart of the strategic camp life of the time — at the heart of the strategic battle of the time. And so the years ran on until victory and peace came in; and the New Jersey troops came home November 31, 1783. In the absence of details concerning the New Jersey men at Valley Forge, details of their particular affairs as a Brigade, as Battalions, or as individual men, distinguished from the circumstances common to all the forces, I must content myself with some rehearsing of the spirit and the record of the Jerseymen representing as officers all soldiers of the Jersey Line. It is fitting that we exalt in our thought to-day the life, service and char- acter of William Maxwell, Brigadier General, whose name is attached with the New Jersey Line in a rare, unusual wa^^ He was born in Ireland, of a distinguished line, his forebears people of rank and quality. At fourteen years of age he came to this country, and people of his connection were notable among the early settlers of Warren, Sussex and Hunterdon Counties. He served in the French and Indian War, 1755; was with Braddock and Wolfe. Resigning his commission in the British Army, he went on foot to Trenton and offered his services to the Provincial Congress and received a Colonel's commission. He was also a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jer- sey in 1775. In 1776, October 23, he was elected by Congress Brigadier 45 General in the Continental Army and came in command of the four Battalions known as the New Jersey Brigade, New Jersey Line, or Maxwell's Brigade. It was largely through his spirit, his vigorous and wise cam- paigning, that the British, in possession of much of the State, were driven from virtually all its territory save New Brunswick and Perth Amboy. He was drastic in his treatment of the Tories. He was at Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, but was not at Long Island, Trenton (December 26, 1776,) or Princeton. Virtually all the winter, 1777-78, he was at Valley Forge, and enjoyed the special regard of Washington. Two 5'ears later, June 23, 1780, he was at the battle of Springfield, where, it is said, "Maxwell and the New Jersey Line again dis- tinguished themselves;" he assisted in driving Knyphausen and the Hessians out of the State. It appears that on the same day he resigned his commis- sion and on July 25 the resignation was accepted. It does not appear just why this was, but it may readilly be inferred that it was due tO;. some dis- affection, perhaps to the preference of some one over him in action by higher authority. He spent his later life upon a farm. He died in 1796. He was a frank, large-hearted, winning man ; a dashing soldier, an able officer — a great favorite with officers and men. He gave long service in the field to his mother country and his adopted country. Some one has spoken of him as "one of the purest, noblest and (most) unassuming characters that has (have) ever adorned the brightest page of American history." On the stone at his grave in the yard of the Presbyterian Church, of Greenwich Township, is this tribute to him: In the Revolutionary War which established the independence of the United States He took an early, an active part; A Distinguished military partisan. He arose Through different grades of the American Army to the rank of Brigadier General ; A Genuine Patriot, He was a firm and decided Friend To the Constitution and Government of his Country; In private Life he was equally devoted to its service, And to the good of the community of which he was a member; An honorable and charitable man, A warm and affectionate Friend, A zealous advocate of the Institutions and an active promoter of the Interests of the Christian Religion High in our remembrance to-day must be the Jerseyman of highest rank at Valley Forge, that romantic figure, William Alexander, Lord Stirling, in command of a Division as Maxwell was in command of a Brigade. A glamour hangs about his life, out of his claim to peerage in the old world, and the courtly circumstance of his home in the new world, a glamour which must not obscure the sturdy, splendid qualities of this soldier and gentleman. His father, James Alexander, implicated in the cause of the Stuarts, had fled from Scotland in 1 7 16, and the son was born in the city of New York in 1726. In his manhood he laid claim to the Earldom of Stirling, the title 46 and the estates, and went to Scotland to press the claim ; though failing in the end, he had an initial success which made him popularly known always thereafter as Lord Stirling — as his daughter was known as Lady Kitty. He established his home at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, living in a noble man- sion in a splendid park, and entertaining in large and lordly fashion. He became Surveyor General of the Province and was a member of the Provin- cial Assembly and a member of the King's Council. He was verj- friendly with Governor William Franklin, whom it was his necessity to arrest at a later time when the Governor was deposed by the Provincial Assemblv. His wife was a sister of Governor William Livingston. Enlisting early in the Continental Army and receiving a Colonel's commission in early 1776, he was really in command at New York until Washington arrived from Bos- ton. During the winter, 1776-77, he was probably part of the time with the army at Morristown, part of the time at his home near by. He captured a British man-of-war in New York Harbor; he opened the fight at Trenton; he was taken prisoner at Long Island, where his bravery saved much of the army, August, 1776; he was in the critical place at Monmouth. He was promoted to be Brigadier General, and then for distinguished service to be Major General, February 19, 1777, within a year. During the winter, 1777-78, he was at Valley Forge, his daughters Mary (Mrs. Watts) and Catharine (Mrs. Duer, married 1779,) w^ere with him, as Mrs. Washington had joined the Commander-in-Chief. He it was who revealed the "Con- way Cabal" to Washington, writing, "Such marked duplicity I shall always consider it my duty to detect;" the outcome of this service of his being the exposure and collapse of the conspiracy and the preserving of the army to Washington. After Monmouth he was President of the Court that tried General Lee. During the winter, 1778-79, the army was at Camp Middle- brook, not far from his home, and when, on February 18, a grand fete was held at Pluckamin, a distinguished company gathered at Basking Ridge. Li 1 78 1 he was ordered to take command of the Northern Department; his headquarters were at Albany; and he died in that city in 1783, at the early age of 57. He was buried in the yard of the old Dutch Church; his re- mains were later, on the demolishing of that church building, removed to the Protestant Episcopal yard ; and later once again they were removed to the Rural Cemetery. It is said of him that he left behind him "the reputation of a brave, skillful and intrepid commander, and an honorable, honest and pure man." The sacrifices which he made and the efforts he put forth in the cause of Independence will embalm his memory in all coming time. "Throughout the ^^•ar (he was) ever conspicuous among the leading and most noted of the Revolutionary generals. His appearance was inspiring, and it has been said that, next to Washington, he possessed the most martial pres- ence of any commander in the army." He was ardently devoted to Wash- ington and close in his confidence. Washington, in his letter of condolence, said: "It only remains then, as a small but just tribute to the memory of Lord Stirling, to express how deeply I share the common affliction in being deprived of the public and professional assistance as well as of the private friendship of an officer of so high rank, with whom I had lived in the strictest habits of amity, and how much those military merits of his Lordship, which rendered him respected in his life time, are now regretted by the whole army. It will doubtless be a soothing consideration in the poignancy of your grief to find the general officers are going into mourning for him." 47 The action of Congress reads : "Resolved, that the President signify- to the Commander-in-Chief in a manner most respectful to the late Major General, the Earl of Stirling, the sense the Congress entertains of the early and meritorious excursions of that general in the common cause, and of the bravery, perseverance and militarj^ talents he possessed; which, having fixed their esteem for his character while living, induce a proportionate regret for the loss of an officer who has rendered such constant and important service to his country," Let me name to you the Colonels of the Four Battalions. The Colonel of the First Battalion, Second Establishment, was Matthias Ogden. The first Colonel was Silas Newcomb, but he had been soon promoted to be Brigadier General, before the daj'S of Brandywine, Germantown and Val- ley Forge. Colonel Ogden was born at Elizabethtown in 1754, and died there in 1791. He joined the army under Washington at Cambridge. In 1775 he was in the attack on Quebec and was wounded. In 1776, when only twenty-two years of age, he became Lieutenant Colonel of the First Battalion in the First Establishment, then in the Second Establishment. Suc- ceeding Colonel Newcomb, he commanded the Battalion to the end of the war. He was taken prisoner at Elizabethtown in 1780. At the close of the war, September 20, 1783, he became Brigadier General. An item of the human touch in all the war circumstance, a hint of the close friendships of men in the hard places of life, appears in the name which he gave to his son, Francis Barber Ogden, after Francis Barber, Lieutenant Colonel in his Bat- talion, who, no doubt, was with him in all the bitter da}'s of Valley Forge. The Colonel of the Second Battalion, Second Establishment, was Israel Shreve. We know little of him, the date or place of birth or death. It is said of him somewhere, simply, that he was a distinguished officer in the Con- tinental Line of New Jersey during the entire period of the war; that he was wounded in the thigh at Brand3'wine; that after the war he settled in Ohio. A happy personal glimpse of him comes to us from an address to him in 1779 at Newark, where he was quartered, an address of people near, through Dr. William Burnet, Jr. : "Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the obligation the inhabitants of this town are under unto you, sir, and the other officers of the Second New Jersey Regiment, permit me, in the name and by order of a committee appointed for that purpose, to assure y^ou that we shall alwaj'S retain the warmest sentiments of gratitude and respect for the great attention you have paid to the welfare, peace and safety of the town during y^our command here. The great regularity and good order that has been maintained among the troops, their respectful treatment of the inhabitants and the constant harmony that has subsisted between them and the soldiery, we are sensible, has been greatly owing to the prudence, diligence and care of their officers," etc. The Colonel of the Third Battalion, Second Establishment, was Elias Dayton. Like Colonel Ogden, he was born in Elizabethtown and died there. He was born in 1737 and died in 1807. He joined the British forces for the French and Indian War. With the Jersey Blues he was under Wolfe at Quebec. He commanded a company of militia against the Indians in the North. At the opening of the Revolution he was a member of the Commit- tee of Safety. In July, 1775, he was with Lord (General) Stirling at the capture of the British transport off Elizabethtown. In 1777 he became Col- onel in the Second Establishment; and he served until the end of the war. 48 He was at Springfield, Brandywine, Monmouth and Yorktown ; and, we assume, at Valley Forge. In 1781 he aided in suppressing mutiny. At the close of the war, 1783, he was made Brigadier General; and he became Major General of Militia. After the war also he served several terms in the State Legislature. In 1787-88 he was a member of the Continental Congress. And he was the first President of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati. The Colonel of the Fourth Battalion was Ephraim Martin. He was born in 1733, probably in Somerset or Middlesex County, possibly Warren, and died at New Brunswick, Middlesex County, February 28, 1806. Dur- ing his early manhood he lived in Sussex County, was a landholder there not later than 1761, and an office-holder in 1774. At the close of the Revolu- tionary War he made his home at Bernardstown, Somerset County, and later moved to New Brunswick. He is buried in the old graveyard at Stelton, his grave still marked by the old headstone. Ephraim Martin served his country with ability, bravery and distinction. Edmund J. James, now Presi- dent of the University of Illinois, wrote of him in 1897: "He was a mem- ber of the Provincial Congress at Trenton, October 20, 1775, also of the Congress which met in May, 1776, which was the Congress that changed the Constitution of New Jersey from that of a Colony to that of a State. He was Colonel of a Battalion of General Nathan (or Nathaniel) Heard's Brigade of New Jersey Militia, ordered to reinforce the defences of New York. His commission is dated June 14, 1776. He was wounded August 24, 1776, by a musket ball in the breast, at the outposts, previous to the bat- tle of Long Island, which occurred August 27, 1776. He became Colonel of the Fourth Battalion in the Second Establishment of the New Jersey Con- tinental Line, November 28, 1776. He was wounded in the head at the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777; was at Valley Forge during the famous winter, and marched across New Jersey as far as Princeton in June, 1778; was stationed there with a reserve at the time of the battle of Mon- mouth, June 27, 1778. He resigned from the service at some later date, the exact time being unknown." General Stryker says of Colonel Martin and Major Ludlow with General Heard and their men enlisted in June, 1776: "The good service they performed is recorded in history. At the engagement of Quinton's Bridge, Hancock's Bridge, Three Rivers, Con- necticut Farms and Van Neste's Mills they bore an active part. At Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, Germantown, Springfield and ]\Ionmouth they performed efficient service in supporting the Continental Line." Colonel Martin's wounding, August 24, 1776, Washington thinks of import enough to report to Congress ; for in a letter of tw^o days later, August 26, addressed to the President of Congress, he writes of skirmishing and wing firing, "in which Colonel Martin, of the Jersey Lines, has received a wound in his breast w^hich, it is apprehended, will prove mortal." He survived, however, to be wounded again at Brandywine, only to recover again and share the suf- fering of Valley Forge and the fighting of Monmouth. At the evacuation of the Camp, he was not, it would seem, in command of the Battalion ; Lieu- tenant Colonel O'Rhea was apparently in charge. Would that I had time to dw^ell upon others of the Jerseymen known as men of Valley Forge, and known in their military and private record because they were officers, as well as men of character and achievement : John Doughty, of honorable descent, a graduate of King's College, Cap- tain in the Second Battalion, after the war Lieutenant Colonel and in 1793 49 Brigadier General; Commander-in-Chief of the Armj^ of the United States, 1784-89; born in New York, 1754; died in Morristown, 1826; a man of varied usefulness, of genial spirit, of devoted patriotism, of soldierly presence. Francis Barber, born in Princeton; after gallant service. Major, then Lieutenant Colonel in the Third Battalion, and later Colonel; a brave sol- dier, who lost his life at New Windsor bj' strange accident on a daj^ when he was to dine with Washington, and of whom Washington said, when the news was brought, "Men of higher rank and more wealth may die, but there is but one Francis Barber." Ebenezer Elmer, after earlier service, joined the Second Battalion under Colonel Shreve, and was appointed Surgeon of the Regiment, having studied medicine somewhat under his brother Jonathan, a distinguished physician; was at the siege of Yorktown; became Adjutant General, then Brigadier after Valley Forge was with General Sullivan in the Indian Country, then General of New Jersey Militia, and commanded troops to defend Philadel- phia, in 1 81 3; served in the New Jersey Assembly and became Speaker of it ; and was President of the Society of the Cincinnati ; a man of fearlessness and unselfishness and supreme integrity, who died in 1843, at the age of 91. Perhaps I have digressed too much from the private soldier, the hun- dreds and thousands whose names are scarce known save on a list of enlisted men or men discharged ; digressed, perhaps, too much from Valley Forge, where they lived the life or died the death we commemorate to-day. I might prolong our stay with those men in those scenes had I time to quote to you from the diary of Joseph Clark, a private soldier in the New Jersey ranks. But I forebear. The story of Valley Forge has been told in many ways by many men. The sweep of that winter's experience sustained by our Amer- ican forces has been well graven on the hearts of a grateful people. Much of detail we would like so much to have touching events and men in those six months will never be known. The New Jersey Line, Maxwell's Brigade, has had its own peculiar tribute to-day; a little in these words of mine, fall- ing so far short of worthy praise; and more in this monument that rises in enduring stone ; still more in this thronging presence of men and women gathered to give honor; and most of all in the thought of thousands who here and elsewhere this hour remember the hero soldiers of our honored State. At the conclusion of the ceremonies Rt. Rev. Bishop McFaul, of the Trenton Diocese of New Jersey, delivered the benediction, and at its con- clusion a farewell salute of one gun reverberated among the hills and valleys of the old Valley Forge Encampment and the strains of the "Star Spangled Ban- ner" echoed over the graves of the silent dead, commemorating the heroic deeds of those who fought to bring about the birth of our Nation, and when taps sounded there was not a dry e^e in the assemblage. As the newspapers patriotically published all the events relating to the New Jersey monument at Valley Forge and the dedication ceremonies, the Commission feels that the filing and publication of these reports will be more interesting to the public thany any statement made by it. As heretofore stated, the State of Pennsylvania has purchased some five hundred acres of ground near Valley Forge where the Continental Army, 50 under General Washington, was encamped during the winter of 1777 and 1778. The encampment was selected simply for a winter quarters for the army and no fighting ever occurred there. Twelve of the original Colonies were represented there under various Brigades, namely: Maine, then part of Massachusetts; Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Penns)4vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Of these States Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, Delaware and New Jersey are the only ones represented so far by monuments. Maine has a granite shaft from her native hills; Massachusetts has a magnificent Exhedra and Pennsylvania an equestrian statue to Major General Anthony Wayne and two columns surmounted by handsome bronze eagles at the entrance to the Park where the Pennsylvania troops were quar- tered. The State of New Jersey is represented by a magnificent Barre granite shaft, surmounted by a Continental soldier of the Infantry Line, which has attracted much attention and is greatly admired for its stateliness and magnificence. The only comment of criticism so far elicited has been how the Commission erected so magnificent a monument for so small an amount of monej^ The explanation of this is — the full amount appropriated by the Legislature went into the cost of the monument and bronze figure. Every bidder was appealed to patriotically to give quantity, quality and spiritedness of design and to remember that it was a patriotic contribution rather than a financial matter, and where business reputation would be enhanced by a grand exhibit at Valley Forge. Besides this, the Commission thoroughly in- formed itself as to the kinds of granite and bronzes, and by comparisons with other monuments as to size and cost was able to compute the values of bids as well as the bidders. A tentative design and dimensions were given bidders so the matter of price was eliminated, as all were notified to bid on a five thousand dollar monument absolutely. By correspondence, herein inserted, it will be found that the State of Pennsjdvania has consented, through its Valley Forge Park Commission, to allow the State of New Jersey to erect the monument at Valley Forge, and conferred upon our Commission the privileges incident to the erection of the monument and the dedicatory services. Our Commission takes this oppor- tunity to thank the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania for its uniform kindness and courtesy to the New Jersey Commission and its President for its services to him and the many courtesies extended by way of assistance, thereby relieving him and them of responsibilities, as the New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Commission was widely separated, and it was inconvenient at all times to call them together, and the Valley Forge Park Commission acted as arbiter under its rights as representing the State of Pennsjdvania, owner of the Valley Forge Encampment. The State of Pennsylvania, through its Commission, accepts the guardianship of the New Jersey monument and its preservation. The only thing that the State of 51 New Jersey will ever possibly be called upon to do will be to have the monu- ment cleaned with acid some time in the future and possibly some little ornamentation around the base. This, however, will be only a trifling ex- pense. The monument was dedicated on June i8th, 1913 — the 135th anni- versary of the departure of the First New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, under Brigadier General Maxwell, back into New Jersey, accompanied by Morgan's Riflemen, who, as stated, was also a Jerseyman. The Commis- sion feels that it would be eminently proper that the Legislature enact a law empowering the Commission, on the annual occurrence of this day, to place a wreath of flowers and laurel around the monument entwined with our Na- tional colors at its base, in commemoration of the undying love and gratitude of our citizens. The Commission also desires to express its thanks for the State to Rev. James W. Riddle, A. M., of Valley Forge, for delivering the invocation; to the Rt. Rev. Bishop McFaul, of the Trenton Diocese of New Jersey, for offering the benediction at the dedication, and to Professor Demarest, Presi- dent of Rutgers College, for delivering the oration, a full copy of which is herein published and filed with this report. The State of New Jersey has in late years, at considerable expense, pub- lished the Archives of New Jersey, and many events of not near the historical importance as the dedicatory ceremonies of the New Jersey Valley Forge monument have been included in them. Time is fleeting, and soon the his- tory of the Valley Forge monument will be forgotten, the participants will have gone; already one of the Commissioners has died, General J. Madison Drake, and as this monument marks for the first time upon that Mecca of American libertj^, the remembrance of glorious deeds of our ancestors of New Jersey, everything relating to the details commemorating the event is well worthy of being perpetuated by publication and a copy placed in every library in New Jersey, and in the State library of every State and Territory, that the citizens of the State of New Jersey, and those who formerly resided here, may read of the event to stimulate their patriotism by recalling the deeds of their ancestors and inspiring them to nobler ideals by knowing how the deeds of patriots are embalmed in our memories. The Commission also rec- ommends that the State of New Jersey have the monument insured against lightning and tornadoes. Since the erection of the New Jersey monument not only has the State of Delaware dedicated a suitable shaft to its heroes, but New York has taken steps in the Legislature for a monument to mark the site occupied by its troops, and the United States Government has completed a massive granite Memorial Arch in honor of Washington and the other patriots who were at Valley Forge. A handsome stone chapel has been started on the Schuylkill side of the Encampment to be known as the Washington Memorial 52 ii 4> £| Si s, « ^ o £ h.