Evergreen Manor House

Unveiled at Bull Run - Monuments to the New York Volunteer Regiment

These New York monuments, as they have since been called, represent the actions taken by a host of states at the turn of the century to erect markers memorializing the Civil War fallen. These physical reminders helped keep the bravery and sacrifices of the soldiers alive while also forging ties between the war-torn North and South. Memorials to the New York volunteers stood near those for Confederate dead. One did not overshadow the other. The unveiling ceremonies for the New York monuments tried to foster this sense of unity. Col. Edmund Berkeley, wartime commander of the Eighth Virginia Volunteers, shared the podium with his onetime Union opponents. Both saw the value of preserving the past through the monuments and the eventual establishment of a battlefield park.

Blue and Gray Meet as Brothers on First Great Battlefield of the Civil War-United in Cheers as Draperies Dropped from the Memorial Shafts

Monument to the The Fourteenth Brooklyn Regiment

Manassas, Va, Oct. 20, 1906 - In a downpour of rain, Confederate veterans assisted the Union veterans to dedicate three monuments today on the Bull Run battlefield, at Groveton, to the memory of those members of the Fifth, Tenth, and Fourteenth regiments of the New York Volunteers who fell there in battle more than forty years ago.

Every preparation had been made to make the dedication services a splendid success. Wagons had been chartered, and every homestead expected to furnish at least one representative at the exercises, but the almost unprecedented rain rendered the roads well-nigh impassable and only a few hundred persons, undaunted by wind, rain, and mud, braved the elements to show hospitality to the one time foe.

Order of Procession

The following was the order of the procession: Mounted escort of Confederate veterans, Manassas band; marshal, Lieut. George C. Round, U.S.A.; assistant marshal, Col. Edmund Berkeley, C.S.A., and assistants; Manassas Picket Post of Union Veterans, Fourteenth New York Regiment veterans, their families and friends; Fifth New York Regiments, their families and friends; Tenth New York Regiments, their families and friends; other veterans, Union and Confederate.

Bird S. Coler, President of the Borough of Brooklyn, presided at the dedication exercises, and Col. Edmund Berkeley, one of the heroes of the Eighth Virginia Regiment, delivered the address of welcome saying in part:

"No greater proof could be possible that we have now a reunited country, from which all feeling of sectionalism and bitterness are passing away and destined to become a thing of the past, than to see the men who wore the blue uniting with the men who wore the gray in such a work of love as they are engaged in today, and in which Ewell Camp of the Confederate Veterans, through me, its commander, wishes them godspeed.

We who participated in the bloody battles of brothers fought around this spot nearly a half century ago are standing here today possessed with the supreme satisfaction of knowing that not one single drop of precious blood was shed in vain; that not one single drop was shed that did not fulfill the purpose intended for it by the Almighty in cementing together indissolubly the warring sections of our country into one great united whole, making it the greatest country upon earth, the admiration and envy of all nations, ever to remain first and foremost until Gabriel's bugle blast shall sound the great final reveille."

An extract from the Washington Post October, 21, 1906

Evergreen Manor House Preservation Committee
Box 962, Haymarket, Virginia 20168