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EXERCISES 
 
 miiiii 
 
 hull 
 
 ERECTED IN THE 
 
 College of tl\e City of ^^qw York, 
 
 BY THE ALUMNI. 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE OF THEIR NUMBER WHO FELL IN 
 
 THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY DURING 
 
 THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 R. C. ROOT, ANTHONY & CO. 
 
 62 LiiucRi-v SriuciiT. 
 
 I 875. 
 

 
In pursuance of a resolution passed by the Alumni 
 of the College of the City of New York at the annual 
 meeting in June, 1872, a committee of three, consisting 
 of Messrs. Edwin M. Cox, George Sparrow and J. 
 Seaver Page, was appointed to receive subscriptions, 
 select a design and erect a mural tablet to the memory 
 of those of the Alumni who perished in the war for the 
 Union. The design of Mr. James S. Wightman was 
 selected, and the work pushed with such energy that the 
 tablet itself was completed in June, 1873. 
 
4 
 
 On the 28th of that month, it was un vailed before an 
 audience which thronged the hall and the staircases. 
 
 Mr. Edwin M. Cox, Vice-President of the Alumni, 
 opened the exercises by introducing the designer of 
 the tablet, Mr. James S. Wightman. 
 
 Mr. Wightman explained briefly the architectural 
 decorations and the alleg'orical devices of the monu- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Frede-ric J. de Peyster, Historian of the Alumni, 
 was then introduced and spoke as follows : 
 
 " My friends, — We stand here in reverence before 
 the marble which bears the names of those brave men 
 who went forth from their books to lay clown their 
 fresh young lives for us, for their country and their God. 
 I feel how poor and weak words are to express the 
 emotions that strues'le for utterance on an occasion like 
 this, but it is my privilege as well as my duty to speak 
 a few words of our gallant dead, and no matter how 
 poor the offering, it is at least made in a spirit of sincere 
 admiration and gratitude. Six of the seven whose 
 names are on this tablet I had the honor of knowing ; 
 most of them intimately ; Edzvard K. Wiglitman alone 
 I did not know, except by reputation. But in his 
 case even a knowledge so imperfect is sufficient to 
 awaken the warmest admiration. A writer of distinction 
 on the staff of one of the most respectable journals 
 of this city, he sacrificed his prospect of speedy success 
 to join the standard of the 9th New York Volunteers. 
 
5 
 
 In the army he served faithfully in not less than fifteen 
 engagements — for in an engagement he was never ab- 
 sent from the ranks ; and at last, on the i5th of January^ 
 1 865, in the successful assault on Fort Fisher, the fifth 
 man to enter the fortress, he fell, bravely fighting, 
 sword in hand. A o-allant soldier ! He had the trood 
 fortune to meet a soldier's death. 
 
 " Far different, though not less noble, was the fate of 
 yames Lyman Van Buren. One of the most graceful 
 and finished gentlemen I have ever had the good for- 
 tune to meet. He entered the service, with chivalrous 
 enthusiasm, as a second lieutenant of zouaves. Ac 
 companying General Burnside's expedition to North 
 Carolina, he was soon transferred to the Signal Service, 
 in accordance with an order requiring that a certain 
 number of the most intelligent officers should be de- 
 tached for that purpose. While thus attached as signal 
 ofificer to General Foster's staff, he distinofuished himself 
 at the battles of Roanoke Island and Newberne. Bre- 
 veted major for gallant and meritorious conduct, he was 
 soon after transferred to the staff of General Burnside. 
 
 With that distinguished commander he remained 
 through all the changes and chances of the fierce strug- 
 gle in Virginia, and with him Major Van Buren went 
 West, to be again breveted — this time lieutenant- 
 colonel — for oallant and meritorious conduct during- the 
 siege of Knoxville. Moving East again with the Ninth 
 Army Corps, he bore his part bravely, not only through 
 the campaigns in the Wilderness and on the south side 
 
of the James, but also in that final triumph, when, on 
 April 2d, 1 865, Petersburg was stormed. The war was 
 over in the East, and, honored with the brevets of 
 colonel and brigadier general, he came home to die. 
 Brave and chivalrous, he had risked his life on many a 
 battle-field ; his clothes were often torn by bullets ; on 
 one occasion a shot shattered his sword within its scab- 
 bard : yet death after a lingering illness — not the death 
 he had so often courted in the thick of battle — was his 
 fate ; sadder, but not less glorious. 
 