- „ >,.b ^ > t +^ re li- T3 lU £ 0) ^ o i w < re 3 E r £ ^ o o ta Ere re CO -^ 0) (0 > c -b' E o c c <-. O I- re <-> « ^ W o ^ O S2 O 4) c 3 >«:5 53 Chapel, and to be a sort of American Westminster Abbe}'. It is almost fin- ished and is quite an acquisition to the surroundings. This chapel, however, is entirely a separate enterprise and not under the control of the Valley Forge Park Commission, but is being erected by private subscriptions under the auspices of the Episcopal Church. The idea was probably inspired from Battle Abbey, near Hastings. The day for the dedication was an ideal one, warm but clear, and fully three thousand people, including the military, were assembled around the monument, remaining until the entire services were over. Many came in private automobiles, and those hired by the Commission for the occasion con- veyed the visitors to and from the depot and to the various objects of in- terest about Valley Forge Park, which are accessible by .the beautiful boule- vards constructed by the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsj'^lvania. As Colonel Morgan was a Jerseyman and at Valley Forge with the New Jersey Brigade, a sketch and picture of him is added hereto. The Commission feels that thanks are due to the National Guard of New Jersey which took part in the dedicatory services. As the appropria- tion for the dedication was limited to eighteen hundred dollars, which in- cluded the transportation of the troops as well as the subsistence, the com- panies were selected first from Camden to minimize the expense. Companies E and I, located at Mount Holly and Woodbury, were anxious to attend the services and conferred with the President of the Commission in reference to their attendance, providing they would pay the extra transportation to Cam- den, which patriotic offer was gladly accepted and arranged for through mili- tary channels. The annexed report of the Adjutant General gives full details of their participation : P. 46 & 137. THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S REPORT, 1913. Dedication of Valley Forge Monument. State of New Jersey. Office of the Adjutant General. (Coat-of-Arms of State.) Trenton, May 28, 1913. On June 18, 19 13, the Acting Governor, James F. Fielder, who was accompanied by his staff, accepted on behalf of the State the monument erected by the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, com- posed of Mr. John H. Fort, President; Mr. David P. Mulford, General James Madison Drake, Mr. James L. Pennypacker and Mr. A. J. Demarest, to commemorate the encampment of the New Jersey troops (New Jersey Brigade, Continental Army,) at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777- 54 1778. The military representation from the State consisted of a battalion of infantry, detachment of artillery and a detachment of the Naval Reserve. Special Orders No. 36. 1. The Division Commander is authorized to make the following de- tail for duty on June 18, 191 3, the occasion of the unveiling and dedication of the monument erected upon the site occupied by the New^ Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, during the winter of 1777-1778: Band, Third Infantry. I Battalion, Third Infantry. I Platoon, Battery B, Field Artillery. I Division, Second Battalion, Naval Reserve. 2. The service performed on this occasion will be without pay except for the Band, Third Infantry. The Chief, Quartermaster Corps, will issue the necessary transportation for this movement. The cost of transportation, music, subsistence and horse hire will be charged to the appropriation pro- vided in Item 85, Chapter 276, approved April 8, 1913, Laws 1913. By order of the Acting Governor, W. F. Sadler, Jr., (Seal of Official Copy.) The Adjutant General. Natioxal Guard of New Jersey, Headquarters Third Infantry. Woodbury, N. J., July 6, 191 3. From: Major C. W. Shivers, Third Infantry. To : The Adjutant General. Subject : Report of Valley Forge Monument Celebration. 1. In accordance with S. O. No. 31, headquarters Third Infantry, Camden, N. J., June 9, 1913, a provisional battalion was formed under my command, consisting of a band of forty pieces and Companies E, D, F and I, to take part in the celebration of the unveiling and dedication of the monu- ment erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, at Valley Forge, Pa., dur- ing the winter of 1777-78. 2. The organization w^as assembled at the Camden Armory on June 18, 1913, at 11.00 A. M., and were served a dinner in the basement of the build- ing, after which the battalion was formed and left the Armory at 12.03 P. M. and marched to the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, via Federal street, Camden, crossing river by boat, and Market street, Philadelphia, and en- trained in excellent order at 12.52 P. M., arriving at Valley Forge at 1.32 P. M. The battalion was formed and marched to the monument and formed a line around it facing the speakers' stand, and remained in this position dur- ing the unveiling and dedication ceremonies, upon the conclusion of which it was marched to Valley Forge station and entrained at 4.45 P. M. ; de- trained at Reading Terminal at 5.31 P. M., and marched to the Camden 55 Armory and dismissed at 6.20 P. M., excepting Companies E and I, whicli were dismissed at the ferry to take trains for their home stations. 3. A detachment of the Naval Reserve joined the battalion at Third and Federal streets, Camden, and marched with it to Valley Forge and re- turn, leaving it at the same place it had joined. 4. The discipline of the command was excellent. 5. The strength of the organization follows: Officers. Men. Field, Staff and N. C. S 4 3 Band 40 Company E 2 35 Company D 3 53 Company F 3 40 Company 1 2 43 Hospital Detachment 5 Total 14 219 C. W. Shivers, Major, Third Infantry, Commanding. 56 CAMDEN "POST-TELEGRAM' SHAFT WILL REAR AT VALLEY FORGE. John H. Fort, Chairman of Monument Commission, to Call Early Meeting. BIG DEMONSTRATION WILL BE ARRANGED. Counsellor John H. Fort has been notified by Joseph P. Tumulty, private secretary of Governor Wilson, of his appointment upon the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encamp- ment Commission. The Governor has designated him as chairman. The Commission was appointed by the Governor under an act of the Legislature passed this session which was prepared by Mr. Fort, and wag strongly supported by Camden Lodge of Elks, which is a patriotic Order as well as benevolent. All the lodges of New Jersey, thirty-eight in number in thirty-eight different cities, supported the Camden Lodge, and the bill passed both the House and the Senate unanimous!}. The bill was introduced by Mr. DeUnger, of Camden, and carried to the Senate by Senator Read, who got Senator Nichols to make the presentation speech. Mr. Fort represented the Order before the Committee on Appropriations, which imme- diately appropriated $5,000 for a monument to mark the site occupied by the First New Jersey Brigade, Continental Soldiers, consisting of four regiments, under command of General Maxwell in 1777-1778, during the Revolutionary War at Valley Forge. The dedicatory ceremonies will be observed with a grand demonstration of a mili- tary and civic character, and no doubt the Governors of both New Jersey and Penn- sylvania, and probably the President, will be present and take part in the demonstra- tion. Invitations will doubtless be extended to all patriotic orders of New Jersey to participate and help make the event in keeping with so great a tribute to the heroes of Revolutionary fame. The following is a cop}- of the official letter of notification, and Mr. Fort's ac- ceptance: "May 14th, 1912. "My dear Mr. Fort: I beg leave to inform you that Governor Wilson has appointed \ou a mem- ber of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Commission and has designated you as chairman. He trusts you will accept the appointment. Yours very truly, Joseph P. Tumulty', Secretary to the Governor," "Camden, May 15th, 1912. "My dear Sir: Your letter for Governor Wilson informing me of my appointment as a mem- ber of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission is at hand. I beg you to inform the Governor that I most highly appreciate the distin- guished honor he has conferred upon me, and that he will accept my assurance that I will in every way endeavor to carry out the purposes of the act creating the Commission, and, with the assistance of the other members, have the dedica- tion of the monument to mark a red-letter day in observance of the honors to our glorious ancestors and the noble heroes who assisted with great sacrifices in the establishment of our Nation. 57 The honor is all the more appreciated by me as my great-grandfather was one of the soldiers who followed Washington in those memorable times. Again thanking the Governor for this signal honor, I am, Yours most respectfully, John H. Fort." The Commission will be called together in a few days and immediately arrange for plans and specifications for the monument after a conference with the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, which will be requisite to obtain the necessary per- mission to erect the monument, as Valley Forge Park belongs as a reservation to the State of Pennsylvania and is governed by a Commission appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania. Nearly all the old thirteen Colonial States which had troops there have already erected monuments. The park is accessible by the Reading road and trolleys. VALLEY FORGE REVOLUTIONARY MONUMENT. ^ Governor Wilson has forwarded the commissions of the Valley Forge Revolu- tionary Monument Commission, under the great seal of the State of Newi Jersey, and John H. Fort, president, at once had an interview with the Valley Forge Park Com- mission of Pennsylvania in order to obtain all the necessary information as to pro- cedure before calling the New Jersey Commission together. Valley Forge Park is a State reservation owned by Pennsylvania, and the Com- missioners governing it must first grant permission and locate the site of any monu- ment to be erected therein. The Commissioners have rigidly adhered to the rule of making all the monuments to conform to the idea of being absolutely memorial and not savor of anything suggestive of a Necropolis. The uniform price of $5,000 has been established so that no one State should outdo another in the grandeur of its monu- ment, and all designs must be approved by them. On Thursday, by special invitation, Mr. Fort was the guest of President W. H. Sayen, Secretary Dr. John W. Jordon and W. A, Patton, of the Executive Committee, and was taken through Valley Forge Park in an automobile and every condition fully explained. He was taken to the site occupied by the First New Jersey Brigade, con- sisting of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Regiments, commanded by General Maxwell during 1777 and 1778. The site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade is near Washington's Headquarters inside of or near the inner line of earthworks and near the old school house. The site is now reached by Lafayette Boulevard, and is on the brow of a hill commanding a valley overlooking a succession of beautiful hills and affording a magnificent view of miles of beautiful undulating hills and valleys almost to Norristown, some five miles distant. The Commissioners selected the most desirable spot, and the view it commands is one of magnificence. Any one with any military knowledge will at once see the strategic importance of this position, and it is highly gratifying to know that at that distant period Washington had such con- fidence in the Jersey troops as to place them in this important position and so near his headquarters. The old camp ground occupied many acres, but its area to-day is confined to about 500 acres, in which are the old forts, earthworks, rifle pits, breast- works and Washington's Headquarters — an old stone faim house — all still well pre- served and in good condition. The park has been laid out with fine roads, walks and bridle paths and an ob- servatory on Mount Hope and fenced in, and in every way beautified as a park. Fac-similies of the old log huts have been built and parks of Revolutionary cannon stationed in the positions occupied at that time. The Valley Forge Park is at the con- 58 fluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill and is shaded by ample groves of woods almost as when occupied by the heroes of Revolutionary days. The troops quartered there were from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine — then part of Massachusetts — Rhode Island, Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware and Marjland, about 8,000 all told. The old camp ground has been restored as nearly as possible to its ancient con- ditions, and will for all time be the Mecca of the patriotic American citizens. The Commission is constantly developing it and adding to its convenience for visitors, and it is already being visited by delegations from all over the United States. Over 140,- 000 visited it last year. It will be only a short time before every State having troops quartered there during the Revolutionarj- War will have a monument, and its his- torical memories will make it one of America's most cherished of American camping grounds. New Jersey is particularly fortunate in the site appointed for the location of its monument, as it is really the most beautiful and commanding of any in Valley Forge Park, and it is all the more gratifying as it is the site occupied by our troops at that time. Near it is the famous General Anthony Wayne equestrian statue erected by the State of Pennsylvania at a cost of $30,000, and near the grand columns marking the site of part of the Pennsylvania troops and not far from the $100,000 Colonial arch about to be erected by the National Government. Now that the information and preliminary consent of the Pennsylvania Commis- sioners has been obtained, Mr. Fort will call the New Jersey Commissioners together to advise about plans and specifications for the monument. Camden Lodge of Elks, at its last meeting, appointed a committee of ten to arrange for attendance at the dedication of the monument, and has extended an invitation through the committee to the Commission to hold its first meeting at the Lodge Home as the guests of the Lodge, and after the Commission has finished its business session the committee will convey the Commissioners, after lunch, to Valley Forge in auto- mobiles, where the Commission will meet a delegation of the Pennsylvania Commission and formally accept the plot for the erection of the monument to the First New Jersey Brigade of the Continental Line. Great interest is being manifested in the affair and the patriotic orders of the State are already asking the New Jersey Commissioners to allow them to have charge of the parade at the dedication, and will assume the expense. The act of Legis- lature providing for the erection of the monument appropriates the necessary sum of $S,ooo established by the Pennsylvania Valley Forge Park Commission, and nothing for expenses, but the patriotic citizens of New Jersey will arrange the necessary finances. It is probable that a special train or trains wnll run to Valley Forge at the dedi- cation, and naturally both the Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and possibly the President will be present. The local societies have already declared their inten- tion of having a band, and the National Guard members hereabout are talking of asking for permission to attend the dedication also. New Jersey will no doubt that day turn out a crowd that will do credit to such a memorable and patriotic event. The Commission will be asked to allow all the civic, patriotic and military organizations to take part in the demonstrations and they will aid them in making their efforts a great success. Camden being near Valley Forge Park by reason of railroad facilities, and the Pennsylvania Valley Forge Park Commission having its offices in Philadelphia, Mr. Fort has promised to call the first meeting of the new Commission in Camden and to accept the kind offer of the committee of Camden Lodge of Elks, as that Lodge and the Order in New Jersey stood by him in the efforts to obtain the necessary legislation and appropriation of $5,000 for the erection of the monument. The time of the raeet- 59 ing will be early in June, so as to get proposals for the monument at an early date, and no time will be lost in completion of the monument after the design is accepted. THE VALLEY FORGE PARK ENCAMPMENT COMMISSION MEETS. Members of the Valley Forge Commission, recently appointed by the Governor in connection with a bill passed by the Legislature appropriating $5,000 for the proposed work, met at the headquarters of the Camden Lodge of Elks yesterday afternoon and organized. Lawyer John Henry Fort, Past Exalted Ruler of the Lodge, and who has been practically responsible for the creation of the Commission, was elected presi- dent, with James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield, brother of ex-Governor Samuel Pen- nypacker, of Pennsylvania, as secretary, and A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken, as treasurer. The other members include General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David R. Mulford, of Bridgeton. This Commission was given a luncheon at the Elks' headquarters, after which it was taken to Valley Forge in automobiles to go over the proposed sites. ^The Penn- sylvania Valley Forge Commission, which has charge of the field, arranged to give the Commission the privilege of erecting a monument on the site where Jersey's Colonial troops camped during the winter of 1777-78. This is an ideal location and greatly to the satisfaction of the Commission. They have $5,000 to spend on the monument, and bids will be received in August for the proposed work. This monument will be erected in memory of the First New Jersey Brigade, con- sisting of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Regiments. They spent the winter in camp in the valley, which has become one of the sacred spots in America. Some of the ancestors of Lawyer Fort were among the troops. CAMDEN "DAILY COURIER CAMDEN ELKS WILL LAY MEMORIAL CORNER-STONE. Camden Lodge of Elks will lay the corner-stone of the monument to be erected at Valley Forge in memory of New Jersey's troops which participated in that historic campaign. The exercises will take place on November 12, and, beside a large dele- gation from Camden, there will also be many from all sections of the State in attend- ance. It is because of the prominent part played by the Elks in getting the necessarj' bill through the Legislature that they will have charge. The monument will be twenty-seven feet high and ten feet six inches square at the base. V^hen completed it will have cost $5,000, that amount having been appropriated by the Legislature. Past Exalted Ruler John Henry Fort, of Camden, is the president of the special commission, with A. R. Demarest, Hoboken, treasurer ; James L. Pennypacker, Haddonfield, secretary; General J. Madison Drake, Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, Bridgeton. THE PHILADELPHIA "RECORD" SHAFT TO JERSEY HEROES. Great Doings Planned for its Unveiling at Valley Forge. Valley Forge, Pa., June 14. — The unveiling and dedication, next Wednesday, of the monument erected upon the site here occupied bv the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry 60 Line, in the Continental Army, during the winter of i-j-j-j--]%, bids fair to be an im- pressive aflFair. The grand stand will seat i,ooo persons, and the monument is a ta'.l shaft of granite on a broad base, which bears the bronze memorial tablet, with the bronze coat-of-arms of New Jersey above. At the dedication ceremonies the Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and their staffs will be seated among the honored guests, including legislators. The monu- ment will be presented to Governor Fielder, of New Jersey, by John Henrj- Fort, presi- dent of the Encampment Commission, and unveiled by Miss Margaret Wilson, daugh- ter of the President of the United States. The oration of the occasion will be delivered by Dr. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, and there will be an abundance of military display and music at suitable intervals. ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATCH VALLEY FORGE SHAFT. The New Jersej' Valley Forge Commission, recently named by Governor Wilson to supervise the erection of a monument to the New Jersey heroes of the Revolutionary War, met at the home of Camden Lodge of Elks, on Wednesday. The Elks were most active in securing the necessary legislation for the monument. The Commission organized by the election of John Henry Fort, of Camden, as president; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield, a brother of former Governor Penny- packer, as secretary, and A. J. Demarest, superintendent of the public schools at Ho- boken, treasurer. The other members of the Commission are General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David R. Mulford, of Bridgeton. The Commission, after organizing, decided to invite plans and specifications for the erection of a suitable monument. The Commission has an appropriation of $5,000. This is the maximum amount allowed to be expended by an\' State for a monument to its heroes at Valley Forge. Following the meeting the members of the Commission were entertained at luncheon by a committee from Camden Lodge of Elks, and at its conclusion the same committee took care of the visitors and went to Valley Forge in automobiles, when the New Jersey Commission formally accepted the site as fixed by the Pennsylvania State Valley Forge Commission. It is on the driveway between Mount Joy and Gulf Road, a half mile from the proposed National $100,000 Colonial arch. The site marks the location of the First New Jersey Brigade, consisting of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Regiments, under General Maxwell, who camped there in 1777-1778. CAMDEN "POST-TELEGRAM' ELKS PREPARE FOR VALLEY FORGE TRIP. Special Train to be Run on Day of Corner-stone Laying of Monument. NOVEMBER 12 IS DATE OF CEREMONY. John H. Fort, Esq., president of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Com- mission, this morning received from Nelson B. Gaskill, Assistant Attorney General, the approved contract to the O. J. Hammell Company, of Pleasantville, N. J., for the erec- 61 tion of the State monument to mark the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade quar- tered at Valley Forge during the Revolution War. The delay has been due to the fact that the appropriation of $5,000 is not avail- able until November i, but now every legal requirement has been met, the Commission will push the monument to a successful termination. In consideration of the support given by the Order of Elks in New Jersey in ob- taining the law, and especially Camden Lodge, the Commission has invited that Lodge to lay the corner-stone of the monument, and the Lolge has accepted the honor. No- vember 12 is the date. A special committee has been appointed to arrange details, and this committee has secured a special train to leave at 12.30 from the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia. The tickets for the round trip will be $1.00, and the train will return about 5.20 o'clock and reach Philadelphia by supper time. A brass band will accompany the Lodge, and the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Grand Lodge of the United States of America has granted a special dispensation for Camden Lodge to do the work. The ritual for the occasion will be a very interesting one, and a fine quartette will perform the musical features. Camden Lodge expects to have 200 or more members in line, and many of them will be accompanied by their wives, daughters or lady friends. While the ceremonies and the special train are under the auspices of Camden Lodge, any person can obtain a ticket at the same price from the committee of arrange- ments. Senator Read, Senator Nichols and Assemblyman DeUnger have been especially invited for their kind attention and services in obtaining the passage of the bill in the Legislature. All the data for the box to go in the corner-stone is at hand, and Martin J. Frand, a member of Camden Lodge, has donated a copper box, 8 inches wide and 10 long by 6 in height, to receive the documents. Everything in connection with the history of the monument will be deposited therein and will be placed under the corner of the huge monument. Responses from the members are coming in by every mail, and they intend to show their appreciation of the honor as well as to show that the Order of Elks is a patriotic one. The tickets are now in the hands of the committee for sale. Every Lodge of Elks in New Jersey will be invited to have a delegation, and the general public are as welcome as the members of the Order. As the train is a special one, tickets can only be obtained from the committee and even on the day at the train gate from them only. The dedication of the monument will not take place till early next year, and the Commission will have charge of it and intend to make it an event that will gladden the hearts of every Jerseyman. The corner-stone laying will, however, be an attractive affair, and as the leaves are nearly off of the trees a fine opportunity will be afforded of seeing the expansive camp grounds. ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATCH CONTRACT FOR SHAFT AT VALLEY FORGE. Trenton, Sept. 12. — The Valle}- Forge Monument Commission met yesterday at the State House and decided to award the contract for the proposed monument to O. J. Hammell, of Pleasantville, Atlantic county, New Jersey. The plan for the monument was also adopted, after having been submitted for the approval of the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania. The monument is to be of Barre granite and is to have a base of four granite blocks, representing the four regiments that constituted the New Jersey Brigade which 62 was encamped with Washington at Valley Forge. On the face of these blocks, in raised letters, will be the words, ''New Jersey Brigade, Continental z'\rmy." The die will bear a bronze tablet, giving the names of the Brigade commander and the four colonels of the regiments, together with data as to the time and manner of erecting the monu- ment. Above the tablet will be the old seal of the State of New Jersey carved in granite. The shaft will be decorated with a design representing the Continental flag and will be surmounted by a bronze statue representing a soldier of the Continental Army. The monument will be 35 feet in height, including the eight-foot bronze figure at the top. The foundations for the monument will be put down at once, and a ceremonial for the laying of the corner-stone will be arranged for some time in November. It is ex- pected that the monument will be ready for dedication on June 18, 1913. The Monument Commission is composed of John H. Fort, of Camden, president; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken, treasurer; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield, secre- tary; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, of Bridgeton. The Commission is serving without compensation, and the entire $5,000 appropriated by the Legislature will be expended in the erection of the monument. CAMDEN " POST-TELEGRAM " ELKS WILL START BATTLE MONUMENT. Trip to be Made by Special Train. CAMDEN LODGE TO LAY CORNER-STONE OF BIG SHAFT AT VALLEY FORGE. Camden Lodge of Elks will, on November 12, lay the corner-stone of the monu- ment to be erected on the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Maxwell, at Valley Forge, under General Washington, 1777-1778, unless unforeseen circumstances prevent. The monument is twentj'-seven feet high and ten feet six inches square at base. There are four large granite bases of stone and upon these is a block or die with a bronze tablet which will bear a suitable inscription. Above this will be a repro- duction in bronze of the original coat-of-arms or seal of New Jersey in Colonial days. The shaft is also of granite and will be surmounted by a figure of a Continental sol- dier in bronze eight feet high. The design of both monument and statue have been highly praised by many who have seen the beautiful air-brush or pastel design. The monument will cost $5,000, the actual amount appropriated by the Legislature for its erection. The Government is now, by special permission, erecting a granite Colonial arch near the New Jersey monument at a cost of $100,000. It is to be 60 feet high, 50 feet wide and with a 35-foot arch 30 feet wide as an entrance. The Reading Railroad has just completed a $10,000 handsome stone depot at the station just across the road from Washington's headquarters. The laying of the corner-stone by Camden Lodge of Elks is to be made a great event by the members of the Lodge. Arrangements will be made with the Reading Railroad for a special train from the terminal in Philadelphia so that several hours can be spent at Valley Forge. The officers of Camden Lodge of Elks will do the work and a quartette will sing appropriate songs of that period, and the band will play the "Star Spangled Banner," 63 with the quartette leading and the audience will join in. An appropriate invocation will be offered by a Camden clergyman, and after a short talk and the ceremonies and bene- diction, "America" will be sung and the audience disperse after "taps," with the band playing "Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?" Invitations will be extended to every Lodge of Elks in New Jersey and nearby towns in Pennsylvania. While the train arrangements are exclusively under the charge of Camden Lodge of Elks for the day to convey officers and members, any person de- siring can accompany them at the same rate, $i.oo for the round trip. The members will dress in dark clothing with derby hats, and a small Colonial flag with an Elk button will be worn. It will be a great day, and the honor is highly appreciated by the Camden Lodge, and was accorded them for their initiative in the support of the act of the Legislature which created the Commission and obtained the $5,000 appropriation as well as entertaining the Commission at its first meeting and conveying them by automobiles to Valley Forge to accept the site for the monument. The committee having charge of the corner-stone laying will have tickets on sale in a few days and they can be obtained only from them. Any person- may obtain tickets, and many of the members will be accompanied by their wives, daughters or family. There will be a car for ladies and everybody will be welcome. The monu- ment will not be dedicated till early next summer, but this trip will afford a grand opportunity to visit Valley Forge and see the historic portions and monuments. Special invitations will be extended to Senators Read, of Camden, and Nichols, of Cumber- land, and Representative DeUnger for their assistance in the Legislature. The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission consists of John H. Fort, Camden, president; A. R. Demarest, Hoboken, treasurer; James L. Pennypacker, Had- donfield, secretary; J. Madison Drake, Elizabeth, and David R. Mulford, Bridgeton. The officers of the Elks' committee are John H. Fort, chairman; George Fischer, treas- urer; A. J. Milliette, secretary; Walter J. Magonigle, assistant secretary. The full committee will be announced later. CAMDEN •' POST-TELEGRAM ' ALL READY FOR THE VALLEY FORGE EVENT. Thousands Will Attend Unveiling of New Jersey's Revolutionary Monument. IDEA ORIGINATED WITH JOHN H. FORT. All the details for the unveiling and dedication, to-morrow afternoon, of the Val- ley Forge monument to mark the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade there dur- ing the winter of 1777-78 are completed. The stand is about finished, and with five thousand invitations issued into every county in New Jersey a large attendance is assured. Responses have been received from many quarters announcing that the invi- tations have been received and accepted. The various patriotic orders will be represented at the unveiling, including Sons of Revolution, Sons of American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution and other State Revolutionary and Colonial patriotic societies. An invitation was sent every newspaper in New Jersey and nearby States. Invitations were also extended to the clergy and their congregations, and over four hundred physicians in all parts of the State, all the officials of the National Guard of New Jersey, all the State officials and hundreds of citizens in every one of the twenty-one counties as well. It is doubtful 64 if any similar State event has ever received more publicity than this. The time of the running of the special train to-morrow afternoon from the Reading Terminal, Philadel- phia, was advertised by the railroad company. While the New Jersey monument at Valley Forge is partly covered so as to con- ceal the bronze figure of the Continental soldier on top and the tablet bearing the in- scription, still enough of the granite base and outline can be seen to show the hand- some design, and for days past hundreds of automobilists in visiting Valley Forge have stopped and admired what they could see of the monument. When it is known that over 160,000 persons visited Valley Forge last year, some idea of the popularity of this historical resort can be formed. The program for the dedicatory services to-morrow afternoon is very interesting. Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of the President of the United States, will unveil the monument and Bossle's Third Regiment Band will render the musical selections, which are patriotic and of the Revolutionary period. A battalion of the Third Regiment, a division of the Naval Reserve and a platoon of Battery B, Field Artillery, will be present. Governor James F. Fielder and staff will attend and almost every depart- ment of the State will be represented. A souvenir program containing a picture of the monument on the first page, also one of Miss Wilson and the Governor on the inside, and the Commission, as photographed at the acceptance of the site for the monument to the New Jersey Brigade, on which it is now erected, with full details of the cele- bration, will be given to those in attendance. It is printed on Continental buff paper with Jersey blue ink. The train leaves Reading Terminal at i o'clock to-morrow after- noon. Thousands of Jerseymen will be present, including a large number of Cam- deniens. The program follows: DEDICATION DAY PROGRAM. Assembling at Washington's Headquarters and march to monument. Third Regi- ment Band. Battalion of Third Regiment, National Guard, N. J. Division Naval Reserve, N. J. Valley Forge Park Commission. Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission. Governor James F. Fielder and staff, orator and guests. State Senators and Assemblymen. State officials, civic organizations and citizens. Governor's salute, 13 guns by Battery B, Field Artillery, N. G. of N. J. Invocation, Rev. Otis A. Glazebrook, D. D., of Elizabeth, N. J. Music by Third Regiment Band, Joseph Bossle, Sr., Chief Musician. Doxology by band and audience. Presentation of monument to the Governor of New. Jersey by John Henry Fort, president of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission. Unveiling of monument by Miss Margaret Wilson. Salute of 13 guns to original States. Music, "Hail New Jersey," Dr. Schaaf. Acceptance of monument by the Governor and formal delivery to the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania. Acceptance of monument by Valley Forge Park Commission on behalf of Pennsyl- vania. Music, "Spirit of '76." Oration, Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College. Music, "Sons of the Nation." 65 Voluntary by band, "A Tribute to Friend and Foe." Benediction. Conclusion, farewell salute of one gun. "Star Spangled Banner." Taps. HOW IT WAS BEGUN. At a meeting of Camden Lodge of Elks, held on Wednesday evening, December 6, 1911, Brother John Henry Fort, who spoke at the memorial service of Norristown Lodge of Elks, gave a glowing description of a visit to Valley Forge, near Norristown, Mont- gomery and Chester counties, Pennsylvania. Brother Fort described in detail the present condition of the old Revolutionary En- campment and stated that the State of Pennsylvania had purchased the old historic site and under a commission was having it restored to its original condition, which was rendered feasible by reason of a map recently discovered in a Holland museum, made by a French engineer for General Washington, that showed every detail of defence, location of the troops and General Washington's headquarters, as well as nhose of the other generals. The camping grounds have been beautified b}' fine roads and paths and the redoubts, forts and earthworks uncovered, and even facsimile huts erected to cover every detail, and cannon of the Revolutionary type placed in park, as designated on the old map now in possession of Cornell University. Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and other States of the original thirteen Col- onies who had troops there have erected, or are about to erect, granite markers to com- memorate the location. Pennsylvania has erected at great cost a granite equestrian statue of Major General Anthony Wayne and magnificent granite columns surmounted with bronze eagles. The Valley Forge Park, as restored, is one of great beauty, and with the beautiful Schuylkill and Valley Forge Creek flowing around the sloping hill- sides of Valley Forge makes it one of picturesqueness and loveliness. Hill after hil! rises and falls in the distance. Here were quartered, in 1777 and 1778, 8,000 young soldiers of noble sires from the thirteen old Colonies who battled for freedom. Thirty- five hundred of them died here and are buried in Valley Forge Park with unmarked graves. And yet, with all these discouragements, Washington here recruited and drilled his army, by aid of Baron von Steuben, to a high efficiency and to a strength of 14,000 invincible men. There were a number of troops there from New Jersey and some buried in those unmarked graves. It was from near here Washington marched to Trenton and van- quished the Hessians, marking the roads and snow-covered fields with the blood from the feet of shoeless soldiers. As the site occupied by the troops from New Jersey, then one of the Colonies, has never been marked, Brother Fort moved that a committee of three from Camden Lodge of Elks be appointed to solicit, b\' letter, the aid of every Elks' Lodge in New Jersey, requesting the Senator and Representative from the county in which the Lodge is situated to vote for the enactment of a law providing for the appointment of a Commission by the Legislature to obtain all data necessary to locate the site and obtain permission to erect a granite marker and suitable stones to com- memorate the memory of the officers and men who heroically represented New Jersey in the great sufferings and hei'oic acts performed by them at Valley Forge. The idea is also to have the act carry with it an appropriation of not less than $5,000 to cover the expense of the marker and other small granite posts needed to fix the boundary. LEGISLATIVE ACTION. A bill for the creation of a Commission of five to erect a monument at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, was drawn bv John H. Fort and introduced by Assemblyman 66 Albert DeUnger, of Camden, at the session of 1912, and passed the House unanimously. It was taken up in the Senate by Senator William T. Read, of Camden, and on his request Senator Isaac T. Nichols, of Cumberland, advocated it in a patriotic speech. It passed the Senate unanimously. Mr. Fort then went before the Committee on Appro- priations, on request of Senator Nichols, and spoke for the appropriation of $5,000, and in ten minutes after his remarks the committee unanimously incorporated an appro- priation of $5,000 in the general appropriation bill. Governor Wilson signed the bill, and upon numerous recommendations Mr. Fort was designated chairman of the Com- mission, and on its first meeting was unanimously elected president. From this fact, and that he lives nearer Valley Forge than the other Commis- sioners, the most of the work has fallen upon him, and for the last eighteen months he has been untiring in his efforts to get every detail in shape for the successful con- summation of the affair. The Commissioners are John Henry Fort, Camden; James L. Pennypacker, Had- donfield ; A. J. Demarest, Hoboken ; General J. Madison Drake, Elizabeth; David P. Mulford, Bridgeton. The Commission was appointed by President Wilson, then Gover- nor of New Jersey, on May 6th, 1912. The last Legislature appropriated $1,800 for the expenses of the unveiling and dedication; nearly $800 of this goes for military display and the grand stand. Print- ing, automobiles, decorations and incidental expenses use up the balance. The monument was designed by Mr. Scott M. Long, of the O. J. Hammell Co., Pleasantville, N. J., the contractors. It is of Barre granite, 10 feet at base and 27 feet in height. It is surmounted by a Continental soldier in bronze, of some 3,000 pounds weight, and 8 feet in height. The tablet bears the inscription: Erected by the State of New Jersey Upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General Wm. Maxwell. First Reg., Col. Mathias Ogden. Second Reg., Col. Israel Shreve. Third Reg., Col. Elias Dayton. Fourth Reg., Col. Ephraim Martin. December 19, 1777-June 18, 1778. The monument cost $5,000, the minimum and maximum allowed by the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, which is appointed by an act of the Pennsyl- vania Legislature, and determines every question concerning Valley Forge affairs. THE PHILADELPHIA "INQUIRER" JERSEY TO HONOR HER CONTINENTALS. Shaft to be Unveiled To-d.\y at Valley Forge Where Soldiers Suffered. PRESIDENT WILSON'S DAUGHTER TO UNCOVER SHAFT— PROMINENT MEN TO TAKE PART. Valley Forge, Pa., June 17. — The unveiling and dedication to-morrow of the monu- ment erected upon the site at Valley Forge occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, In- fantry Line, in the Continental Army, during the winter of 1777-1778, promises to be an impressive affair. 67 The monument is a tall shaft of granite on a broad base, which bears the bronze memorial tablet with the bronze coat-of-arms of New Jersey above. A grand stand has been erected to accommodate fifteen hundred persons. A special train will leave the Reading Terminal at one o'clock. At the dedication ceremonies the Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and their staffs will be seated among the honored guests, including legislators. The monu- ment will be presented to Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey, by John Henry Fort, president of the Encampment Commission, and unveiled by Miss Margaret Wil- son, daughter of the President of the United States. It was officially announced to-day that President Wilson would not be able to attend. The oration will be delivered by Dr. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, of New Brunswick, N. J., and there will be an abundance of military display and music at suitable intervals. This formation and program will be carried out: Assembling at Washington's Headquarters and march to monument; Third Regi- ment Band; Battalion of Third Regiment, National Guard, N. J.; Division Naval Reserve, N. J.; Valley Forge Park Commission; Valley Forge Revolutionary Encamp- ment Commission ; Governors James F. Fielder and John K. Tener, orator and guests ; United States Senators and Congressmen, State Senators and Representatives of Legis- lature; State officials, civic organizations and citizens; salute to the Governor by Bat- tery B, N. G. of N. J. ; invocation. Rev. Otis A. Glazebrook, of Elizabeth, N. J. ; music by Third Regiment Band, Joseph Bossle, Sr., chief musician ; doxology by band and audience; presentation of monument to the Governor of New Jersey by John Henry Fort, president of Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission; unveiling of monument by Miss Margaret Wilson; salute to original States, 13 guns; music, "Hail New Jersey" ; acceptance of monument by the Governor of New Jersey and presenta- tion to the Governor of Pennsylvania ; acceptance of the monument by the Governor of Pennsylvania and formal delivery to the Valley Forge Park Commission; accept- ance of monument by William H. Sayen, president of the Valley Forge Park Com- mission of Pennsylvania; music, "Spirit of '76"; oration. Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, presi- dent of Rutgers College; music, "Songs of the Nation"; voluntary, by band, "A Tribute to Friend and Foe" ; benediction. PHILADELPHIA "NORTH AMERICAN JERSEY UNVEILS MONUMENT AT VALLEY FORGE. Shaft is Unveiled to Continental Troops. GOVERNOR FIELDER MAKES DEDICATORY ADDRESS AT VALLEY FORGE TO-DAY. Miss Wilson to Attend. Trenton, N. J., June 17. New Jersey's part in the army of General Washington at Valley Forge, in 1777 and 1778, will be perpetuated in granite on the Valley Forge Encampment grounds to-morrow afternoon, when Governor James F. Fielder and a large representation of the militia of the State will formally unveil and dedicate granite markers and a shaft on the lands occupied by the New Jersey Revolutionary troops during the stay of Wash- ington's army at Vallev Forge. 68 The State Legislature of 1912 passed an act providing authority for the erection of the shaft and markers, and made an appropriation of $5,000 for this purpose. Immediately upon the arrival of Governor Fielder and his escort at Valley Forge the dedication exercises will take place. Governor Fielder will make the dedicatory address after the monument and markers have been formally turned over to the State Government by the president of the Commission, John H. Fort, of Camden. The other members of the Commission charged with erection of the memorials are David P. Mulford, of Bridgeton; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth; Joseph L. Penny- packer, of Haddonfield, and A. J. Demarest, of Jersey City. This Commission was named by Governor Wilson. The escort of Governor Fielder will be made up of his personal military staff, the First Battalion of the Third Regiment of the National Guard and a platoon of the Camden Naval Reserve. The entire representation of troops of the State will number about 400 men and officers. CAMDEN "ARGUS" HONOR MEMORY OF JERSEY PATRIOTS. Camden Lodge of Elks Lay Corner-stone of Monument at Valley Forge. BEAUTIFUL SHAFT FOR REVOLUTIONARY HEROES. The site of the Encampment of Brigadier General Maxwell's Brigade of four New Jersey Regiments at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777 and 1778 was officially marked, Tuesday, when Camden Lodge of Elks laid the corner-stone for a monument which will be erected at Valley Forge as a memorial to the patriotism of the New Jersey patriots. John H. Fort, Past Exalted Ruler of Camden Lodge, presided at the exercises. It was he who was the instigator of the movement which resulted in Gov- ernor Wilson appointing a Commission which co-operated with Camden Lodge in the selection of a site and of plans for the monument, which will be ready for unveiling upon next Evacuation Day, June 20. Exalted Ruler Morris Odell, assisted by the officers of the Lodge, performed the ritualistic work. The Elks' tribute to the flag was ably delivered by Past Exalted Ruler James H. Long, and short addresses were made by Past Exalted Ruler John H. Fort, chairman of the Commission, and Senators Isaac T. Nichols and William T. Read, both of whom were largely responsible for the passage of the bill authorizing the erection of the monument. In the corner-stone were placed the following articles: Copies of the Camden Argus and other Camden and Philadelphia papers containing reports bearing upon the monument; ritual of Camden Lodge; latest annual report of Valley Forge Park Com- mission ; photograph of Governor Wilson ; photograph of the monument ; the memor- able Elks' tribute to the flag; blue-prints of the monument; copy of the memorable Val- ley Forge address of Henry Armitt Brown. The exercises drew 200 men and women, most of them coming by special train from Philadelphia and representing all parts of New Jersey, but mostly Camden. Rep- resentatives were present also from Norristown, Pottstown, Phoenixville and West Ches- ter Lodges of Elks. These latter came in automobiles. The memorial, when completed, will be 35 feet high and 10 feet across the base and surmounted bv a heroic bronze figure of a Continental soldier at picket duty. 69 NEWARK "EVENING NEWS" STONE LAID AT VALLEY FORGE. Camden: Elks Place Memorl^l to Jersey Troops Camped With Washington". SHAFT UNVEILED JUNE i8. Valley Forge, Pa., Nov. 12. — With ceremonies conducted by the Camden, N. J., Lodge of Elks, the corner-stone for the monument to be erected in memory of the New Jersey troops who figured in the camp at Valley Forge, under General Washington, was laid here this afternoon. Elks from other cities of New Jersey also participated, together with delegations from other organizations. John Henry Fort, Past Exalted Ruler of the Camden Elks, is chairman of the Monument Commission appointed by Governor Wilson. The other members are A. R. Demarest, of Hoboken ; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield ; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, of Bridgeton. Members of the Commission assembled at Philadelphia at 12.30 o'clock to-day and started for the monument site on a special train which bore the delegations from New Jersey. The monument will be dedicated June 18, with General Drake in charge of the ceremonies. Governor