Hackettstown Civil War Monument
Front of Monument : >
“Remember you are Jerseymen”
General Nathan Kimball, Dec 12, 1862
Eastern Campaigns
Bull Run
Peninsula
Second Bull Run
Antietam
Fredricksburg
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Wildnerness
Spotsylvania
Cold Harbor
Petersburg
Five Forks
Appomattox
Western Campaigns
Shiloh
Vicksburg
Chickamauga
Lookout Mountain
Missionary Ridge
Atlanta
March to the Sea
Franklin
Nashville
Right Side of Monument : >
Rededicated May 28, 2001 to the men and families of the Hackettstown area who served to preserve the Union in the War Between The States 1861-1865
Ballad of the Monument
As I stand alone here, do the people remember
were the lives that were lost all in vain?
We fought hard for our country, we fought hard for our honor,
but now just our memories remain.
We stand for our country, we stand for our future
We are proud of the price that we paid.
And we know that our children embrace all their freedoms
and we know that they would all do the same.
What do we tell our children, and each generation
just what the fighting was for?
What a price they must suffer, the fathers and mothers,
who send their own sons off to war.
We stand for our country, we stand for our future
We are proud of the price that we paid.
And we know that our children embrace all their freedoms
and we know that they would all do the same.
Kevin A. McCann
June 4, 1998
Back of Monument : >
The Old Monument Speaks
Here I have stood for many years.
Placed here by patriots mid lusty cheers.
Millions of people have passed me by,
Millions of hearts have heaved a sigh.
I am a memory of living and dead,
who struggled for the Union as Lincoln said.
The struggle was bitter and the toll was great.
Brother killed brother, love turned to hate.
I must give way to the automobile.
That is the way I was made to feel.
Surely some spot can be found.
The ideals I stand for I still can profound.
But alas, here comes the junkman with stout rope.
He has pulled me to the concrete and my back is broke.
Where are the citizens of yesteryear,
who placed me here with lusty cheers?
I think the citizens of Hackettstown
could at least have gently taken me down.
I was a memorial to the boys of Sixty-Five,
but few of them are now alive.
Who remembers the famous day and year
when the patriots of Hackettstown placed me here?
The boys it seems are not forgotten,
as I lie in the junk pile to rust and rotten.
Charles Augustus Stewart Gulick
January 14, 1927
Left Side of Monument : >
Remember you are Jerseymen
I stand before you calm and serene.
My expression belies the horrors I’ve seen.
My coat of blue, now bronze bereaved,
a patina of age I never achieved.
We find in life tempests to brave,
swords to clash and ideals to save.
I saw my duty to follow such light,
no matter the fury or how dark the night.
I stand as a guidon for Jerseymen fair,
protecting our Union from threats we share.
Though I stand a statue, a Jerseyman Blue,
I was once a young man made of flesh like you.
No more verdant hills or streams will I roam.
To you I bequeath this land as your home.
Protect her and the children from tyrants and fools
and “Remember you are Jerseymen” where freedom rules.
Gerard A. Geiger
May 22, 2000
Marker is at the intersection of Main Street (New Jersey Route 46) and Willow Grove Street, on the right when traveling north on Main Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
