+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | THIS WREATH | | | | IS HERE PLACED BY THE | | | | AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY | | | | AS A TRIBUTE TO THE PATRIOTS | | | | Who, on this Hill, | | | | JUNE 17, 1775, | | | | Nobly gave battle, in the cause of liberty, to the forces of the | | British King. | | ------------- | | Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ Thomas F. O’Malley then addressed the gathering substantially as follows: To-day we meet in pious and patriotic commemoration of a great deed, performed here 125 years ago. To-day we stand in the midst of a great nation which is proud, strong and free. All is joy around us. But let us turn back a century and a quarter in the book of time. What a scene was enacted here! The hill crowned with a hastily constructed redoubt and held by an undisciplined and untrained yeomanry—farmers, with their fowling pieces and but little ammunition. A brilliantly appointed army advancing to the attack and storming the works, supported by coöperating ships and batteries; the blaze of the burning town, coursing whole streets or curling up the spires of public edifices; the air above filled with clouds of dense black smoke, and the surrounding hills, fields, roofs and steeples occupied by crowds of spectators. What strange sounds came to the ear—the shouts of the contending armies, the crash of falling buildings, the roar of ship guns and mortars and the rattle of musketry. On one side we find the high courage of men staking their lives and reputations on the uncertain issue of a civil war; and on the other, the reflection that defeat meant the final loss to Britain of her American empire.