Wilson probably will be present, and Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of the President-elect, will unveil the shaft. The site for the monument is beside a long drive overlooking the Schujlkill River and commanding an extensive view of Mount Joy. The shaft will be twenty-seven feet high and ten feet six inches square at the base. A statue will surmount it. The total cost will be $5,000, for which appropriation was made by the New Jersey General Assembly. Mr. Fort is credited with starting the movement for the memorial. About a year ago he happened to visit Valley Forge and found that New Jersey's soldiers had no representation there. At his suggestion the Camden Elks took up the matter and secured the passage of the appropriation. PHILADELPHIA "EVENING BULLETIN" MARK JERSEY SITE AT VALLEY FORGE. Corner-stone of Monument Suggested by Elks Laid With Exercises of Order. FOURTH STATE SHAFT. Will be 35 Feet High and Surmounted by Colonial Soldier Statue on Picket. Valley Forge, Pa., Nov. 12. — The site of the Encampment of Brigadier General Maxwell's Brigade of four New Jersey Regiments during the Valley Forge Encamp- ment of the Colonial Army, under General Washington, during the winter of 1777 and 70 1778, was officially marked to-day, when Camden Lodge of Elks laid the corner-stone for a monument which will be erected as a memorial to the patriotism of the New Jersey patriots. Most fittingly John H. Fort, Past Exalted Ruler of Camden Lodge, presided at the exercises, for it was he who was the instigator of the movement which resulted in Governor Wilson appointing a commission to co-operate with Camden Lodge in the selection of a site and of plans for the monument, which will be reared on the scene of to-day's ceremonies, and will be ready for unveiling upon next Evacuation Day, June 20. LODGE OF SORROW STARTED IT. Past Exalted Ruler Fort, last December, was the orator at the annual Lodge of Sor- row of Norristown Lodge. The next day J. P. Hale Jenkins, a Past Exalted Ruler of the local organization and a member of the Valley Forge Park Commission, took Mr. Fort to see the Valley Forge camp grounds. Mr. Fort was shown where the Jersey troops were encamped, and was surprised when informed that there was no State monument — only a granite marker erected by the State of Pennsylvania through the Park Commission, has been put up for all of the 13 original States. Mr. Fort resolved to remedy the glaring defect, and through the medium of the Elks he brought about the project for a monument, which showed the first steps of realization in the laymg of the corner- stone to-day. On the speakers' stand to-day with Ruler Fort were the four other members of the Monument Commission appointed by Governor Wilson: James L. Pennypacker, A. J. Demarest, General J. Madison Drake and David P. Mulford. Present, too, were State Senator William T. Read, of Camden, and State Senator Isaac T. Nichols, of Cumberland county, who were active in having passed through the New Jersey Legis- lature the appropriation for $5,000 toward the monument. In his opening address. Chairman Fort gave a brief history of the monument project and of the Revolutionary camp ground, declaring that but three other States of the thirteen original States have erected monuments on the hallowed ground — Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. After ritualistic service, conducted by the Exalted Ruler of Camden Lodge, a quartette from the Jersey Lodge sang a hymn of blessing. The quartette also sang patriotic hymns during the exercises. TWO HUNDRED ATTEND EXERCISES. In the corner-stone were placed the following articles: Copies of Camden and Philadelphia papers containing reports bearing upon the monument; ritual of Camden Lodge; latest annual report of Valley Forge Park Commission; photograph of Gover- nor Wilson; photograph of the monument; the memorable Elks' tribute to the flag; blue-prints of the monument; copy of the memorable Valley Forge address of Heniy Armitt Brown. The exercises drew 200 men and women, most of them coming by special train from Philadelphia, and representing all parts of New Jersey, but mostly Camden. Rep- resentatives were present also from Norristown, Pottstown, Phoenixville and West Chester Lodges of Elks. These latter came in automobiles. The Park Commission was represented by Colonel Samuel S. Hartranft, who is superintendent of the park. The party had its picture taken in front of Washington's Headquarters before the exercises. The memorial, when completed, will be 35 feet high and ii feet across the base and surmounted by a heroic bronze figure of a Colonial soldier at picket duty. 71 PHILADELPHIA "EVENING TELEGRAPH' TO UNVEIL JERSEY'S VALLEY FORGE SHAFT. President's Daughter Will Perform Ceremony at Patriotic Exercises on June i8. MILITIA TO PARTICIPATE. The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey has about completed arrangements for the dedication and unveiling of the monument on the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, at Val- ley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777-1778, on Wednesday afternoon, June i8. Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler has designated as a guard of honor a battalion of four companies from the Third Regiment, a band of forty pieces, a division of fifty men from the Naval Reserve and a two-gun battery from Battery B, of Cam- den, with a platoon of forty men for firing salutes. The troops will leave •Camden at 12 o'clock, on the i8th of June, and proceed to the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, where a special train will convey them to Valley Forge station. The battery will leave in the morning to get there in time to place their guns and thirty-two horses in position. The Commission will send out 5,000 invitations to all parts of the State, and ex- pect representatives from the Senate and Assembly and all the State departments. In- vitations generally will be extended to all fraternal and patriotic orders to attend in a body or individually, as they desire. The Commission visited President Wilson and has received a letter from him ex- pressing his great regret that he cannot promise to attend, and stating that his daughter, Miss Margaret Wilson, has accepted an invitation to unveil the monument. The ceremonies of dedication and unveiling will be under the direction of the Commission, and are as follows: The military and lodges and visitors will form in procession at the new Reading station at Valley Forge, opposite Washington's Headquarters, and with the Governor of New Jersey, James F. Fielder, and his staff, proceed to the site of the monument. On arrival the battery will fire a salute of fourteen guns in honor of the Governor. The State officials, Commission of New Jersey and the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, State officials and Senators and Assemblymen and as many invited guests as possible will occupy the stand erected opposite the monument. A musical program has been arranged by Professor Joseph Bossle, Sr., leader of the Third Regiment Band. PRESENTED TO PENNSYLVANIA. After an invocation and music, John Henry Fort, president of the New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, will present the monument to the Governor of New Jersey, and then Miss Wilson will release the covering that veils it, and amid a salute of thirteen guns from the battery the monument will stand out in all its beauty. Governor Fielder will accept it from the New Jersey Commission and pre- sent it to the Governor of Pennsylvania or his representative, who will then formally turn it over from the State of New Jersey to the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, which will thereafter take care of the monument. The monument is of Barre granite and is a handsome piece of monumental work. It is 27 feet high and surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of that period, showing service, in position of a picket or guard. It is heroic in size, and was made b}' the John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry, of New York, that casts most of the Government bronzes. CAMDEN " POST-TELEGRAM JERSEY'S MONUMENT AT VALLEY FORGE. President Wilson's Daughter to Unveil Memorial to Revolutionary Heroes. FIVE THOUSAND INVITATIONS TO BE EXTENDED. The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey has about completed arrangements for the dedication and unveiling of the monument on the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, at Val- ley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777-1778, on Wednesday afternoon, June 18. Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler has designated as a guard of honor a battalion of four companies from the Third Regiment, a band of forty pieces, a division of fifty men from the Naval Reserve and a two-gun battery from Battery B, of Cam- den, with a platoon of forty men for firing salutes. The troops will leave Camden at 12 o'clock, on the i8th of June, and proceed to the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, where a special train will convey them to Valley Forge station. The batttry will leave in the morning to get there in time to place their guns and thirty-two hordes in position. The Commission will send out 5,000 invitations to all parts of the State, and ex- pect representatives from the Senate and Assembly and all the State departments. In- vitations generally will be extended to all fraternal and patriotic orders to attend in a body, or individually, as they desire. The Commission visited President Wilson, and has received a lettei from him ex- pressing his great regret that he cannot promise to attend, and stating that his daugh- ter, Miss Margaret Wilson, has accepted an invitation to be present and unveil the monument. The ceremonies of dedication and unveiling will be under the direction of the Commission, and are as follows: The military and lodges and visitors will form in procession at the new Reading station at Valley Forge, opposite Washington's Headquarters, and with the Governor of New Jersey, James F. Fielder, and his staff, proceed to the site of the monument. On arrival the battery will fire a salute of fourteen guns in honor of the Governor. The State officials. Commission of New Jersey and the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, State officials and Senators and Assemblymen and as many invited guests as possible will occupy the stand erected opposite the monument. A fine musical program has been arranged by Professor Joseph Bossle, Sr., leader of the Third Regiment Band. After an invocation and music, John Henry Fort, president of the New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, will present the monument to the Governor of New Jersey, and then Miss Wilson will release the covering that veils it, and amid a salute of thirteen guns from the battery, the monument will stand out in all its beauty. Governor Fielder will accept it from the New Jersey Commission and present it to the Governor of Pennsylvania, or his representative, who will then formally turn it over from the State of New Jersey to the Valley Forge Park Com- mission of Pennsylvania; which will thereafter take care of the monument and its maintenance. The monument is of Barre granite and is a handsome piece of monumental work. It is 27 feet high and surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of that period, showing service, in position of a picket on guard. It is heroic in size, and was made by the John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry, of New York, that casts most of the Government bronzes. 73 The Commission has labored hard to make the affair a success, and Mr. Fort, the president, has for the last eighteen months given almost all his time and attention to the affair. From present indications there will be a large crowd present. Arrangements have been made for a special train over the Reading road from its terminal, Philadelphia, which will leave at i\ P. M., on the day fixed, and return from Valley Forge at 5 P. M., affording an opportunity to witness and participate in the ceremonies of the unveiling and dedication of the monument and visiting the sights of Valley Forge, so long historic in Revolutionary annals. The Commission desires to extend a general invitation to every citizen of New- Jersey, and hopes to have a large representation present to show their appreciation of the heroes who fought and died for the establishment of a great Nation. The fare for the round trip will not exceed 75 cents. Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison, of New Jersey, has signified his intention of being present, if possible, as well as our Congressmen from New Jersey. It will be a memorable day in the observations of Valley Forge. ATLANTIC CITY "REVIEW" VALLEY FORGE MONUMENT TO BE UNVEILED BY MISS WILSON. The above is a photograph of the New Jersey monument nearing completion at Valley Forge Park, Pennsylvania. The bronze statue, panels and lettered parts of the monument are covered to prevent photographers taking pictures before the day of un- veiling, on June 18. This monument marks the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, during the severe winter of 1777-1778, under General Washington. It will be remembered that there were only thirteen States during this war, most of which were represented by troops at Valley Forge. Each of these States is permitted to erect a monument, not to cost more than $5,000, on the site its troops occupied dur- ing the struggle between Great Britain and her Colonies for independence. To this army New Jersey sent the greatest forces, over five thousand brave patriots. It is only fitting and proper that this spot, where so many from our native State suffered and succumbed to death by starvation and disease, should be marked by a lasting memorial. In view of this fact, the Legislature of New Jersey passed, in 1912, a bill appropriating $5,000 for the purpose of erecting a monument there. Governor Wilson, now President of the United States, signed the bill and appointed the follow- ing Commissioners: Hon. John H. Fort, of Camden; James S. Pennypacker, of Had- donfield; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken ; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, of Bridgeton. The Commission is making elaborate preparations for the unveiling ceremonies. Some of the finest orators in the country have been secured, and President Wilson's daughter. Miss Jessie Wilson, will unveil the monument. About five thousand invita- tions are being sent to prominent people throughout the State, and the general public is also invited to attend. It is expected there will be 10,000 people present. The cere- monies will commence at 2 P. M. sharp. A special train will leave the Reading Terminal, Twelfth and Market streets, Philadelphia, at 1 P. M., and return from Valley Forge at 5 P. M. Many people have expressed their intention of going in automobiles. The distance from Atlantic City is 80 miles. It is a beautiful trip, which takes one through Fairmount Park and out Lancaster Pike to Valley Forge, which is one of the finest public parks in the country. 74 The monument was designed by Mr. Scott M. Long, who is associated with the O. J. Hanjmell Company, of Pleasantville. Mr. Long's design was successful over many competitors from leading firms in \ew York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and elsewhere, and reflects much credit on him as a designer and the company he represeuts who contracted for this work and erected it, and every detail has been carefully carried out. It is of Barre granite and standard bronze, and stands an artistic and appropriate memorial to the cause. Every patriot of New Jersey should endeavor to be present at the unveiling. CAMDEN "DAILY COURIER' CAMDEN LODGE OF ELKS WILL LAY CORNER-STONE FOR BIG MONUMENT. Expect Big Crowd at ^' alley Forge. IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES WILL BE CONDUCTED BY LOCAL ELKS ON TUESDAY. Marks New Jersey Brigade Camp. The Camden Order of Elks are busily making preparations for their trip to Val- ley Forge, on Tuesday next, to participate in the laying of a corner-stone for a monu- ment to occupy the site where the New Jersey Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General William Maxwell, who commanded four regiments, camped at Valley Forge in 1777-1778. The monument is of Barre granite and cost $5,000. The erecting is to be under the supervision of a Commission appointed by Governor Woodrow Wilson. In consideration of the support given by the Order of Elks in New Jersey in ob- taining the law, and especially Camden Lodge, the Commission has invited that Lodge to lay the corner-stone of the monument, and the Lodge has accepted the honor. No- vember 12 is the date. A special committee has been appointed to arrange details, and this committee has secured a special train to leave at 12.30 from the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia. The tickets for the round trip will be $i.oo, and the train will return about 5.20 o'clock and reach Philadelphia by supper time. A brass band will accompany the Lodge, and the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Grand Lodge of the United States of America has granted a special dispensation for Camden Lodge to do the work. The ritual for the occasion will be a very interesting one, and a fine quartette will perform the musical features. Camden Lodge expects to have 200 or more members in line, and many of them will be accompanied by their wives, daughters or lady friends. While the ceremonies and the special train are under the auspices of Camden Lodge, any person can obtain a ticket at the same price from the committee of arrange- ments. Senator Read, Senator Nichols and Assemblyman DeUnger have been especially invited for their kind attention and services in obtaining the passage of the bill in the Legislature. All the data for the box to go in the corner-stone is at hand, and Martin J. Frand, a member of Camden Lodge, has donated a copper box, 8 inches wide and 10 long by 6 in height, to receive the documents. Everything in connection with the history of the monument will be deposited therein and will be placed under the corner of the 75 huge monument. Responses from the members are coming in by every mail, and they intend to show their appreciation of the honor as well as to show that the Order of Elks is a patriotic one. The tickets are now in the hands of the committee for sale. Every Lodge of Elks in New Jersey will be invited to have a delegation, and the general public are as welcome as the members of the Order. As the train is a special one, tickets can only be obtained from the committee, and even on the day at the train gate from them only. The dedication of the monument will not take place till early next year, and the Commission will have charge of it, and intend to make it an event that will gladden the hearts of every Jerseyman. The corner-stone laying will, however, be an attrac- tive affair, and as the leaves are nearly off of the trees a fine opportunity will be afforded to obtain a landscape view of the grand old Valley Forge Camping Grounds and to see the earthworks of old forts, mounted batteries, Washington's Headquarters and the graves of the 3,500 unknown dead and huts and hospitals occupied by the brave and noble men who founded our Nation. Tickets can be obtained from John H. Fort, chairman ; A. J. Milliette, secretary ; George Fisher, treasurer; Frank Gardner, William Davis, Ralph D. Childrey, Wil- liam C. Davis, R. A. Outwater, Howard L. Miller, Thomas J. Berkstresser and Wal- ter Magonigle. THE PHILADELPHIA "INQUIRER" JERSEY TO HONOR HER CONTINENTALS. Shaft to be Unveiled To-day at Valley Forge, Where Soldiers Suffered. PRESIDENT WILSON'S DAUGHTER TO UNCOVER SHAFT— PROMINENT MEN TO TAKE PART. Valley Forge, Pa., June 17. — The unveiling and dedication to-morrow of the monu- ment erected upon the site at Valley Forge occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, In- fantry Line, in the Continental Army, during the winter of 1777-1778, promises to be an impressive affair. The monument is a tall shaft of granite on a broad base, which bears the bronze memorial tablet with the bronze coat-of-arms of New Jersey above. A grand stand has been erected to accommodate fifteen hundred persons. A special train will leave the Reading Terminal at one o'clock. At the dedication ceremon}' the Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and their staffs will be seated among the honored guests, including legislators. The monu- ment will be presented to Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey, by John Henry Fort, president of the Encampment Commission, and unveiled by Miss Margaret Wil- son, daughter of the President of the United States. It was officially announced to-day that President Wilson would not be able to attend. The oration will be delivered by Dr. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, of New Brunswick, N. J., and there will be an abundance of military display and music at suitable intervals. This formation and program will be carried out: Assembling at Washington's Headquarters and march to monument; Third Regi- ment Band; Battalion of Third Regiment, National Guard, N. J.; Division Naval Reserve, N. J.; Valley Forge Park Commission; Valley Forge Revolutionary Encamp- ment Commission ; Governors James F. Fielder and John K. Tener, orator and guests ; United States Senators and Congressmen, State Senators and Representatives of Legis- 7G lature; State officials, civic organizations and citizens; salute to the Governor by Bat- tery B, N. G. of N. J.; invocation, Rev. Otis A. Glazebrook, of Elizabeth, N. J.; music by Third Regiment Band, Joseph Bossle, St., chief musician; doxolog>' by band and audience; presentation of monument to the Governor of New Jersey by John Henry Fort, president of Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission; unveiling of monument by Miss Margaret Wilson; salute to original States, 13 guns; music, "Hail New Jersey" ; acceptance of monument by the Governor of New Jersey and presenta- tion to the Governor of Pennsylvania; acceptance of the monument by the Governor of Pennsylvania and formal delivery to the Valley Forge Park Commission; accept- ance of monument by William H. Sayen, president of the Valley Forge Park Commis- sion of Pennsylvania; music, "Spirit of '76"; oration. Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College; music, "Songs of the Nation"; voluntary by band, "A Tribute to Friend and Foe" ; benediction. PHILADELPHIA "PUBLIC LEDGER" NEW JERSEY TO PAY HONOR TO PATRIOTS. Valley Forge Revolutionary Commission Will Unveil Memorial on Historic Site. TRIBUTE OF THE STATE. Members of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jer- sey have completed all the arrangements for the unveiling and dedication of the monu- ment erected upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Con- tinental Army, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777-1778, which will take place Wed- nesday afternoon. Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler has designated as a guard of honor a battalion of four companies from the Third Regiment, National Guard; the Third Regiment Band ; a division of fifty men from the Camden Battalion, Naval Reserve, and a two-gun batterj' from Battery B, Field Artillery, of Camden, with a platoon of forty men for firing salutes. The troops will leave Camden for Philadel- phia at noon and proceed to the Reading Terminal. The battery will leave early in the morning. The monument will be unveiled by Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of President Wilson, who will be accompanied by Miss Hagner. The program of ceremonies follows: The military and civic societies and visitors will form at the new Reading station at Valley Forge, and with Governor Fielder and staff will proceed to the monument site. On arrival, the battery will fire a salute in honor of the Governor. The State officials. Commission of New Jersey and the Valley Forge Park Commission of Penn- sylvania, New Jersey State Senators and members of the House of Assembly and guests will occupy the grand stand opposite the monument. After the invocation by the Rev. Otis J. Glazebrook, of Elizabeth, John Henry Fort, the president of the New Jersey Commission, will present the monument to Governor Fielder, and then Miss Wilson will release the covering that veils it amid a salute of thirteen guns from the battery. Governor Fielder will accept the monument, and will present it. Ex-Governor Penny- packer probably will accept it as the representative of Governor Tener, who announces that he will be unable to be present, and it will then be formally turned over to the Valley Forge Park Commission. The orator will be Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College. 