Monumentation in Winchester: The 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry
The Shenandoah Valley is dotted with significant battlefields from long campaigns in 1862 and 1864, but you might not know it if you were only looking for monuments placed by veterans. Though there are a few notable exceptions, the majority of US veteran-placed monuments rest within Winchester National Cemetery among the graves of their fallen comrades. At the time, the cemetery was the only preserved battlefield land, as the early preservation initiatives that places like Gettysburg experienced did not extend to the Valley. The cemetery offered set-aside space consecrated by buried soldiers, protected by the government, and staffed by federal employees. While it is always valuable to stand and appreciate the monuments for their meaning and artistic value, so too is it valuable to take a look at how they came into being.
The early history and initial establishment of Winchester National Cemetery is unclear. We’re still parsing out hundreds of primary sources and trying to piece together wartime burials, initial creation, and growing formalization. What we do know is that by 1868 4,440 burials had been moved to the cemetery from battlefields, camps, and hospital sites around the Lower Valley. Records are more present by the end of the 1870s, showing the growing professionalization of the National Cemetery system. It is in those records that we find details of the 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry and their goal to place a monument in the cemetery.
Formed from mounted infantry soldiers initially noted as the 41st MA Mounted Infantry, the regiment had served with the 19th Army Corps. Part of the Department of the Gulf, they had been present for Port Hudson and the Red River Campaign. Along with the rest of the Corps they moved eastward in the summer of 1864 in order to join the Army of the Shenandoah and participate in the fall 1864 Valley Campaign under Major General Philip Sheridan. The regiment had a particularly unusual service, beginning as mounted infantry, shifting to cavalry in 1863, dismounted to infantry in June 1864 (and thus during the Shenandoah Valley campaign), and finally remounted as cavalry in February 1865.
The first filed letter dates from Sept 27th, 1887. Former Captain William H. Cunningham of the regiment wrote noting that the veterans “have taken steps to Erect a monument in the National Cemetery at Winchester Va and they would respectfully ask permission so to do Trusting the request may be Granted.”[1] Two days later, the letter was already in the process of being forwarded through the Quartermaster General’s Office.
Attached to the letter was an undated newspaper article discussing the design of the monument. It noted the design was done by the Smith Granite Company of Westerly, Rhode Island and nearing a contract. The granite monument would feature “a design of horse’s head, surrounded by a horseshoe” with text noting regimental casualties, the words “Sheridan’s Valley Campaign,” and the target dedication date of September 19, 1888 to correspond with the anniversary of the Third Battle of Winchester.[2]
Cunningham had been selected Chairman of the committee for the monument during the regiment’s annual reunion on September 19, 1887.[3] The annual reunion date combined with the dedication date highlights just how significant the Third Battle of Winchester was to these veterans; it was perhaps their defining moment of service.
Clearly, the veterans held no concerns about the government’s approval process. They did not approach the Quartermaster General until only a year before the proposed dedication. The committee had already begun fundraising, selected a design, and were about to enter a contract for the fabrication. Luckily, on September 30, 1887 Deputy Quartermaster General J. G. Chandler replied to Cunningham that “your request is approved, and authority granted for the erection of the monument described.”[4] They also forwarded information to the staff in Winchester.
The monument indeed was fundraised for (partially funded by the state of Massachusetts), fabricated, and dedicated in time for the September 19, 1888 date. The veterans met with the local Mulligan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic veteran association and local leaders, sharing speeches and hosting a 200-attendee banquet. Following a trend set by the previous visits of the Sheridan’s Veterans Association on their grand trips earlier in the decade, the events included a stop at the nearby Confederate cemetery.[5]
In addition to speeches, one by Cunningham himself, there was an original poem recited by Captain Charles Grover that read in part:
We come from distant Northern homes,
To place above our comrade’s graves
This chiseled monument of stone.
And consecrate with prayer and praise. …
In peace they sleep as seasons fly ;
A soldier’s grave their funeral rite,
The Opequon their lullaby
Their sentinel the Loudoun height. …
Behold our Union strong and great.
Home for the oppressed of every land.
It was for this they fought and died,
For this their names are sculptured here ;
In this loved vale, Virginia’s pride.
This sacred soil, forever dear. [6]
It’s worth noting that this is one of the earlier monuments placed in the National Cemetery. Of the 14 placed there, the 3rd MA Cavalry’s monument was only preceded by the 14th NH (1866), Sixth Corps (1881), and the 38th MA (1884). More monuments were to come as veterans aged and desired to return to the sites of their defining youthful moments and commemorate both their own service and the sacrifices of their friends. More often than not, they came to Winchester National Cemetery to commemorate what they had done in the Shenandoah Valley.
[1] Letter September 27, 1887. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General. Records Relating to Functions: Cemeterial. General Correspondence and Reports Relating to National and Post Cemeteries, 1865–1909 (Record Group 92, Entry 576). National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Boxes 73 and 74 correspond generally to Winchester National Cemetery.
[2] Further research shows that the article submitted to the government was the September 27, 1887 edition of the Boston Evening Transcript.
[3] The Boston Globe, September 20, 1887.
[4] Letter September 30, 1887. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General. Records Relating to Functions: Cemeterial. General Correspondence and Reports Relating to National and Post Cemeteries, 1865–1909 (Record Group 92, Entry 576).
[5] The Standard-Times (New Bedford, MA), Sept 21, 1888.
[6] Rev. James K. Ewer, The Third Massachusetts Cavalry in the War for the Union (The Wm. G. J. Perry Press, Maplewood, MA: 1903), 378-379.
