MONUMENT TO GENERAL JOHN F. REYNOLDS.

Soon after the battle of Gettysburg a desire was expressed to erect a monument to the memory of Major-General John F. Reynolds, who fell early in the contest. To raise the funds necessary for the purpose, a committee of officers, who served in the corps which had been commanded by the deceased general, was appointed. The original subscription was restricted to five dollars from each officer, and fifty cents from each enlisted man, by which means nearly $6,000 was collected.

In 1867, it having been decided to erect a bronze statue to the general, the State of Pennsylvania gave a sufficient number of condemned cannon for the purpose. It was at first contemplated to erect a plain monument of stone on the spot where General Reynolds fell, but when a more imposing memorial was determined upon, the managers of the Soldiers' National Cemetery came forward and appropriated a sum sufficient to construct a foundation and erect a suitable pedestal, upon which to place the statue of General Reynolds within the Cemetery grounds. This amounted to twenty-two hundred dollars. This assistance, with additional subscriptions from officers who had served with the general, enabled the committee to complete the

monument.

Upon entering the Cemetery, this beautiful monument meets the eye. It consists of a bronze statue of General Reynolds, of heroic size, standing on a pedestal of dark Quincy granite. The right hand of the general, holding a field glass, hangs at his side, while the left grasps the hilt of his sword. The face is turned towards that part of the field on which the enemy were advancing when he received the fatal shot. The statute was cast at the foundry of Messrs. Robert Wood & Company, Philadelphia, from a design and model by Mr. J. Q. A. Ward, of New York.

TRANSFER OF THE SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY TO THE UNITED STATES.

The Cemetery having been completed, and the care of it by Commissioners from so many States being burdensome and expensive, the Board of Managers, on the twenty-second of June, 1871, passed the following preamble and resolutions;

Whereas, By an Act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, passed on the fourteenth of April, 1868, the Commissioners having charge and care of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, are authorized to transfer all the right, title, interest and care of the said Soldiers' National Cemetery,

upon the completion of the same, to the Government of the United States, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania thereby ceding and relinquishing to the United States all its title to the grounds and property of the said Cemetery vested in it in trust for the States which participated in the establishment of the said National Cemetery, the cession being made upon condition that the United States Government take upon itself the management and care of said Cemetery and make provision for its maintenance; and whereas the Cemetery is now completed, and, by a recent Act of Congress, the Secretary of War was empowered and directed to accept and take charge of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, and the Antietam National Cemetery at Sharpsburg, Maryland, whenever the Commissioners and Trustees having charge of said Cemeteries are ready to transfer their care to the General Government; that when the aforesaid Cemeteries are placed under the control of the Secretary of War, they be taken care of and maintained in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress, entitled "An Act to establish and protect National Cemeteries, approved February 22nd, 1867." Now, therefere,

Resolved, That the Commissioners to the said Soldiers' National Cemetery, at Gettysburg, assent and agree to the transfer of the said Cemetery to the Government of the United States according to the provisions of the said Act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and are ready to make the transfer accordingly.

Resolved, That David Wills, Esq., the President of this Board, be, and he hereby is, authorized and empowered, as the Agent of the Board and of the Cemetery, to make transfer of the Cemetery to the proper officer or party authorized to receive the same on the part of the United States, and to do all other acts and things necessary and proper to make and complete the said transfer.

In pursuance of the authority thus conferred on David Wills, he immediately commenced a correspondence with the Secretary of War in reference to the transfer of the care of the Cemetery to the United States. After several conferences the title to the Cemetery was finally made to and accepted by the United States, and on the first of May, 1872, the United States took full and complete possession of the Cemetery, and now has the care and control of it.

Previous to the final adjournment of the Board, on the twenty-second of June, 1871, the members deemed it a duty they owed to the patriotic zeal and energy of David Wills, in the promotion of this work, to put on record an expression of their estimate of his labors, when Judge Perley offered the following resolution, which was unanimously passed:—

Resolved, That the Commissioners to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, being about to deliver over the care of that Institution to the Government of the United States, are unwilling to separate without expressing on the Record our sense of the high value of the services of David Wills, Esq., the President, in conducting the general affairs of the Cemetery. In our judgment it is owing in