77 The monument is of Barre granite. It is 27 feet high and surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of that period. It is heroic in size, and was made by the John Williams Bronze Foundry, of New York. The cost of the monument was $5,000. The monument was erected under the supervision of John Henry Fort, of Camden; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, of Bridge- ton, the Commission, who were appointed by the then Governor Wilson under a legis- lative act which was introduced at the request of Camden Lodge of Elks. Among the civic societies and officials expected to be present are the Sons of the Revolution, several Chapters of the Daughters of the Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, State Historical Society, State Department Commander, G. A. R., John W. Bodine, of New Jersey, and staff; Camden, Philadelphia, Norristown and Trenton Lodges of Elks, Patriotic Order Sons of America and a delegation of Knights of Colum- bus from New Jersey. BRIDGETON "EVENING NEWS' POLITICAL CHAT. ODDS AND ENDS. By I. T. Nichols. The sun shone bright on the monument to New Jersey's Revolutionary dead in Valley Forge, last Thursday afternoon, as the cord which unloosed the flag disclosed the graceful outlines of the shaft which our State has erected to mark the field where General Maxwell's New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, suffered privations untold during the fearful winter of 1777-1778. The story of General Wash- ington and his little army at Valley Forge cannot be too often told, for it is a patriotic story unparalleled in the history of nations. On the 19th of December, 1777, Washington had finished his retreat from Phila- delphia, then in the possession of the British troops under General Howe. The Revolu- tionary cause had reached the lowest ebb. Everything was against the Continentals and hope of final victory was well nigh dead. The Continental Army was reduced to eight thousand men when headquarters were located in the valley. Without clothing or provisions, the heroic remnant of many campaigns faced the wintry blasts with a consecrated patriotism. In Philadelphia, not far away, the British held high revelry, aided and abetted by the Tory Americans who had harassed General Washington at every turn of the way. During the winter thirty-four hundred soldiers died of dis- ease, cold and starvation. Among the number perhaps one-third of them were from New Jersey, for the Continental Army in that distressed hour was largely composed of the young farmer boys from Middle and West Jersey. Death made great inroads on the Jersey line, but with each comrade's burial the survivors renewed their vows to their country, suffering on in silence without complaint. For one hundred and thirty-five years the bones of the Jerseymen who passed away at Valley Forge have remained unmarked. Other States had marked the graves of those who had here paid their full measure of devotion, but the Jersey Blues had no remembrance. To the credit of John H. Fort, of Camden, be it said, that he alone wrought out a plan for the marking of the site where our Continental dead had so long lain unnumbered and unmarked. During a visit to Valley Forge, Mr. Fort, who is a patriotic gentleman, loving his country and proud of the glorious record of his 78 Jersey ancestry, conceived the idea of the monument. Accordingly, in 1911, he enlisted the co-operation of the Order of Elks, in which he has long been a prominent figure, and immediately effort was made by printed circular and other publicity to influence members of the Legislature for the passage of a bill to appropriate sufficient money to give the State of New Jersey a proper marker in memory of the men who had given their lives that the Nation might live. The Legislature responded to the call and gave the sum of five thousand dollars for the erection of an appropriate memorial, together with eighteen hundred dollars for dedication expenditures. The completed monument stands on a knoll on one of the leading avenues of the Valley Forge Park, the Continental soldier in bronze at its apex facing Jersej-ward. The figure is commanding, symmetrical and of beautiful proportions; a credit to the State and the Commission who had its preparation in charge. Valley Forge is an American Mecca and ever will be. Located in one of the most beautiful sections of Pennsylvania, a half hour's journej- by the Reading Railroad from Philadelphia, it is a picturesque region of hills, valleys and farm lands, with the broad expanse of the Schuylkill River disclosing itself like a silver thread for a long distance. Valley Forge was an impregnable position for Washington to occupy, its site being well selected for fortification. In the midst of this stronghold his little army of patriots was safe from attack, although Lords Clinton and Howe longed for opportunity. All through the winter thev watched and waited, but there was no sign from Valle\' Forge where the Continentals in their misery were making such efforts as thev could toward the rehabilitation of their depleted ranks. In the meantime Baron von Steuben, the famous German patriot, tired of the tyranny of the rulers of his own country, hastened to America, and offered his services to General Washington. He was a splendid drill master, one of the best in Europe. His services were accepted, and valuable services they were. By June 4, 1778, the Continental Army, notwithstanding its great losses, emerged in prime condition for a continuation of hostilities with the British. By diligent recruiting the army had augmented its ranks, so that it now numbered four- teen thousand men in prime condition, efficiently drilled and ready for battle. Under General Maxwell's command was a regiment from South Jersey, led by Colonel Silas Newcomb, of our own county. Did you know, reader, that the patriotic sons of Cumberland County bore an important part at Valley Forge, and in the famous engagements at Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth ? There was no section of New Jersey more loyal to the cause of their country in Revolutionary days, as later on there was no greater patriotism than that exhibited in the ranks of the thousand men who enlisted from Cumberland County to save the Nation in Civil War times. How beautiful was the day and how auspicious the hour at Valley Forge when the monument with the Continental soldier at its apex appeared to view. In vision we thought of Washington and Lafayette, and von Steuben and Maxwell, with Silas Newcomb and his boys in blue and buff from Cumberland. In phantom lines they were marching before us, eyes to the right, heads erect, gun barrels bright, three-cor- nered hats, typical soldiers of the early days on whose shoulders rested the fate of the new Nation. The Lord was with them as they came forth in sunny June to take up the gauge of contest with a foreign foe. How different the June of 1913. Peace reigned — the landscape 'round about was like a picture set in silver — the skies were blue, the roadways broad. No blur on the scene. A daughter of the President of the United States' pulled the string which un- veiled the granite and its patriotic figure ; the band of sixty pieces let go a medley of "The Star Spangled Banner," "America," and "Yankee Doodle" ; the artillery thun- dered a Continental salute ; the regiment of youthful soldiery from the ranks of our State Militia presented arms with martial precision. The act was complete, patriotic, solemn, perfect in every detail. 79 New Jersey has done well at Valley Forge, as she always does in every depart- ment of human endeavor. To the Commission, which consisted of John H. Fort, A. J. Demarest, James L. Pennypacker, General J. Madison Drake, and our townsman, David P. Mulford, and to the members of the Legislature who so earnestly aided the project, a debt of gratitude is due for the successful placing of the Valley Forge Memorial on the historic field. THE NORRISTOWN "TIMES" PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER UNVEILS JERSEY SHAFT AT VALLEY FORGE. Miss Eleanor Wilson^ Instead of Miss Margaret, has the Honor; Ex-Governor Pennypacker Acts for Governor Tener; Great Throng Witnesses the Simple but Impressive Ceremonies; Addresses, Brief and Inspiring, Marked With Reference to Valor of the Troops Who" Camped at Historic Spot and Fought in Revolution; Miss Wilson Central Figure at Reception. New Jersey did itself great credit, yesterday, in the tribute which it paid to the heroism of the State's patriots in the Revolutionary Army, who suffered at Valley Forge during the memorable encampment in the winter of 1777-1778. There was unveiled a magnificent monument, with simple but impressive ceremonies, abounding as they did with praise for the valor of General Maxwell and his brigade. There were two slight changes from the original plans. The honors of the day were planned for Miss Margaret Wilson, one of the daughters of President Wilson, but she was unable to be present. In announcing this fact, Mr. Fort, as master of ceremonies, stated that the Presi- dent was at all times prepared for any emergency that might arise, as was well dem- onstrated in this instance, in that he was able to provide another daughter for the honors. Miss Eleanor Wilson, the youngest daughter of the Nation's Chief Executive, was then introduced. Governor John K. Tener and his official staff were to be present, the former to accept the memorial on the part of the Commonwealth and commit it to the custody of the Valley Forge Park Commission. Owing to the press of matters at the State Cap- ital, in connection with the last days of the Legislature, the Governor could not be on hand, and he designated former Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, of Schwenks- ville, to take up this part of the program. The day was ideal in every respect, about 5,000 persons being present. Erected by the State of New Jersey on the ground where the New Jersey con- tingent of Washington's Army spent the memorable winter of suffering in 1777 and 1778, the monument represents the State's first contribution to that sacred ground. It was there that 1 1,000 patriots battled against the rigors of one of the severest winters ever known, and where 3,000 of them lie buried. A covering of red, white and blue silk hid the monument from 5,000 persons who had gathered to do honor to the noble dead of the Revolutionary period. Then Miss Wilson came to perform for the first time in a really serious capacity at a big State function. She pulled at the cords which bound the silk banners around the granite and bronze. They fluttered for a moment, then dropped to the ground, and New Jersey's offering to the memorial statues in historic Valley Forge became a fact. 80 The 5,000 persons cheered heartily, while a battery at the rear of the reviewing stand fired a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the thirteen original States. A boys* choir from St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Camden, sang "Hail, New Jersey"; then the band of the Third New Jersey Regiment played "The Star Spangled Banner." Miss Wilson, in the meantime, ran back to her party to become a spectator of the scene rather than the main picture in the spectacle. As she was about to resume her seat she was presented with a large bouquet of American Beauty roses. All radiant with smiles, she said: "This is one of the hap- piest moments of my life. I shall always cherish the memory of this day, when to me was given the singular honor of unveiling a monument to the loyalty and heroism of those brave men from my State who suffered here that a Nation might be born. It is a fitting tribute, and I glory in the fact that I have been allowed so important a part in the exercises. The happiness of this daj' will always be associated with that of another day — the day I learned that father had been chosen the President of this great Republic." Yesterday was chosen for the ceremonies, because it was on June 18, 1778, that Washington's Army began its final preparation for the evacuation, this day, 135 years ago, of Valley Forge, after six months of the greatest hardships. It was also on June 18, 1778, that Washington ordered the New- Jersey troops to proceed toward Phila- delphia, and harass and repulse, if possible, the British forces which were leaving that city after a long occupancy. To John Henry Fort, a lawyer of Camden, is given the chief credit for the move- ment which finally led to the unveiling of the great monument to Jersey's heroes in the war. On a visit to Valley Forge, Mr. Fort, while a guest of the Norristown Elks, ob- served that the ground occupied by the several thousand New Jersey patriots during the Revolution was unmarked. He inaugurated the plan to erect the monument; ob- tained the aid of President Wilson, then Governor of the State, and the Legislature finally indorsed the project and appropriated $5,000 to advance the work. The monument rests on a commanding site, is of Barre granite, ten feet square at the base and twent}--seven feet high. It is surmounted by a bronze figure of a Con- tinental soldier in the uniform of the Jersey brigade. The soldier is eight feet high and weighs 3,000 pounds. At the base a bronze plate bears the following inscription: "Situated in a central section of the park upon the site occupied by the New Jer- sey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army; Brigadier General William Maxwell. "First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden ; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. "December 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." Two special trains of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway relieved the regular trains of the bulk of the traffic that was destined for Valley Forge. These trains left the Reading Terminal at one o'clock, and the second train carried the notables who were to participate in the ceremonies. Miss Wilson motored to the monument grounds as the guest of Mrs. James L. Pennypacker. The President's daughter was accompanied from Washington by Miss Isabelle Hagner, social secretary to the President's wife. The elaborate preliminary program arranged by the Monument Commission was carried on without a single mishap. A great procession started at Washington's Head- quarters and marched to the monument. The Third Regiment Band led the parade, followed by a battalion of the Third Regiment, New Jersey National Guard ; a bat- talion of the Naval Reserve, the Valley Forge Park Commission and the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission. 81 The presence of the battalion of the Third Infantry was in itself significant, for it was the Third Regiment of New Jersey which camped on the very spot 133 years ago and to whom the day was dedicated. In the reviewing stand were Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey; Penn- sylvania Railroad Commissioner Pennypacker, who represented Governor Tener; Ad- jutant General William F. Sadler, of New Jersey; Bishop McFaul, of the Diocese of Trenton, and members of the Governor's staff. Miss Wilson and her attendants were seated at the right of the reviewing stand. Close by were Colonel William Libbey, of Princeton University; Colonel William G. Schauffler and Captain S. M. Dickinson, the latter a member of the Governor's staff. The ceremonies following the unveiling were quite simple. The presentation of the monument to the Governor of New Jersey was made by John Henry Fort. Gover- nor Fielder, in turn, accepted, and then presented it to former Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, representing the Governor of Pennsylvania. The monument then was formally delivered to the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania. William H. Sayen, president of the Commission, accepted it on behalf of that body. The oration of the day was delivered bj' Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, of New Brunswick. The Rev. J. W. Riddle, a Protestant clergyman, of Valley Forge, pronounced the invocation, while the benediction was said by Bishop McFaul. The sounding of "taps" put an end to the ceremonies. The President's daughter, who had shared honors with the memorial statue up to this time, suddenly became the sole attraction. A thousand or more women gathered around Miss Wilson, and New Jersey's dis- tinguished daughter found herself submerged in violent admiration. She made her way to a motor car, but not until she had shaken at least 500 out- stretched, eager feminine hands. All of the speakers dwelt particularly upon the great part in the Revolutionarj^ War played by the sons of New Jersey. Former Governor Pennypacker, who was in- troduced by Chairman Fort as the man of a patriotic family of Pennsylvania who dis- covered in a foreign country the plans of the original encampment at Valley Forge, and after which the present park was laid out, declared that there was a special bond of sympathy between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He referred to the fact that before there was any real New England, there was a sort of federation between the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. He called attention to the fact that William Penn was first a settler in New Jersey before he founded Pennsylvania ; that the ancestors of the oldest of the families of Philadelphia, those bearing such names as Biddle, Lippincott, Clothier, and some others, entered upon Pennsylvania soil after crossing the Delaware River from New Jersey. He further pointed out that this same Delaware River was the great stream that gave outlet to the products of the industries of the two States for distribution over the whole world. Mr. Pennypacker, referring to history, called attention to the great number of im- portant battles of the Revolution that were fought on New Jersey and Pennsylvania ground. In this connection he declared that the Revolutionary War was not won by any unusual military skill, because the majority of the engagements with the British were defeats. He said that the cause was won by a spirit of resolution as much as revolution. This spirit, he declared, led men to suffer all kinds of privations, even death, for the 82 cause. Nowhere, he pointed out, was this spirit better shown by New Jersey men, as well as others, than on the spot upon which he and his audience were then standing. Governor Fielder, in accepting the monument from the Encampment Commission, spoke of the fitness of the occasion when the sons of New Jersey of to-day honored those who fought and died in the vicinity of Valley Forge ; the battles of Monmouth, Tren- ton and Princeton, as well as those of the Brandywine and Germantown. He lauded the men of New Jersey of the past and gave equal praise to the loyalty of their descendants. A party that was entertained as guests of General B. S. Fisher, who makes his home at Valley Forge, consisted of J. Starkey, Superintendent of Camden County In- sane Asylum ; Samuel Wood, for thirty years chairman of the Board of Managers of that institution, and Colonel Robert Jaggard, an officer with General Fisher in the Civil War, and now Steward of the Camden County Almshouse. Other who were seen about the Valley Forge Park during the day were Colonel William G. Schauffler, William Monroe, E. Frank Pine, Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler, Jr., Colonel William Libbey, of Governor Fielder's staff, and a member of the faculty of Princeton Universitv, and State Senator I. T. Nichols, of Cumberland county, N. J. ■ New Jersej- is nothing if not patriotic, and when John H. Fort, of Camden, one of whose ancestors was a Jersey soldier of the Revolution, after a visit to the Valley Forge camping ground in December, 191 1, called public attention to the fact that there was no monument to honor the Jersey Brigade, a movement was immediately started by Camden Lodge of Elks, No. 293, of which Lodge Mr. Fort is a Past Exalted Ruler, to have the State provide a suitable permanent memorial. Other Jersey Elks' Lodges co-operated, and no trouble was experienced in getting a $5,000 appropriation from the Legislature in the winter of 1912. Governor Woodrow Wilson signed the bill and put the matter in the hands of a Commission composed of John H. Fort, of Camden, president; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken ; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David B. Mulford, of Bridgeton. The Valley Forge Commission granted a commanding site for the monument on the spot where the Jersey Brigade had their huts. The monument was designed b_v Scott M. Long. It is of Barre granite, 10 feet square at the base and 27 feet in height, surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of the Jerse}' Brigade — figure and uniform showing evidence of the hardships encountered by the sturdy patriots who camped that winter at Valley Forge. The bronze figure is eight feet in height and weighs 3,000 pounds. The bronze tablet on the base of the monument bears the inscription already noted. CAMDEN "DAILY COURIER" FAVORITE SONS OF NEW JERSEY AT DEDICATION. Details of Militia of State Located at Camden at Valley Forge. MISS MARGARET WILSON WILL UNVEIL HANDSOME MONUMENT. Valley Forge, Pa., June 13. — Scores of New Jersey's favorite sons and details of infantry, artillery and Naval Reserve from Camden are gathered on this historic Revo- 83 lutionary Camping Ground this afternoon awaiting the signal to dedicate with fitting ceremony the handsome shaft which stands swathed in the stars and stripes, near the spot where the Jersey warriors were encamped during the trying winter of 1777-1778. At this hour all is in readiness for the ceremony. Belated parties are momentarily arriving on the field, and the Camden troops have already taken their stations. A more beautiful scene is hard to imagine than the one presented by the panorama of rolling country and green woodland. The presence of so many soldiers and civilians to do honor to the Revolutionary heroes, who trod these sun-kissed fields at a time when King Winter held his sway, cannot help but thrill one with patriotic fervor and bring forcibly to mind the privations and sufferings encountered by General Washington's brave little army in inadequate winter quarters. The arrival of Governor Fielder and his staff officers was possibly the most im- portant event of the day so far, but the arrival of Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of President Wilson, who later will unveil the monument, was also a most noteworthy event. Present on the camp ground is a battalion of four companies from the Third Regi- ment, National Guard ; the Regimental Band, and a division of men from the Camden Battalion, Naval Reserve, as well as a two-gun battery from Battery B, Field Artillery, of the same city. The military and civic societies and distinguished visitors are forming at the sta- tion for the march to the monument. Governor Fielder and his staff will form in this parade. The program of ceremonies late this afternoon is as follows: On arrival, the battery will fire a salute in honor of the Governor. The State officials. Commission of New Jersey and the Valley Forge Park Commission of Penn- sylvania, New Jersey State Senators and members of the House of Assembly and guests will occupy the grand stand opposite the monument. After the invocation by the Rev. Otis J. Glazebrook, of Elizabeth, John Henry Fort, the president of the New Jersey Com- mission, will present the monument to Governor Fielder, and then Miss Wilson will release the covering that veils it amid a salute of 13 guns from the battery. Governor Fielder will accept the monument and will present it. Ex-Governor Pennypacker prob- ably will accept it as the representative of Governor Tener, who announces that he will be unable to be present, and it will then be formally turned over to the Valley Forge Park Commission. The orator will be Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College. The monument is of Barre granite. It is 27 feet high and surmounted b}^ a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of that period. It is heroic in size and was made by the John Williams Bronze Foundry, of New York. The cost of the monu- ment was $5,000. The monument was erected under the supervision of John Henry Fort, of Camden ; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield ; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken ; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, of Bridgeton, the Commission who were appointed by the then Governor Wilson under a legislative act which was introduced at the request of Camden Lodge of Elks. Among the civic societies and officials present are the Sons of the Revolution, sev- eral Chapters of the Daughters of the Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, State Historical Society, State Department Commander John W. Bodine, G. A. R., of New Jersey, and staff; Camden, Philadelphia, Norristown and Trenton Lodges of Elks; Patriotic Order Sons of America, and a delegation of Knights of Columbus from New Jersey. 