Gettysburg Address update

In my post of November 19, 2013, I wrote about the Gettysburg Address given by Abraham Lincoln on the battlefield of Gettysburg.  After I made that post, I received a catalog from my sister of rare books and was surprised by an entry in regards to the Gettysburg Address.  I would like to include it here.

The actual name of the Address was "An Oration Delivered on The Battlefield of Gettysburg (November 19, 1863) at the Consecration of the Cemetery ; Prepared for the Interment of the Remains of Those Who Fell in the Battles of July 1st, 2d and 3d, 1863".  We know it as the Gettysburg Address.

This is a rare first edition of Lincoln's magnificent Gettysburg Address, scrawled on scratch paper and back of envelopes and corresponds almost exactly to his spoken version. 

The Washington Chronicle reported on November 21, 1863 the events at the cemetery and printed verbatim Edward Everett's 2 hour oration (which preceded Lincoln's address).  There was no mention of the President Lincoln's short speech.  Four days later the paper mentioned that President Lincoln had also given "a short speech".  Finally a pamphlet was printed of Edward's Oration (as it came to be known) and Lincoln's speech was tucked away as a final paragraph on page 16.  Later that year, a booklet was published of Edward's Oration and this time Lincoln's address was included - on page 40.  Despite the notoriety of Edward Everett's oration, it is only President Lincoln's short 2 minute speech that is remembered today.

This rare first edition of Lincoln's speech (handwritten) is available for $55,000.

Coins on Tombstoes

COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES

While visiting some cemeteries you may notice that headstones marking certain graves have coins on them, left by previous visitors to the grave.

These coins have distinct meanings when left on the headstones of those who gave their life while serving in America's military, and these meanings vary depending on the denomination of coin.

A coin left on a headstone or at the grave site is meant as a message to the deceased soldier's family that someone else has visited the grave to pay respect. Leaving a penny at the grave means simply that you visited.

A nickel indicates that you and the deceased trained at boot camp together, while a dime means you served with him in some capacity. By leaving a quarter at the grave, you are telling the family that you were with the solider when he was killed.

According to tradition, the money left at graves in national cemeteries and state veterans cemeteries is eventually collected, and the funds are put toward maintaining the cemetery or paying burial costs for indigent veterans.

In the US, this practice became common during the Vietnam war, due to the political divide in the country over the war; leaving a coin was seen as a more practical way to communicate that you had visited the grave than contacting the soldier's family, which could devolve into an uncomfortable argument over politics relating to the war.

Some Vietnam veterans would leave coins as a "down payment" to buy their fallen comrades a beer or play a hand of cards when they would finally be reunited.

The tradition of leaving coins on the headstones of military men and women can be traced to as far back as the Roman Empire.

Thanks to Wink for this information.

Soldiers' National Cemetery, Gettysburg, PA

150 years ago today

More than four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln participated in a ceremony to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at the battle site in Pennsylvania. The president’s role at the ceremony was minor, but his short speech is now considered one of the greatest orations in our nation’s history. Today marks the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s iconic words, which are etched into stone at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Maxwell Land Grant

Maxwell Land Grant and Lucien Maxwell

Charles "Carlos" Beaubien (1800-1864) was a French Canadian who  moved to Taos in 1823, opening a dry goods and trapper supply store.  He later married Maria Pabla Lobato (1811-1864), the daughter of a prominent local family, and became a Mexican citizen in 1827.  By 1840 he had become an influential Taos merchant with many large landholdings.  Lucien Maxwell was a fur trapper from Illinois who had traveled to Taos, the fur trading capital of the Southwest, during the winter of 1841-1842.  There he met Beaubien and the two quickly became friends.  He soon married Beaubien's eldest daughter, Luz (1829-1900) and they married in 1844.  Together the Maxwell's had nine children, among them a daughter Verenisa (1860-1864) who is buried in the old plaza along with her grandmother, Pabla Beaubien.

Winkeljohann Family Cemetery

Katrikna Cemetery in Voltlage, Germany


Al Winkeljohn, from my Tombstone group, sent me these pictures of his family cemetery.  The cemetery is St. Katharina Cemetery in Voltlage, Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, Germany.  This beautiful cemetery is in the small village of only 1750 people! 

November 11, 2013 Veteran's Day





World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

Today we honor all veterans who have ever served in a war or military conflict.  The list below starts with 1774 and is way too long.  Most of these are forgotten wars, but the men and women who served should never be forgotten. The list below is not an official one, just a list of wars/conflicts I could find.

American Revolutionary War
Northwest Indian War
Quasi-War aka Franco American War
First Barbary War
Tecumseh's War
War of 1812
Second Barbary War
First Seminole War
Arikara War
Winnebago War
Black Hawk War
Second Seminole War
Mexican American War
Navajo Wars
Cayuse War
Apache Wars
Yakima War
Rogue Rivers War
Puget Sound War
Third Seminole War
Second Opium War
Reform War
Paiute War
American Civil War
Dakota War of 1862
Colorado War
Snake War
Red Cloud's War
Comanche War
Modoc War
Red River War
Black Hills War
Nez Perce War
Bannock War
Cheyenne War
Sheepeater Indian War
White River War
Second Anglo-Egyptian War (the Egyptian Expedition)
Colombian Civil War (the Burning of Colón)
First Samoan Civil War
Ghost Dance War
Chilean Civil War
Second Samoan Civil War
Spanish American-War
Philippines-American War
Banana Wars (including the US occupation of Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic)
Boxer Rebellion (dosen't actually have "war" in its name)
Mexican Revolution
World War I
Russian Civil War
World War II
Cold War (not a "real" war)
First Indochina War
Korean War
Vietnam War
Laotian Civil War
Cambodian Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
Iran-Iraq War
Gulf War
Somali Civil War
Bosnian War
Kosovo War
War on Terror
War in Afghanistan
Iraq War
Second Liberian Civil War
Libyan Civil War

This is my grandfather, John Louis Ralf, in World War I

 Veteran’s Day Prayer

Dear Lord,
Today we honor our veterans,
worthy men and women
who gave their best
when they were called upon
to serve and protect their country.
We pray that you will bless them, Lord,
for their unselfish service
in the continual struggle
to preserve our freedoms, our safety,
and our country’s heritage, for all of us.
Bless them abundantly
for the hardships they faced,
for the sacrifices they made
for their many different contributions
to America’s victories
over tyranny and oppression.
We respect them, we thank them,
we honor them, we are proud of them,
and we pray that you will watch over
these special people
and bless them with peace and happiness.
In Jesus’ name we pray; Amen.

By Joanna Fuchs