Delaware did not send a representative to the early National Soldiers’ Cemetery meetings in 1863, deferring to attending commissioners from other states who participated in planning the burial grounds and dedication cemetery. The Diamond State erected regimental monuments to the First and Second Delaware Volunteer Infantry Regiments in 1885, but it was not until 2000 that Delaware dedicated a state memorial.
By the efforts of Delaware Representative Wayne A. Smith, members of the Delaware Civil War Society, and the leadership of historian and preservationist Kim Burdick, funds were raised and designs commissioned for the presentation of the Delaware State Memorial at Gettysburg, still the most recent one to be added at the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
Civil War documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, a native son of Delaware, spoke at the dedication of the Delaware State Memorial on April 28, 2000, closing his remarks with a quote from another of Lincoln’s great speeches, “The Mystic Chords of Memory. The Better Angels of Our Nature. That is why we are here today.”
Items shown here are from the papers of Delaware Senator Myrna Bair, former president and longtime member of the Lincoln Club of Delaware.
[Item 1] Milford, Maureen. “A New Monument for the First State: Honoring Delaware at Gettysburg,” Wilmington News Journal, October 24, 1994.
Barksdale Maynard designed the monument. Sculptor Ron Tunison created a 5′ x 6′ bronze plate that depicts the First and Second Delaware Volunteer Regiments in their repulse of Pickett’s Charge, the climax of the battle on July 3. The rear plaque includes the names of 691 Delawareans who fought at Gettysburg.
[Item 2] Delaware at Gettysburg, April 29, 2000. Envelope with postal cancellation marked “Delaware Memorial Station, April 29, 2000, Gettysburg PA 17325.” Library of Congress 33 cent postage stamp. Signed by the sculptor Ron Tunison.
[Item 3] Delaware Civil War Society. Remembrance. Invitation to a luncheon prior to the memorial dedication at Gettysburg, Saturday, April 29, 2000.
![Burns, Ken. Mystic Chords of Memory [computer-generated typescript]. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, April 28, 2000.](https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/gettysburg-2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/274/2023/10/4-Burns-Ken-speech-scaled-e1699295793234.jpg "Burns, Ken. Mystic Chords of Memory [computer-generated typescript]. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, April 28, 2000.")
[Item 4] Burns, Ken. Mystic Chords of Memory [computer-generated typescript]. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, April 28, 2000.