84 NEWARK "EVENING NEWS" UNVEIL NEW JERSEY SHAFT AT VALLEY FORGE. Patriotic Throng at Dedication of Monument to State Brigade in the War of Independence. PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER OFFICIATES. Valle}'^ Forge, Pa., June i8. — Hosts of Jerseymen made pilgrimage to this historic spot to-day to witness the unveiling and dedication of a $5,000 monument, erected by the State of New Jersey to the memon,- of her gallant sons who participated In the Nation's struggle for freedom. Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of the President, will unveil the monument this afternoon after it has been formally turned over to Governor Fielder, of New Jersey, by John Henry Fort, president of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Commission, which was named by President Wilson while he was Governor of New Jersey. Governor Fielder will turn over the shaft to Governor John K. Tener, of this State, and the latter in turn will present it to the Valley Forge Park Commission. The reason why to-day was selected for the dedication is that this is the one hun- dred and thirty-fifth anniversary of the date when the New Jersey troops left Valley Forge. They marched out under orders from General Washington to head off the flee- ing British forces who had just evacuated Philadelphia. President Wilson will not be able to attend the ceremonies, but Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison, of New Jersey, will be among the distinguished guests. The army of visitors who arrived during the day included prominent citizens and officials of the neighboring State. As a guard of honor. Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler, of New Jersey, assigned a battalion from the Third Regiment to attend the unveiling with the Third Regiment Band of forty pieces; a division of fifty men from the New Jersey Naval Reserve, and a two-gun battery from Battery B, of Camden. The artillery force arrived at the park early in the day to place in position the guns that will fire a salute, and the troops came later, leaving Camden at noon. When Governor Fielder and his staff arrived they were escorted in parade from the railroad station to the park. The militia headed the march, followed by lodges and delegations that were on hand. Upon the arrival at the monument a salute of thir- teen guns was fired in Governor Fielder's honor, and then the exercises began. The invocation was offered by Rev. Otis A. Glazebrook, of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mr. Fort delivered his address. Owing to illness General J. Madison Drake, also of Elizabeth, and a member of the Commission, was not able to attend the exercises. Gen- eral Drake was to have been the marshal of the day. The New Jersey monument marks the spot near where the infantry from that State in the Continental Army encamped during the bitter winter of 1777-1778, when so many of that band of patriots died from exposure, hunger and disease. The shaft is one of four erected in honor of the soldier dead, the others having been dedicated by the States of Pennsylvania, Maine and Massachusetts. A large statue of a soldier, in the Continental uniform, showing signs of service, surmounts the great shaft of Barre granite that stands 27 feet in height. The bronze figure is eight feet tall, and stands in the position of a picket on guard over the graves of the dead. The monument was designed and erected by John Williams, Inc., of New York. S5 On the base of the shaft there is a bronze tablet, over which there is a facsimile of the first seal of New Jersey. The tablet bears the following inscription: "Erected by the State* of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden ; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve ; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. December 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." In opening his address, Mr. Fort told of how, eighteen months ago, he conceived the idea that the State should erect the monument to mark the spot where the Jersey Brigade of Infantry encamped 135 years ago. In part, Mr. Fort's speech follows: "It was not from lack of love of those men who fought, bled and died for that great cause that Valley Forge has lain so long unrestored and in the fallow, but because of its dark and sad history, written in the blood and tears of the ancestors of many of us — for a long time it was looked upon more as a charnel-house than a place to be re- membered in Revolutionary history. In 1777, after the battle of Brandywine, where Washington's Army was worsted and where the New Jersey Brigade opened the fight and maintained the heat of the battle almost a half day, the Continental Army re- treated toward Philadelphia with the English in full pursuit, and as winter was on, Washington sent General Duportail, his French chief of staif, to find some hidden fast- ness where water and wood could be found for his men, and serve not only as winter quarters, but as an inaccessible retreat. "The place selected was near the old Valley Forge, in Chester and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill. The region was covered with a pristine growth of trees, and its hills and valleys formed a natural fort ground, with sloping hills, to oppose an advancing foe, and precipitous bluffs for artillery defenses on rear and flanks. So that 8,000 men entrenched, and with redoubts and earthworks, would be equal to 20,000 outside. Unfortunately the Con- tinental Army arrived there so hastily that before log huts and other means of shelter could be thrown up, a blizzard that came sweeping over the hills and valleys — and the men almost shoeless and many scantily clad — almost decimated the army, and hundreds were placed out of service because of want of proper clothing to wear. "After the men had gotten log huts thrown up and earthworks and redoubts and rifle pits constructed, they were a little more comfortable, but pinching hunger was at the door, and ofttimes, without a mouthful of food, the men stood picket duty, or with a prayer for success went supperless to their rough straw beds. Smallpox and enteric diseases broke out, and many of the 8,000 men, mostly sons of the farmers of the old Colonies, died off like sheep. Of this number 3,500 died here and sleep in unknown, unmarked graves. On every hillside and in every valley little stone piles are or were for a hundred years the only markers to the bravery and sacrifice of these young heroes of that day. Of all this number — nearly one-half of that army — but one grave is known, that of Colonel Waterman. And the remains of those 3,500 patriots have long since moldered and gone back to mother earth, and these beautiful trees, this shrubbery and this beautiful grass we see to-day, was fed and enriched by their blood, their flesh and very bones. "Well, then, my friends, with a knowledge of the facts from tradition handed down in my own family from a great-grandfather, who, with a brother and seven cousins, was with Washington and the New Jersey Brigade from its first fight to the surrender of Cornwallis, you can easily conceive that when I was informed that while Pennsyl- vania, Maine and Massachusetts had markers here to indicate the site occupied by their troops of the twelve States then there represented, that it was no idle boast when I told Mr. Jenkins that I would get a monument for New Jersey." 86 Giving a history of how Valley Forge Park came to be laid out, Mr. Fort said that some few years ago some ladies, inspired by a desire to revive the history of Val- ley Forge, rented the old farm house near the station which was Washington's Head- quarters. "These ladies secured a lease upon this property and, meeting with lack of encour- agement, were finally joined by the Patriotic Sons of America, and finally the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania was induced to purchase a part of the old camp ground and a Commission formed that has, by other appropriations, acquired additional land and placed this park in its present splendid condition. "This is the fourth State monument to be erected, and it is hoped that every one of the original twelve States that had troops here will add to the monuments till it is placed rightfully of record as the Mecca of American independence. "The monument dedicated to-day was obtained b\' the assistance given by the Lodges of New Jersey of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The Valley Forge Park Commission will not allow the expenditure of over $5,000 for any monu- ment, or less, so you will understand that spirit and character are more represented than size, and yet the patriotism of both the Commission and contractor have given you a monument that I doubt could be duplicated for almost twice that amount. ''As the president of the Commission, I now call upon Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of the President of the United States, to unveil this shaft, and may it endure for centuries that our children's children and their grand and great-grandchildren may visit this spot to receive renewed enthusiasm and renewed love and devotion for those noble ancestors who suffered and many who died here, before our Nation was even born, that we might have a free country and government of our own." CAMDEN "POST-TELEGRAM" EDITORIAL A NOTABLE EVENT. In a manner creditable alike to the Commission in charge of the affair and to the State of New Jersey whose authority they exercised, the Valley Forge Monument was unveiled and dedicated yesterday. And in this connection it is appropriate to say that a special meed of praise is due John H. Fort, Esq., of this city, who initiated the Val- ley Forge memorial movement, brought it before the Legislature, was appointed presi- dent of the Commission and has devoted a great deal of time and energy to the suc- cessful completion of the work. Inspired solely by the spirit of patriotism — he had an- cestors in the Jersey Line — Mr. Fort has performed notable service to the State. The monument itself is the best evidence of the faithful and intelligent accomplishment of the patriotic duty assumed by the gentlemen of the Commission. If there is any cause for regret in connection with the dedication it is that New Jersey was not more largely represented by the higher classes of its citizenship. The Governor was there, but the Legislature, the judiciary, the bar, the clerg>', although re- ceiving individual invitations, were indifferent to the call for personal attendance to honor the memory of the patriots of 1777-1778. It remained for the "common people" to attend and by their patriotic interest in the event show that they appreciated the sac- rifices and the service rendered by those who gave their lives to the cause of liberty. Theirs is the satisfaction of knowing that the Revolution was essentially the struggle of the "common people" ; that while the property and educated classes were in the main supporters of monarchical institutions, the flame of liberty was lighted in the home of the humble, and the armies of the Revolution were recruited from the lower walks of life. 87 While love of liberty remains enshrined in the hearts of the "common people" the sac- rifices of the patriots of the Revolution will not have been made in vain; the American Republic shall not perish from the earth. CAMDEN "POST-TELEGRAM" EDITORIAL New Jersey has led the way which the original thirteen States, at least, should not fail to follow, by erecting a handsome memorial to the heroes of Jersey nativity in the Continental Army on the site of their camp at Valley Forge. While no battle was fought there, the camp at Valley Forge was the scene of one of the most critical events in American history. It seems paradoxical to speak of that winter of suffering and death as a period of recuperation for the Continental Army, but this, indeed, it was. Though nearly half the army brought into this camp perished from indescribable priva- tions, this impregnable position became a recruiting ground and a field bf discipline from which the force marched out with renewed courage and hope. Valley Forge was the scene of a turning point in our National destinies of scarcely less importance than the field of Gettysburg; and the soil which holds 3,500 heroes of the Revolution in un- marked graves should be no less sacred to us. Let every State remember its dead lying in this sanctified spot as New Jersey has done. PHILADELPHIA "PRESS" EDITORIAL VALLEY FORGE MEMORIALS. The graceful and significant monument dedicated at Valley Forge the past week to the memory of the New Jersey soldiers of the Continental Army who were at the encampment during the terrible winter of 1777-1778, ought to be the beginning of a series of memorials of a similar character erected by other States. The events of that fateful winter are pretty familiar even to the casual reader of American history. The months spent at Valley Forge were of the gravest importance in the struggle for independence, as important as some of the victories won in battles. In demonstration of heroism, fortitude and patriotic purpose the experience outranked most battles of the war. It was here that Washington, under the most discouraging and adverse conditions, kept the little army together when it had been in the greatest dan- ger of going to pieces — a result that would have proved fatal to the cause. No one else could have done this as Washington did ; possibly no one else could have done it at all. When the army retired to the valley and surrounding hills in Chester County in the harshness of winter it was without shelter of any kind. The troops were insuffi- ciently clad; most of them were ragged; many were without shoes; they were in want of blankets, which thej^ could not get. Congress had utterly failed to supply their sim- plest needs, and the quartermaster's department was almost hopelessly inefficient until a change was made later, while the Pennsylvania Assembly, which had failed in its duty to the men of the Pennsylvania Line, was passing resolutions demanding that the army be kept in the field and actively fighting instead of going into winter quarters. It was a dark hour both for the army and its commander, for Washington, with all his other troubles, was then resisting the intrigues of a cabal seeking to oust him from the command. But the men, with indomitable spirit, proceeded to take such care of themselves as they could. They constructed huts out of the trees of the forest, and they went after provisions wherever they were to be found. Privation and hunger cost many a life, but recruits were obtained, and the winter was partly spent under skilled officers in instruction and discipline. A great moral victory was achieved in those terrible months, for the country which could understand the heroic sacrifices and sufferings of Valley Forge could not itself falter. If the army had not been held to- gether their independence would have been indefinitely delayed. The men who bore these privations and who struggled so courageously and patriotically in the face of them deserve to be remembered by all succeeding genera- tions. The grounds occupied as the camp, in which there are many unmarked graves of heroes who perished there, have been marked, ornamented and improved under the authority and at the expense of the State and now constitute a beautiful park. All but two or three of the thirteen original States were represented among the troops at Val- ley Forge, and each must naturally desire to commemorate the services and sacrifices of its patriots. Nothing can do this more impressively than a suitable and imperishable monument such as New Jersey has erected and dedicated. No heroes in any age ever more de- served such tributes to their memorv. NEWARK "EVENING STAR' MISS WILSON WILL UNVEIL MEMORIAL OF NEW JERSEY AT VALLEY FORGE. Monument on Historic Field to be Dedicated on June i8. The Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey has about completed arrangements for the dedication and unveiling of the monument on the site occupied bj' the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777-1778, on Wednesday afternoon, June 18. Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler has designated as a guard of honor a battalion of four companies from the Third Regiment, a band of forty pieces, a division of fifty men from the Naval Reserve, and a two-gun battery from Battery B, of Camden, with a platoon of forty men for firing salutes. The troops will leave Camden at 12 o'clock on the i8th of June and proceed to the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, where a special train will convey them to Valley Forge station. The battery will leave in the morn- ing to get there in time to place their guns and thirty-two horses in position. FIVE THOUSAND INVITATIONS. The Commission will send out 5,000 invitations to all parts of the State, and ex- pect representatives from the Senate and Assembly and all the State departments. Invi- tations generally will be extended to all fraternal and patriotic orders to attend in a body, or individually, as they desire. The Commission visited President Wilson and has received a letter from him ex- pressing his great regret that he cannot promise to attend, and stating that his daugh- ter. Miss Margaret Wilson, has accepted an invitation to be present and unveil the monument. The ceremonies of dedication and unveiling will be under the direction of the Com- mission, and are as follows: 89 The military and lodges and visitors will form in procession at the new Reading station, at Valley Forge, opposite Washington's Headquarters, and with the Governor of New Jerse}^, James F. Fielder, and his staff, proceed to the site of the monument. On arrival the battery will fire a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the Governor. The State officials. Commission of New Jersey and the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, State officials and Senators and Assemblymen and as many invited guests as possible will occupy the stand erected opposite the monument. A fine musical program has been arranged by Professor Joseph Bossle, leader of the Third Regiment Band. MISS WILSON WILL UNVEIL IT. After an invocation and music, John Henry Fort, president of the New Jersey Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission, will present the monument to the Governor of New Jersey, and then Miss Wilson will release the covering that veils it and, amid a salute of thirteen guns from the battery, the monument will stand out in all its beauty. Governor Fielder will accept it from the New Jersey Corftmission and present it to the Governor of Pennsylvania, or his representative, who will then formally turn it over from the State of New Jersey to the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania, which will thereafter take care of the monument and its maintenance. The monument is of Barre granite, and is a handsome piece of monumental work. It is 27 feet high, and surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of that period, showing service, in the position of a picket on guard. It is heroic in size, and was made by the John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry, of New York, that casts most of the Government bronzes. Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison, of New Jersey, has signified his intention of being present, if possible, as well as the Congressmen from New Jersey. PHILADELPHIA "PUBLIC LEDGER" ELEANOR WILSON UNVEILS MONUMENT. Draws Aside Flag Revealing New Jersey's Shaft at Valley Forge. The hills of Valley Forge echoed a salute of thirteen guns, yesterdaj- afternoon, when Miss Eleanor Wilson, daughter of the President, drew aside a drapery of the American flag, revealing a stately granite shaft on the site occupied by the New Jersey troops during the terrible winter of 1777-1778. The monument was erected by the State of New Jersey. As Miss Wilson, holding the National standard in her arms, stood before the im- posing memorial, a sustained cheer from more than 3,000 persons greeted her. A chorus of 25 children from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Camden, sang "Hail New Jersey," accompanied by the music of a military band. Soldiers of the Third Regiment, Organ- ized Militia of New Jersey, and a division of the State Naval Reserve stood at atten- tion. The salute was fired by Battery B, of the New Jersey Artillery. Those taking part in the ceremonies were conveyed to Valley Forge on special trains, leaving this city at i P. M. They assembled at Washington's Headquarters, near the station, and marched to the monument. Thousands of visitors followed the automobiles. The procession included a battalion of soldiers of the Third New Jersey Infantry Regi- ment, the Naval Reserve, members of the Valley Forge Park Commission, State officials and civic organizations. 90 m. Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey, and ex-Governor Samuel W. Penny- packer, of Pennsylvania, accompanied Miss Wilson in an automobile. Mr. Pennypacker represented Governor Tener. The battery fired a salute in honor of the Governor. The Rev. J. W. Riddle, of Valley Forge, offered an invocation. John H. Fort, chairman of the Commission in charge of the erection of the monument, acted as master of ceremonies. He made the speech of presentation of the monument to Governor Fielder. In accepting the memorial for the State of New Jersey, Governor Fielder dwelt upon the important part taken by his State during the War of Independence, and called attention to the bravery and ability of General William Maxwell, who commanded the Jersey Brigade at Valley Forge. In accepting the monument for Pennsylvania and de- livering it to the Valley Forge Park Commission, Mr. Pennypacker called attention to the intimate relations existing between the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. William H. Sayen, president of the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsyl- vania, made the final speech of acceptance. PHILADELPHIA " RECORD " MILITIA MAKES GREAT HIT AT VALLEY FORGE. Infantrymen, Naval Reserve and Battery B Applauded Along March. HANDSOME SHAFT UNVEILED BY MISS ELEANOR WILSON. Valley Forge, Pa., June 19. — The citizens of this historic little hamlet will long remember the visit of the New Jerseymen, and the handsome shaft, topped with its heroic figure of a sentry on duty with the Continental Army, unveiled and dedicated yesterday bj' the sons and daughters of the Garden State, which will stand as a lasting memorial of granite and bronze to the heroism and fortitude displayed by that portion of General Washington's little army, recruited from across the broad reaches of the Delaware River. By far the largest delegation of Jerseymen who came here to do honor to the men who so bravely withstood the rigors of that long past winter camp of 1777-1778 was from the city of Camden. In the Camden party were many old soldiers and their wives, professional men and others. The city contributed almost entirely the military forces that went to make up the display of present-day soldiery at the gathering. These forces included a provisional regiment of four companies from the Third New Jersey Militia, a battalion of Naval Reserve and a battery of two guns from Battery B. CROWD GATHERS EARLY. Long before the time set for the unveiling and dedication of the costly memorial had arrived crowds of visitors began scaling the hill near the summit of which was located the camp of the Jersey Continental troops and the brow of which is now graced with the new shaft. The visitors from New Jersey had their party augmented by the arrival of many residents from along the main line and from nearby towns and vil- lages. That Valley Forge is proud of the new acquisition to the beauties of the famous camp ground was evidenced by the proprietory air displayed by the camp guides, to say nothing of the admiring glances directed towards the graceful memorial by the park guards, whose duties for a time yesterday were more or less usurped by the soldier boys from Camden. 