 " Franklin Butler Crosby was born in this city of New 
 York on the 4th of February, 1841. Tall, strong and 
 handsome, his mind was not less favored than his body ; 
 he was, indeed, an admirable compound of intellect, 
 good taste and manly courage. He had, what in these 
 degenerate days is so rare, the ideal of classic complete- 
 ness — ' the sound mind in a sound body.' Of such 
 stuff was the second lieutenant who joined the 4th U. 
 S. Artillery in August, 1861. Ability and good con- 
 duct soon made him first lieutenant, and the promotion 
 of his captain gave him command of the battery. On 
 the 2d of May, 1863, that battery was hotly engaged at 
 Chancellorsville ; during the night ; it was of the great- 
 est service in repelling the famous attack of Stonewall 
 Jackson. At half-past eight o'clock the next morning, 
 Sunday, May 3d, a bullet from a sharpshooter, who had 
 gained the right flank of the battery and singled out 
 its young commander, pierced his breast. He fell. 
 His own men tenderly and tearfully carried him a few 
 
rods to the rear. One loving message to the dear 
 ones at home, and his brief but glorious career was 
 ended. 
 
 Of William Cullen Bryant Gray I have been able 
 to learn but few particulars. Still, as a classmate, and 
 during college years, a neighbor, as well as an intimate 
 friend, I can do some slight justice to his great merit. 
 With a body weak and sickly, he had all the spirit of an 
 old Spartan ; a spirit that enabled him to do and to 
 suffer in a way that seemed to stronger, but less high- 
 spirited men, litde less than supernatural. Born with a 
 love of letters, as a contributor to our literary journals 
 he showed no small talent, while yet an undergraduate. 
 But at the first note of danger, he threw aside his books, 
 resigned all the literary pursuits he loved so well, to 
 risk all for his imperiled country. A severe cold con- 
 tracted while on duty, brought on an attack of pleuro- 
 pneumonia. His delicate frame could ill resist such an 
 assault. A brief period of suffering, and all was over. 
 Amid the delirium of fever, he thought of nothing but 
 his duty ; his only regret was that he could not meet 
 death on the battle-field, and his last words were of his 
 soldiers. 
 
 Charles Clarence Tracy KeitJi, though descended from 
 one of the best families in South Carolina, was an early, 
 ardent lover of liberty ; and not of liberty for himself 
 alone, but for all. To him the Constitution of the 
 United States, as it stood before the war, was the 
 bulwark of slavery. It was his ambition to become a 
 
lawyer. But when he learned that before entering the 
 Bar, he must swear allegiance to that Constitution, his 
 reverence for Liberty, his devotion to duty, conquered 
 even the rosy-hued ambitions of early manhood, and 
 he at once turned his back on the profession by which 
 he could alone hope to realize the brilliant dreams of 
 youth. To such a spirit the War was a Crusade. With 
 all the ardor of his enthusiastic temperament, he threw 
 himself into the ranks. Like Van Buren, he was soon 
 transferred for his intelligence to the Signal Service. 
 While on this duty, in North Carolina, he was thrown 
 from his horse, his head struck a stone, damaging his 
 brain so seriously that but little hope of either his mind 
 or his life remained. In this wretched condition, I 
 saw him. Conscious of the worst, and yet resigned ; 
 manly, almost cheerful under the most dreadful affliction 
 that can befall humanity — the knowledge of wrecked 
 and fast decaying powers, old age in the hey-day of 
 youth ; idiocy or death his only future. What fate 
 could be sadder, what courage more heroic. 
 
 Edward Francis Young was one of the most brilliant 
 scholars that ever graced these halls. His reading was 
 extensive, and his information so great, that it was a 
 matter of curiosity with me to find out, not how much he 
 knew, but whether there was anything he did not know. 
 As a scholar, our Alma Mater may well mourn his loss. 
 And so winning were his social qualities and kind heart, 
 that while this oreneration of orraduates survives, he will 
 never want sincere mourners. Althouoh a husband and 
 
a father, his ardent patriotism early forced him to vol- 
 unteer. In the army, as here, his great mental powers 
 were patent to all, and he soon reached in the Engineers 
 — the most intellectual branch of the service — the high 
 rank of Major. While stationed at a fort near Wash- 
 ington, in the Autumn of 1863, he undertook one night 
 a tour of inspection, his horse stumbled and fell upon 
 the brave young soldier crushing him so fearfully, that 
 death, usually so dreaded, was welcomed by him as 
 a friend. Brave, but unfortunate, had he lived, his. 
 genius, enthusiasm and courage would surely have 
 raised him to eminence. Like Keith's was his end- — so 
 sad, so disappointing, and yet so noble. 
 