91 BATTERY B ARRIVES. The boys of Battery B were the first troops to arrive. The work of detraining horses and guns required a comparatively short time, and the agility and order dis- played by the Camden artillerymen was freely commented upon by the villagers, who watched the gunners manipulate their field pieces with the precision of veteran war- riors. The gunners quickly formed their column, and long before the arrival of the civilian guests of honor had take up a position in the rear of the speaker's stand, await- ing the order to fire a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the original thirteen States of the Union. Next to arrive was a special train from Philadelphia conveying the four companies of the Third Regiment and the detachment of the Naval Reserve with their piece of ordnance. Hardly had these commands detrained when a second long special pulled into the handsome station the Reading Railroad has just completed, and Governor Fielder, surrounded with his staff of gold laced and immaculate officers, descended to the platform. New Jersey's Chief Executive was given a warm reception by the Penn- sylvanians and by the men of his own State already at Washington's old headquarters. CAMDEN "DAILY COURIER' NEW JERSEY DEDICATES VALLEY FORGE MONUMENT. Miss Eleanor Wilson^ President's Daughter, Unveils Handsome Memorial. STATE'S HEROES PRAISED. Governor Fielder, Militia and Large Crowd Throng Historic Camp Site. Third among the original thirteen States to so honor its martyr patriots. New Jer- sey, through Governor Fielder, the State Militia and almost 5,000 citizens, yesterday afternoon officially dedicated at Valley Forge a granite and bronze monument erected to the memory of the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, of the Continental Army. President Wilson, when Governor of the State,, appointed the Commission that had charge of the project, and his daughter, Miss Eleanor Wilson, came from Washington to the historic camp site yesterday to unveil New Jersey's tribute to the heroes of the dread winter of 1777-1778. Apart from Pennsylvania's setting aside of the camping ground as a State Reserve, New Jersey was preceded in honoring the Continental heroes only by Maine and Massachusetts, among the States whose soldier-dead sleep in the quiet hills of Valley Forge. Jersey Day at the site of Washington's winter quarters during that severest of crisis in the War for Independence was, in the words of John Henry Fort, president of the Monument Commission, "blest of blue sky and cooling breezes." Long though the program was, spectators were put to no discomfort. A special stand was built front- ing the shaft and statue. The overflow, and it was one of great numbers, found more than sufficient room beside the line of Jersey Militia and Naval Reserve that drew about the monument in hollow square formation. Miss Wilson, the guest of Mrs. James L. Pennypacker, wife of the Haddonfield member of the special commission, sat with her hostess and Miss Isabelle Hagner on the stand beside Governor James F. Fielder, ex-Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, of Penn- svlvania, who was representing Governor Tener, of Pennsylvania ; the members of the 92 Valley Forge and Monument Commissions and the delegates from various patriotic bodies interested in the honoring of the New Jerse}^ Continentals. MISS WILSON FIRST ON GROUND. Miss Wilson, upon her arrival in Philadelphia, was met by Mrs. Pennypacker. The President's daughter was accompanied only by Miss Isabelle Hagner, social secretary to Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and at one time social secretary to Mrs. Theodore Roose- velt. Both women were taken by Mrs. Pennypacker in an automobile through Fairmount Park and along the beautiful drives to Valley Forge, arriving there first of all who attended the special dedication ceremon3^ Governor Fielder's staff was present in the persons of Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler, Jr., Colonel William Libbej-, Colonel William G. Schauffler, Captain S. M. Dickinson and Captain Perkins. The Valley Forge Commission was represented by ex-Governor Pennypacker, J. P. Hale Jenkins, of Norristown ; W. A. Patton, of Radnor ; John T. Windrim, of Devon ; General T. E. Wiedersham, of St. David's, and Colonel W. H. Sayen, of Philadelphia, president of that body. General Ben Fisher, Robert Jaggard, J. Starkey, E. Frank Pine, William Monroe and Samuel Wood composed a special delegation from Camden county, and prominent among the attendants were Bishop McFaul, of the Catholic Diocese of New Jersey, and Congressman William J. Browning, of the First New Jersey district. Col- onel Samuel S. Hartranft was present as superintendent of Valley Forge Park. The unveiling exercises began immediately after the arrival of the two special trains that left the Reading Terminal at i o'clock and unloaded at Valley Forge three- quarters of an hour later. Assembling at Washington's Headquarters, a battalion of the Third Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey, under command of Major C. E. Shivers; a division of the Naval Reserve of New Jersey, the Valley Forge Park Com- mission and the guests for the day paraded along General Huntingdon avenue to the monument site. The Third Regiment Band, led by Joseph Bossle, headed the parade, and among the marchers were the delegations from the Sons of the Revolution, Daugh- ters of the Revolution, Patriotic Order Sons of America, Knights of Columbus and the Order of Elks. State Department Commander John W. Bodine, with his Camden staff, headed a detachment of Grand Army men. GUNS BOOM IN GOVERNOR FIELDER'S HONOR. A place of honor was reserved in the stand for the Commission which President Wilson appointed during his term as Governor of New Jersey. The members were John H. Fort, of Camden; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David B. Mulford, of Bridge- ton. Mr. Fort, speaking for himself and colleagues, declared that the monument to the Jersey heroes of Valley Forge was authorized by former Governor Wilson at a cost of $5,000, and that the shaft and bronze figure cost the full amount of the appropria- tion, the expenses of the Commission having been borne by the individual members. Battery B, of the New Jersey Militia, opened the dedication program with the re- quired military salute to Governor Fielder. Rev. J. W. Riddle, of Valley Forge, a commentator on the Revolutionary history of the locality, stepped to the fore and offered invocation. Prayer was followed closely by the doxology, played by the band and sung by the audience, with the boys' choir of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, of Camden, leading. John Henry Fort then took command of the exercises, and with introductory remarks relative to the significance of the occasion, formally presented to Governor Fielder New Jersey's tribute to her sons at Valley Forge. "This," said Mr. Fort, "is an honor that I have long sought to pay to the men who starved and bled with Washington in the crisis of that winter spent among these 93 templed hills. New Jersey, through the Legislature and President Wilson, has made possible the immortalization of her soldiers' sacrifice, and to-day our President's daugh- ter has accompanied us here to prove his interest in this ceremony. It was only at the last moment that Mr. Wilson himself reluctantly withdrew consideration of being pres- ent here, but press of business compelled him to stay in Washington." TRIBUTE TO HEROIC JERSEYMEN. As the chairman of the Commission turned over to Governor Fielder and the State of New Jersey the granite and bronze memorial. Miss Wilson took her stand beside the flag-draped shaft and prepared to unveil it to the view of the audience. The flags were heavy and it took all the strength the President's daughter could command, but just as the mortars sent out the first thundering of the thirteen-gun salute to the orig- inal States the flags slipped over the tattered helmet of the bronze militiaman and dropped without further difficulty to the green below. The audience cheered, Miss Wilson bowed and accepted from the Monument Commission a great bouquet of Amer- ican Beauty roses, and then as of one voice the throng burst forth inta "Hail New Jersey," the song of the State Miss Wilson was honoring. Governor Fielder was brief in his remarks. He paid a tribute to Washington and the 8,000 soldiers who went with him to the winter camp at Valley Forge in Decem- ber of 1777, among them the heroic Jerseymen who were shortly to see their own State open to the ravages of the British forces. In Governor Fielder's opinion the fact that 3,500 of the 8,000 Colonials who rallied with Washington and died during the en- campment is sufficient testimony to the hardships there must have been to endure. With words to this effect, the Chief Executive accepted for his State the new memorial. From Governor Fielder ex-Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker accepted the finished tribute to New Jersey's Revolutionary sacrifice, promising to care for it as a lasting memorial and thanking Governor Fielder in the name of the State of Pennsylvania for the interest the sister State has taken in the beautification of the Valley Forge reserve. As president of the Valley Forge Commission, William H. Sayen, with a word of com- mendation for New Jersey sentiment, declared the official acceptance of the monument by the State of Pennsylvania. MONUMENT IS HANDSOME Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College at New Brunswick, made a notable review of the history of Valley Forge. He told of Jersey's pride in the heroes of the winter of 1777-1778, mentioning especially General William Maxwell, member of a noble Irish family and an early Revolutionary patriot, who was in command of the New Jersey Militiamen during the encampment of Washington's men. He was fol- lowed by Bishop McFaul, who pronounced the benediction, and, in concluding the ex- ercises, the cannon boomed once and "taps" was sounded across the peaceful hills. June 18 was chosen for the monument unveiling with a particular purpose in view. Not only was June the last month in which Washington remained at Valley Forge, but it was as well the 135th anniversary of the evacuation of Philadelphia by General Lord Howe, an occasion that gave rise to the valorous heroism on the part of New Jersey Colonials, who followed the British leader and harassed his troops. But primarily yes- terday was to New Jersey a day of hallowed memories, an hour in which a Common- wealth's loving tribute might be paid to the quota of its sons who sleep in unidentified graves upon the slopes of Valley Forge. The monument unveiled yesterday was designed by Scott M. Long, the figure at the top having been cast by Governmental contractors. The height is 27 feet, with an eight-foot figure, representing the New Jersey Continental, cast in bronze. The latter 94' portrays the Valley Forge militiaman, in tattered uniform, facing with hardened visage the blasts of winter. At the base is inscribed: "Erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantrj' Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden ; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. Decem- ber 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." CAMDEN "ARGUS' NEW JERSEY'S TRIBUTE TO HER REVOLUTIONARY WAR HEROES. The beautiful granite monument erected on the historical grounds at Valley Forge to the memory of the New Jerse\' Brigade, Infantry Line, which, with General George Washington and other troops of the Continental Army, spent the memorable winter of 1777-1778 in camp there, was unveiled by Miss Eleanor Wilson, daughter of President Woodrow Wilson, yesterday afternoon, while nearly 5,000 voices rang with the strains of "Hail New Jersey," the adopted hymn of that State, and thirteen cannons boomed a salute. The unveiling exercises began immediately after the arrival of the two special trains that left the Reading Terminal at i o'clock and unloaded at Valley Forge three- quarters of an hour later. Assembling at Washington's Headquarters, a battalion of the Third Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey, under command of Major C. E. Shivers; a division of the Naval Reserve of New Jersey, the Valley Forge Park Com- mission and the guests for the day paraded to the monument site. The Third Regi- ment Band, led by Joseph Bossle, headed the parade, and among the marchers were the delegations from the Sons of the Revolution, Daughters of the Revolution, P. O. S. of A., Knights of Columbus and the B. P. O. Elks. State Department Commander John W. Bodine, with his Camden staflF, headed a detachment of Grand Army men. A place of honor was reserved in the stand for the Commission, composed of John H. Fort, of Camden; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield; A. J. Demarest, of Ho- boken ; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David B. Mulford, of Bridgeton. Mr. Fort, speaking for himself and colleagues, declared that the monument to the Jer- sey heroes of Valley Forge was authorized by former Governor Wilson at a cost of $5,000, and that the shaft and bronze figure cost the full amount of the appropriation, the expenses of the Commission having been borne by the individual members. Battery B, of the New Jersey Militia, opened the dedication program with the re- quired military salute to Governor Fielder. Rev. J. W. Riddle, of Valley Forge, a commentator on the Revolutionary history of the locality, offered invocation. Prayer was followed closely by the doxology, played by the band and sang by the audience, with the boys' choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of Camden, leading. John Henry Fort then took command of the exercises, and with introductory remarks relative to the significance of the occasion formally presented to Governor Fielder New Jersey's tribute to her sons at Valley Forge. "This," said Mr. Fort, "is an honor that I have long sought to pay to the men who starved and bled with Washington in the crisis of that winter spent among these templed hills. New Jersey, through the Legislature and President Wilson, has made possible the immortalization of her soldiers' sacrifice, and to-day our President's daugh- ter has accompanied us here to prove his interest in this ceremony. It was only at the last moment that Mr. Wilson himself reluctantly withdrew consideration of being pres- ent here, but press of business compelled him to stay in Washington." 95 Lawyer Fort, as chairman of the Commission, then turned over to Governor Fielder and the State of New Jersey the monument. Governor Fielder was brief in his re- marks accepting the same, and then former Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker received on behalf of the State of Pennsylvania the care of the monument. Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, at New Brunswick, made a notable review of the history of Valley Forge. The monument unveiled yesterday was designed by Scott M. Long, the figure at the top having been cast by Governmental contractors. The height is 27 feet, with an eight-foot figure, representing the New Jersey Continental, cast in bronze. The latter portrays the Valley Forge militiaman, in tattered uniform, facing with hardened visage the blasts of winter. At the base is inscribed: "Erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. Decem- ber 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." John H. Fort, chairman of the Commission, was the instigator of the monument. He took the matter up with Camden Lodge of Elks, who appointed a committee with Mr. Fort as chairman, and they secured the co-operation of other Elks' Lodges in the State in having the Legislature make the necessary appropriation for the monument. PHILADELPHIA "NORTH AMERICAN" PRESIDENT WILSON'S DAUGHTER UNVEILS MONUMENT TO JERSEY PATRIOTS. She is Chief Figure in Valley Forge Ceremony. TROOPS IN PARADE. Five Thousand Persons Witness Exercises on Field Where Washington Camped. A memorial monument to New Jersey's patriots in the Revolutionary War was un- veiled at Valley Forge yesterday afternoon. Miss Eleanor Randolph Wilson, youngest daughter of the President, was the chief figure in the historic ceremonies. Situated in a central section of the ground, where the New Jersey contingent of Washington's Army spent the memorable winter of suffering in 1777 and 1778, the monument represents the State's first contribution to that sacred ground. It was there that 11,000 patriots battled against the rigors of one of the severest winters ever known, and where 3,500 of them lie buried. A covering of red, white and blue silk hid the monument from the 5,000 persons who had gathered to do honor to the noble dead of the Revolutionary period. Miss Wilson came to perform for the first time in a really serious capacity at a big State function. She pulled at the cords which bound the silk banners around the granite and bronze. They fluttered for a moment, then dropped to the ground, and New Jersey's offering to the memorial statues in historic Valley Forge became a fact. The 5,000 persons cheered heartily, while a battery at the rear of the reviewing stand fired a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the thirteen original States. A boys' choir from St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, of Camden, sang "Hail 96 New Jersey"; then the band of the Third New Jersey Regiment played "The Star Spangled Banner." Miss Wilson, in the meanwhile, ran back to her party, to become a spectator of the scene rather than the main picture in the spectacle. ANNIVERSARY OF EVACUATION. Yesterday was chosen for the ceremonies, because it was on June i8, 1778, that Washington's Army evacuated Valley Forge, after six months of the greatest hardships. It was also, on June 18, 1778, that Washington ordered the New Jersey troops to pro- ceed toward Philadelphia and harrass and repulse, if possible, the British forces which were leaving that city after a long occupancy. To John Henry Fort, a lawyer of Camden, is given the chief credit for the move- ment which finally led to the unveiling of the great monument to Jersey's heroes in the war. On a visit to Valley Forge, Mr. Fort observed that the ground occupied by the several thousand New Jersey patriots during the Revolution was unmarked. He in- augurated the plan to erect the monument; obtained the aid of President Wilson, then Governor of the State, and the Legislature finally indorsed the project and appropriated $5,000 to advance the work. The monument rests on a commanding site; it is of Barre granite, ten feet square at the base and twenty-seven feet high. It is surmounted by a bronze figure of a Con- tinental, in the uniform of the Jersey Brigade. The soldier is eight feet high and weighs 3,000 pounds. At the base a bronze tablet bears the following inscription: "Erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersev Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden ; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. Decem- ber 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." Two special trains of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway relieved the regular trains of the bulk of the traffic that was destined for Valley Forge. These trains left the Reading Terminal at i o'clock, and the second train carried the notables who were to participate in the ceremonies. Miss Wilson motored to the monument grounds as the guest of Mrs. James L. Pennypacker. The President's daughter was accompanied from Washington by Miss Isabelle Hagner, social secretary to the President's wife. MARCH TO MONUMENT. The elaborate preliminary program arranged by the Monument Commission was carried on without a single mishap. A great procession started at Washington's Head- quarters and marched to the monument. The Third Regiment Band led the parade, fol- lowed by a battalion of the Third Regiment, New Jersey National Guard ; a division of the Naval Reserve, the Valley Forge Park Commission, and the Valley Forge Revo- lutionary Encampment Commission. In the reviewing stand were Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey; Pennsyl- vania Railroad Commissioner Pennypacker, who represented Governor Tener; Adjutant General William F. Sadler, of New Jersey; Bishop McFaul, of the Diocese of Trenton, and members of the Governor's staff. Miss Wilson and her attendants were seated at the right of the reviewing stand. Close by were Colonel William Libbey, of Princeton University; Colonel William G. Schauffler and Captain S. M. Dickinson, the latter a member of the Governor's staff. The ceremonies following the unveiling were quite simple. The presentation of the monument to the Governor of New Jersey was made by John Henry Fort. Governor 97 Fielder, in turn, accepted, and then presented it to Mr. Pennypacker, representing the Governor of Pennsylvania. The monument then vs'as formally delivered to the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania; William H. Sayen, president of the Commission, accepting it on behalf of that body. The oration of the day was delivered by Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, of New Brunswick. The Rev. J. W. Riddle, a Protestant clergyman, of Valley Forge, pronounced the invocation, while the benediction was said by Bishop McFaul. The sounding of "taps" put an end to the ceremonies. The President's daughter, who had shared honors with the memorial statue up to this time, suddenly became the sole attraction. A thousand or more women gathered around Miss Wilson, and New Jersey's dis- tinguished daughter found herself submerged in violent admiration. She made her way to a motorcar, but not until she had shaken at least 500 out- stretched, eager feminine hands. PHILADELPHIA "EVENING TELEGRAPH" EDITORIAL VALLEY FORGE. To-day is memorable in the annals of this State for the dedication of the monu- ment in honor of the New Jersey Brigade that camped at Valley Forge in the darkest winter of the Revolution — the darkness that ushered in the dawn of the French alliance. It is enough to rouse the weakling and to move the callous merely to think of men near home, who yet endured the hardships of scanty clothing, bare feet, frozen ground and short rations, and through all this clung to a cause that seemed desperate. Brief excitement may lead a man to forget his peril, and battle lines maj- be so formed that flight is impossible. But the da}' long and night longer realities of hunger and cold no man forgets, and every soldier knew that our young government was a rope of sand, while the army itself seemed a nest of cabals. What was there for these men except the fortitude which uplifts the patriots with a consciousness similar to the saint's conviction — he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Estimates, parchments and muster rolls can tell us what money is in a bank ; what lands a testator leaves to an heir; how man}- soldiers a general turns over to his suc- cessor. But morale is not to be weighed or counted, bought or sold — it is without money and without price. The morale of Valley Forge was an asset in gaining Yorktown ; it served on the frontiers; it was a bulwark at New Orleans; it came down to Gettys- burg, and it found its way to the Philippines. PHILADELPHIA "PRESS MISS WILSON UNVEILS VALLEY FORGE SHAFT. Daughter of Presidekt Removes Coverixg from Moxument to New Jersey CONTINENT.^LS GOVERNOR FlELDER AND Ex-GOVERNOR PeNNYPACKER Participate. Valley Forge, Pa., June 18. — More beautiful weather could not have been hoped for than that which favored the exercises to-dav in connection with the unveiling of the 9S monument erected here by New Jersey to commemorate the New Jersey Brigade, In- fantry Line, of the Continental Army. It was so delightful that Rev. J. W. Riddle, of Philadelphia, called it to mind in his invocation, and ex-Governor Pennypacker, representing the Governor of Pennsylvania, commented on it in receiving the tall granite shaft, on behalf of this State, from Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey. With military pomp and amid the blare of a band, a salute of thirteen guns and the cheers of 5,000 Jerseyites and Pennsylvanians, Miss Eleanor Wilson, representing her father, the President of the United States, pulled the cord which unloosed a gigantic American banner that had veiled the monument. Her sister, Miss Margaret Wilson, who had been chosen for the honor, was unable to be present. "With remarkable foresight," said John H. Fort, president of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission of New Jersey, "the President provided himself with several charming daughters in order to avoid disappointments on occasions similar to this." He introduced Miss Wilson, who charmed the throng with her unassuming, girlish manners and her ever-present bright smile. Six members of Governor Fielder's staff, in gorgeously gold trimmed uniforms; a provisional battalion of New Jersey infantry ; a division of the New Jersey Naval Reserve, and a battery lent martial color to the occasion. THE PRESENTATION. On behalf of the Commission, which carried out the plans for the erection of the monument, Mr. Fort presented it to Governor Fielder. He in turn presented it to ex- Governor Pennypacker, a member of the Valley Forge Park Commission, who accepted it in behalf of Pennsylvania, and then turned it over to William H. Sayen, president of the Park Commission, which has promised to take care of it perpetually. With the reserves and infantrymen standing with arms presented; with the Third New Jersey Regiment Band playing "Hail New Jersey," while the boys' choir of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Camden, sang the inspiring words; with the guns of Battery B, of Camden, booming out a salute in honor of the original thirteen States, and with the multitude cheering, the scene was inspiring when the President's daughter unveiled the beautiful shaft and the statue which surmounts it. PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER GETS FLAG. At the close of the exercises the great flag was presented to Miss Wilson as a memento. Mr. Fort, on behalf of the Commission, gave her a huge bouquet of Amer- ican Beauty roses. With the Governor's stand on one side, the infantry battalion, composed of Com- panies D and F, of Camden; Company I, of Woodbury, and Company E, of Mount Holly, under command of Major C. W. Shivers, and the Naval Reserve, under com- mand of Lieutenant R. G. Dix, formed a hollow square, in the center of which was the monument. MR. FORT'S ADDRESS. President Fort, of the New Jersey Commission, said the $5,000 appropriated by the Legislature had been expended for the monument, and that the Commissioners had borne their own expenses. "The Park Commission will not let you spend more nor less than $5,000 for such a monument," he said, "but when they saw this beautiful shaft, weighing more than 100,000 pounds, I do not doubt that they had suspicions that we had used more money." Governor Fielder said: "In giving this monument into the keeping of the great State of Pennsylvania, we know we are placing it in the care of a friend." 