 Gilbert M. Elliott was born in Connecticut, in 1840. 
 His career in this colleQ^^e needs no mention from me ; 
 it was marked by more triumphs than ever fell to the 
 lot [of any other student. Triumphs, too, that were all 
 fairly earned — so fairly earned that no breath of envy 
 ever disputed his right to any one of the many honors 
 that each commencement rained down upon him. His 
 brilliant success might well have tempted him to devote 
 his life to study ; but the battle of Bull Run, instead of 
 daunting, hred him, and he at once joined the i02d 
 New York Volunteers. He brought to the discharge 
 of his new duties the same energy and mental vigor 
 that had so distinguished him here. After two years' 
 faithful service in the East, for which he was rewarded; 
 with the rank of Major, his battalion, forming part of 
 General Hooker's Army, was sent to Chattanooga.. 
 
lO 
 
 Elliott was now in command of his regiment ; and on 
 the afternoon of the 24th of November, 1863, while 
 gallantly leading the skirmish line up the steep slope of 
 Look-Out Mountain, he fell pierced by a rifle ball ; a 
 few words of encouragement to his soldiers, and as in- 
 domitable a heart as ever throbbed, stopped for ever. 
 It was but just that the Government should mark its 
 appreciation of his distinguished services and heroic 
 death, by bestowing on him the posthumous honors of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel. 
 
 Thus Van Buren and Gray died from illness, Keith 
 and Young from accident ; while Wightman, Crosby 
 and Elliott fell sword in hand in the wild tornado of 
 battle. If the three last were more fortunate in the 
 manner of their death, it must not tempt us to award 
 more of glory to them. No ! All perished nobly in 
 the same grand cause ; and while rejoicing in the good 
 fortune that cjave death on the battle-field to three of 
 our gallant brothers, we cannot but feel a still deeper 
 sympathy for those as brave and true, who, equally de- 
 sirous of a soldier's death, were yet doomed to waste 
 slowly away on the bed of sickness. 
 
 Peace to their ashes. Better and braver soldiers 
 never fell in a cause more worthy. They died young, 
 it is true. But remember the old Hellenic sentiment : 
 "Those whom the gods love die early." They did, in- 
 deed, die early, in the very dawn of life, before they 
 had fairly tasted its joys and triumphs ; but also before 
 its sorrows and disappointments had had time to 
 
II 
 
 ■overtake them. But though they died so young, their 
 hves were not in vain. Length of days is in no ratio 
 to performance. Performance is the only test. Judged 
 by that test, what must be their meed. Surely we can 
 never honor them too much ; it will be hard to do them 
 even a shadow of justice. 
 
 It is but a few years since all hearts were on fire in 
 the great struggle. Then it seemed as if we could 
 never forget one of the true hearts who gave up all for 
 us, for country and for God. The importance of the 
 contest even the heat of battle did not exaggerate — 
 because it could not be exaggerated. As long as there 
 are men on this planet whose hearts are warmed by the 
 sacred love of libert)- the memory of this conflict will be 
 held sacred. It will live as a far greater, and not less 
 heroic struggle than that which Holland waged for 80 
 years against Spain ; than that which Switzerland 
 waged against Austria ; than that which Greece waged 
 against Persia. Homely as they sound in our ears 
 now, I believe the day will yet come when the names 
 of our battles shall have all the halo of glory that now 
 surrounds the magic names of Marathon and Ther- 
 mopylae. The grand results are indeed immortal, but 
 the brave young men by whom they were achieved 
 are less likely to be remembered as time goes on, and 
 their friends drop one by one into the grave. It was to 
 resist this tendency that Athens piled the mound at 
 Marathon, and sculptured those matchless marbles that 
 have been the admiration and despair of twenty-three 
 
 LofC. 
 
12 
 
 centuries. It was for this that Rome reared her tri- 
 umphal arches, and that the Great Napoleon, in imita- 
 tion of classic times, built his Arch of Triumph, 
 Animated by the same sentiment, we erect this 
 tablet. Our memorial is comparatively humble, but it 
 commemorates men as gallant as any France or Italy, 
 or even Hellas could boast. We put up this marble to 
 tell coming generations of the mingled admiration and 
 gratitude we feel for the noble dead, and to teach the 
 living, by their example, lessons of courage, self-sacrifice 
 and patriotism. Here we have placed it. And here let 
 it rest forever — a memory of our heroes gone, an 
 inspiration to the living. 
 
 The President of the Alumni, General H. E. Tre- 
 main, then committed the memorial as a sacred trust to 
 the keeping of the Faculty. 
 
 General Alexander S. Webb, President of the 
 College of the City of New York responded, by ac- 
 cepting on behalf of the Faculty the care and main- 
 tenance of the monument. 
 

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