99 EX-GOVERNOR PENNYPACKER ACCEPTS MEMORIAL. "The relations of New Jersey and Pennsylvania," said ex-Governor Pennypacker, "always have been close and intimate. You hear much of New England, but there never was a New England. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York were the first Colonies to unite under one government. "William Penn was a proprietor in New Jersey before he founded this Common- wealth. Across the Delaware came the Lippincotts, the Biddies and the Clothiers, who became ornaments and leaders in the City of Brotherly Love. New Jersey and Penn- sylvania were settled by the same people. "In accepting this monument I may promise you it will be cherished and cared for in all the days to come." President Sayen, of the Park Commission, said the promise made by the ex-Gover- nor would be carried out. President W. H. S. Demarest, of Rutgers College, made an historical address. After the ceremonies Miss Wilson, Miss Hagner, Mrs. Pennypacker- and several members of the New Jersey Commission were taken to Philadelphia in an automobile. Miss Wilson wore a waist of white lace, a white skirt of terry cloth, with a deep lace insertion near the bottom, and a blue hat with black brim, trimmed with old roses. The benediction, which closed the ceremony, was delivered by Bishop McFaul. The monument was designed by Scott M. Long. It is of Barre granite, ten feet square at the base and twenty-seven feet in height, surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of the Jersey Brigade. The bronze figure is eight feet in height, and weighs 3,000 pounds. A bronze tablet on the base of the monu- ment bears this inscription: "Erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. Decem- ber 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." PHILADELPHIA "INQUIRER" MISS WILSON IS SHAFT UNVEILER AT VALLEY FORGE. President's Daughter Aids in Honoring New Jersey Heroes. PROMINENT MEN VISIT MONUMENT ERECTED WHERE CONTINENTALS SUFFERED. Valley Forge, Pa., June 18. — While nearly 5,000 voices rang with the strains of "Hail New Jersey," the adopted hymn of that State, and thirteen cannons boomed a salute. Miss Eleanor Wilson, daughter of President Woodrow Wilson, to-day unveiled the monument erected to the memory of the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, which, with General George Washington and other troops of the Continental Army, spent the memorable days of the winter of 1777-1778 in camp here. It was an auspicious day for the sons and daughters of New Jersey, many of whose ancestors had experienced the rigors of that camp which gained for those participating as great and enduring fame as anv decisive battle of the Revolutionary War. 100 In fact, the thought that perhaps some of the ancestors of those present, removed by many generations, occupied unknown and unmarked graves within view of the scene of the unveiling exercises, was expressed by several of the speakers. Again, it was the one hundred and thirty-fifth anniversary of the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. FIRST TO HONOR CONTINENTALS. New Jersey is practically the first State to erect a majestic monument to the memory of those Continental soldiers from that present Commonwealth who either withstood the privations of the historic camp of Valley Forge or died and were buried here by their half-starved comrades. The granite shaft, surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, of heroic size, is supposed to stand in the very centre of the section occupied by the New Jersey Brigade during the winter encampment. President Wilson was to have been present and unveil the monument, but he found it impossible to attend and sent to the Commission in charge a message in which he expressed his reluctance at having to forego the honor. He sent, however, Miss Eleanor, his daughter, who, after she tugged at the cord that caused an immense American flag to unfold itself from about the shaft and statue, bringing the monument to view, said: "This is one of the happiest moments of my life. I shall always cherish the memory of this day, when to me was given the singular honor of unveiling a monu- ment to the loyalty and heroism of those brave men from my State who suffered here that a Nation might be born. It is a fitting tribute, and I glory in the fact that I have been allowed so important a part in the exercises. The happiness of this day will always be associated with that of another day — the day I learned that father had been chosen the President of this great Republic." The unveiling of the monument was attended with military pomp. As Miss Wilson pulled the cord that brought the tribute of a State before the admiring eyes of the 5,000 persons, a battalion of the Third Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey, formed a square about the shaft and figure and stood at attention. MARCH TO THE MONUMENT. The singing of the various patriotic songs was led by the boys' choir connected with St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, of Camden. The music was furnished by the Third Regiment Band of New Jersey, Joseph Bossle, conductor. Those who par- ticipated in the unveiling ceremonies assembled at the historic building in which Wash- ington made his headquarters and marched to the monument. The Governor's salute was fired upon that oflicial's arrival at the scene of the dedication by Battery B, of the National Guard of New Jersey, as it did the salute of thirteen guns during the unveiling exercises. It was Governor James F. Fielder, of New Jersey, who accepted the monument from the special commission that succeeded in raising the funds to provide it. The Governor was attended by his staff. With Miss Wilson was Miss Isabelle Hagner, of Washington, social secretary" at the White House, and Mr. and Mrs. James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield, New Jersey. A. J. Demarest was also in Miss Wil- son's part3^ Others among the prominent guests were former Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania, who received the custody of the monument in the name of Governor Tener and the State of Pennsylvania from Governor Fielder, and in turn presented it to the Valley Forge Park Commission. President William H. Sayen, of the Commission, accepted the custody of the monu- ment. Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, was the principal orator. John Henry Fort, president of the Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commis- '101 sion, presided at the exercises. The invocation was made by Rev. J. W. Riddle, author of "The Story of Valley Forge." Bishop McFaul, of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tren- ton, pronounced the benediction. There were in addition to these a number of New Jersey's most prominent officials and those in the political limelight. A party that was entertained as guests of General B. S. Fisher, who makes his home here at Valley Forge, consisted of J. Starkey, Superintendent of the Camden County Insane Asylum ; Samuel Wood, for thirty years chairman of the Board of Man- agers of that institution, and Colonel Robert Jaggard, an officer with General Fisher in the Civil War, aud now Steward of the Camden County Almshouse. Others who were seen about the Valley Forge Park during the day were Colonel William G. Schauffler, William Monroe, E. Frank Pine, Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler, Jr., Colonel William Libbey, of Governor Fielder's staff and a member of the faculty of Princeton University, and State Senator I. T. Nichols, of Cumberland county, New Jersey. All of the speakers dwelt particularly upon the great part in the Revolutionary War played by the sons of New Jersey. Former Governor Pennyp acker, ^ who was in- troduced by Chairman Fort as the man of a patriotic family of Pennsylvania who dis- covered in a foreign country the plans of the original encampment at Valley Forge, and after which the present park was laid out, declared that there was a special bond of sympathy between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He referred to the fact that before there was any real New England there was a sort of federation between the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. He called attention to the fact that William Penn was first a settler in New Jersey before he founded Pennsylvania ; that the ancestors of the oldest of the families of Philadelphia, those bearing such names as Biddle, Lippincott, Clothier, and some others, entered upon Pennsylvania soil after crossing the Delaware River from New Jersey. He further pointed out that this same Delaware River was the great stream that gave outlet to the products of the industries of the two States for distribution over the whole world. Mr. Pennypacker, referring to history, called attention to the great number of im- portant battles of the Revolution that were fought on New Jersey and Pennsjlvania ground. In this connection he declared that the Revolutionary War was not won by any unusual skill, because the majority of the engagements with the British were de- feats. He said that the cause was won by a spirit of resolution as much as revolution. This spirit, he declared, led men to suffer all kinds of privations, even death, for the cause. Nowhere, he pointed out, was this spirit better shown by New Jersey men, as well as others, than on the spot upon which he and his audience were then standing. Governor Fielder, in accepting the monument from the Encampment Commission, spoke of the fitness of the occasion, when the sons of New Jersey of to-day honored those who fought and died in the vicinity of Valley Forge; the battles of Monmouth, Trenton and Princeton, as well as those of the Brandywine and Germantown. He lauded the men of New Jersey of the past and gave equal praise to the loyaltj- of their descendants. The monument bears the following inscription: "Erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden ; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. Decem- ber 19, 1777 — June 18, 1778." 102 The original appropriation by the State Legislature of New Jersey was $5,000. A subsequent appropriation of $1,800 was made for the dedicatory services. PHILADELPHIA "EVENING TELEGRAPH' MEMORIAL SHAFT AT VALLEY FORGE UNVEILED TO-DAY. New Jersey, in Bronze, Perpetuates Memory of Men Who Fought With Washington. PROGRAM IS IMPRESSIVE. For patriotic Jerseymen to-day all roads led to Valley Forge. The occasion is the unveiling of a memorial shaft to commemorate the heroism and fortitude of the Jersey patriots who camped and starved and bled with General Washington on the bleak hills of Valley Forge in the drear winter of 1777-1778. The State of New Jersey will be represented at the unveiling and dedication ceremony by the Governor, details from its National Guard, representatives of the Legislature, patriotic societies and thou- sands of plain Jersey folk. New Jersey is nothing if not patriotic, and when Lawyer John H. Fort, of Cam- den, one of whose ancestors was a Jersey soldier of the Revolution, after a visit to the Valley Forge Camping Grounds, in December, 191 1, called public attention to the fact that there was no monument there to honor the Jersey Brigade, a movement was immediately started by Camden Lodge of Elks, No. 293, of which Lodge Mr. Fort is Past Exalted Ruler, to have the State provide a suitable permanent memorial. Other Jersey Elks' Lodges co-operated and no trouble was experienced in getting a $5,000 appropriation from the Legislature in the winter of 1912. Governor Woodrow Wilson signed the bill and put the matter in the hands of a Commission composed of John H. Fort, of Camden, president; James L. Pennypacker, of Haddonfield; A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken; General J. Madison Drake, of Elizabeth, and David P. Mulford, of Bridgeton. The Valley Forge Commission granted a commanding site for the monument on the spot where the Jersey Brigade had their huts. The monument was designed by Scott M. Long. It is of Barre granite, 10 feet square at the base and 27 feet in height, surmounted by a bronze figure of a Continental soldier, in the uniform of the Jersey Brigade — figure and uniform showing evidence of the hardships encountered by the sturdy patriots who camped that winter at Valley Forge. MONUMENT INSCRIPTION. The bronze figure is eight feet in height and weighs 3,000 pounds. A bronze tablet on the base of the monument bears this inscription: "Erected by the State of New Jersey upon the site occupied by the New Jersey Brigade, Infantry Line, Continental Army. Brigadier General William Maxwell. First Regiment, Colonel Mathias Ogden; Second Regiment, Colonel Israel Shreve; Third Regiment, Colonel Elias Dayton; Fourth Regiment, Colonel Ephraim Martin. Decem- ber 19, 1777 — June i8, 1778." The original appropriation of $5,000 was expended entirely on the monument, and the Legislature last winter granted an additional appropriation of $1,800 to defray the expenses of the Commission and of the dedication ceremony. 103 Extensive preparations have been made for to-day's event. Five thousand invita- tions were sent out, bidding welcome to the unveiling the Sons of the Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution and other Colonial and patriotic societies; to the Legislature, State officials, the legal and medical pro- fessions, the clergy of the State and citizens in general. President Wilson reluctantly declined an invitation to deliver an address, as public business required his presence at Washington, but sent as his representative his daughter, Miss Margaret Wilson, who will unveil the monument. Governor James F. Fielder, as Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard, detailed a battalion of the Third Regiment, N. G. N. J.; composed of Companies E, of Mount Holly; D and F, of Camden, and I, of Woodbury, under command of Major C. E. Shivers, and accom- panied by the regimental band; a division of the Naval Reserve, of Camden, and a section of Battery B, Field Artillery, of Camden, to fire salutes. The Governor will be attended by his staff in uniform. A special train will be run from the Reading Terminal by the Reading Railroad, at I P. M., to take the Jersey folk to Valley Forge. Automobiles will -transport the officials and other distinguished guests from the Valley Forge station to the monument. The dedicatory ceremonies will begin at 2 P. M. The program follows: FORMATION OF PARADE. Assembling at Washington's Headquarters and march to monument: Third Regi- ment Band ; battalion of Third Regiment, National Guard, N. J. ; division. Naval Re- serve, N. J. ; Valley Forge Park Commission ; Valley Forge Revolutionary Encampment Commission ; Governors James F. Fielder and John K. Tener, orators and guests ; United States Senators and Congressmen ; New Jersey Senators and Assemblymen ; State officials ; civic organizations and citizens. DEDICATION CEREMONIES. Salute to the Governor by Battery B, N. G. of N. J. ; invocation. Rev. Otis A. Glazebrook, D. D., of Elizabeth, N. J. ; music by Third Regiment Band, Joseph Bossle, Sr., chief musician; doxology by band and audience; presentation of monument to the Governor of New Jersey by John Henry Fort, president of the Valley Forge Revolu- tionary Encampment Commission ; unveiling of monument by Miss Margaret Wilson ; salute to original States, thirteen guns; music, "Hail New Jersey," Dr. Schaaf ; accept- ance of monument by the Governor of New Jersey and presentation to the Governor of Pennsylvania ; acceptance of the monument by the Governor of Pennsylvania and formal delivery to the Valley Forge Park Commission ; acceptance of monument by Wil- liam H. Sayen, president of the Valley Forge Park Commission of Pennsylvania ; music, "Spirit of '76"; oration. Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College; music, "Songs of the Nation" ; voluntary, by band, "A Tribute to Friend and Foe" ; benedic- tion. Conclusion — Farewell salute of one gun; "Star Spangled Banner"; "taps." The official program is printed with "Jersey Blue" ink on buff paper — the com- bination representing the colors of the uniform worn by the Jersey troops in the Army of the Revolution. The program is embellished with pictures of the monument, the Monument Commission, Governor Fielder and Miss Wilson. PHILADELPHIA " RECORD " Miss Margaret Wilson, daughter of the President, will to-day be given the honor of unveiling the monument erected by the State of New Jersey to its Revolutionary heroes who suffered for liberty on the historic Valley Forge field. A large number of 104 New Jersey people will attend the ceremony, and Governor Fielder and his staff will be noted figures. A battalion of the Third Regiment, National Guard, from Camden, and the Regimental Band, will also form part of the assemblage. On behalf of the New Jersey Commission, John Henry Fort, of Camden, the chair- man, will present the handsome shaft to Governor Fielder, and by him for the State to the Valley Forge Park Commission. The orator of the day will be Dr. W. H. S. Demarest, president of Rutgers College, of New Brunswick. Music will be interspersed in the program by the Regimental Band and guns will fire salutes. The exercises will begin at 2 o'clock, and most of the New Jersey people will go to the park on the train leaving the Reading Terminal at i o'clock. PHILADELPHIA "PRESS' DANIEL MORGAN, OF NEW JERSEY. RlFLE.VI.\N OF THE REVOLUTION. Daniel Morgan, Colonel of the famous Riflemen of the Revolutionary War. Was born In New Jersey and accompanied Maxwell's Brigade. Daniel Morgan received his familiar nickname of the "Rifleman of the Revolution" from the fact of his great skill in handling that weapon, and the fearless way in which he conducted himself during the French and Indian Wars and the Revolution. Morgan was born in New Jersey, and very little is known of his early life. The first that history begins to recognize him is as a teamster in Braddock's army in 1754. In the rout at the Monongahela he did good service in bringing away the wounded, and at about this time he became acquainted with Washington. There was more or less of the fighter in Morgan from his youth, for it is noted that while he was yet in his teens he knocked down a British lieutenant who had struck him with the flat of his sword, for which act he was punished with five hundred lashes. It is noted that when the Court ordered that Morgan was to be given these lashes, he counted the strokes as they fell, and in telling the story in later days always said he had received only 499, and added : "If I ever meet the King I'll tell him that he is still indebted to me one lash." Between the ages of twenty and thirty Morgan led a rather reckless life. He drank too much, gambled to excess and alwa3's had a fight in prospect. It is said that the village near which he lived, named Berrytown, gradually became known as Battletown, ' 105 by reason of the quarrels and fights always going on there, usually headed by "Dan" Morgan. With all this reckless living Morgan had some excellent qualities. He did not know the name of fear ; he had a great deal of prudence, and he worked steadily, made money, and invested it in land. Washington always had a great deal of trouble with Morgan's riflemen. They had enlisted to fight, and were not inclined to settle down under camp discipline, to drill or to be under any military orders. It was good news when they were ordered to join Arnold's army and proceed against Quebec. With a force composed almost entirely of militia, Morgan won the brilliant victory of Cowpens, but became so broken in health that he was obliged to go home for rest. From the standpoint of brilliant strategy and fearless bravery the battle of Cowpens ranks as perhaps the most important in all the Revolution, for, up to that time, the British had met with almost unbroken success in the South. The hero who had won this victory against England's most aggressive general had once been a poor teamster who was flogged for thrashing a tyrannical British officer. Cromwell was stunned at first by the disaster that had befallen Tarleton. Only a short time before, the left wing of his army, commanded by Ferguson, had been cap- tured by the over-the-Alleghenies men under Servier, Shelby and others at King's Mountain. Now came the crushing blow to Tarleton. But for the reinforcements that had arrived at Charleston under General Leslie, Lord Cornwallis would have been in a desperate situation. In a zealous attempt to retrieve himself he determined to burn all his baggage, transform his array into light troops, prevent Morgan from crossing the Catawba, and, that accomplished and a merging of Morgan's and Greene's armies prevented, crush first one and then the other. But Morgan, divining the plan of Cornwallis, was too quick for his lordship. With his prisoners he was making a forced march for the Catawba, before Cornwallis had put flame to his baggage. With all of Morgan's exertions he narrowly escaped. When he crossed the Catawba the vanguard of the British was in sight. That night a heavy rain fell, and the next day the river was in flood. Morgan was safe from pursuit. With his prisoners sent north to Virginia and the arms and stores captured at Cowpens turned over to Greene, he was ready once more for action. But there was little more action for him. Stricken with rheumatism he had to give up his command a few weeks later. Some of his troops were turned over to Colonel Otho Williams, and a portion to Light Horse Harry Lee and formed the rearguard of Greene's army in the retreat to the Dan and the advance guard in the campaign that followed, and which cleared the Carolinas of the British. No battle of the Revolution was more clear cut and sweeping than that of Cow- pens. With a smaller force and with militia mainly, Morgan defeated the flower of the Southern army of the British. Surely glory enough for the teamster who got 499 lashes on his back at the order of an angry British officer. From his Southern triumph Morgan went back to his farm near Battletown. This farm he called "Saratoga," in honor of the field where he believed he did his greatest military work. At the time of the whiskey insurrection he was placed at the head of the Virginia troops. He went to Congress for one term and that cured him of politics. The farm and his beloved Battletown satisfied his ambition thereafter. When, as age crept on him, his health failed, he had to give up the farm and went to live in Winchester. There he died in his sixty-sixth year. It is said of him that no man loved life more and yet risked his life more willingly. Often he declared he would gladly live as a galley slave in this world rather than take a chance in the unknown. 106 It Is said that when Burgoyne was introduced to Morgan after the surrender at Saratoga, he seized him by the hand and exclaimed, "My dear sir, you command the finest regiment in the world." Morgan was considerably over six feet in height, and weighed more than two hun- dred pounds. His strength and endurance were remarkable, and in beauty of feature and expression he was equalled by few men of his time. His manners were quiet and refined, his bravery was noble, and his temper sweet, though his wrath was easily aroused by the sight of injustice. He was noted for truthfulness and candor, and throughout his life his conduct was regulated by the most rigid code of honor. He was also a devout Christian. 107