The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VIII, 1909Various
History
The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VIII, 1909
Various
American-Irish Historical Society -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- United States -- Periodicals; Irish Americans -- Periodicals
Since many prominent Irish Americans played an important part in the
success of the project for a fitting memorial to the heroes of the
British prison-ships of the Revolution, it is fit that reference be made
here to this noble tribute and the manner of its accomplishment.
The magnificent monument, costing in the neighborhood of $200,000, was
dedicated at Fort Greene Park, Borough of Brooklyn, New York, on
November 14, 1908, in the presence of one of the most distinguished and
representative gatherings which ever honored a like occasion in this
country. Addresses were made by President-elect Taft, by Governor Hughes
of New York, Secretary Luke E. Wright of the Navy, and by other
distinguished men, including Patrick F. McGowan, Chairman of the Board
of Aldermen of the City of New York, and Daniel F. Cohalan, Grand Sachem
of the Tammany Society of New York, an organization which did much
toward the success of the project and which contributed a substantial
amount.
The monument itself is one of the finest memorials in the world. It
stands in the center of a broad plaza, reached by three flights of 34
steps each, 100 feet in width. The height from the bottom of the plaza
to the top of the monument is nearly 200 feet. The top is accessible and
is reached by an electric elevator. The monument is constructed of white
granite from New York state, and the steps from granite quarried at
Stonington, Penobscot Bay, Maine. The architects were McKim, Mead and
White, and the work is said to have been the last of an extensive nature
by the late Stanford White.
The funds for the erection of this noteworthy tribute were obtained
through a government appropriation of half the amount, a state
appropriation of $25,000, an appropriation by the city of twice that
amount, and the rest through subscriptions from societies and historical
and patriotic organizations. The Tammany Society contributed the final
$1,000 to complete the required amount. This well-known organization was
the very first to secure a proper recognition of the courage and
patriotism of the prison ship martyrs more than one hundred years ago.
Among the heroes of the British prison-ships were many of Irish birth or
extraction, and it is therefore a subject for pride and satisfaction to
us as a race that their valor has at last been recognized, and
especially that an organization largely controlled by our people has
played so important a part in the accomplishment of such recognition.
Never in the history of the world have prisoners of war been made the
victims of such unexampled cruelties as those practised on the Americans
by the British in the Revolution, and it is a striking and
never-to-be-forgotten commentary on British methods toward their enemies
in war that the record of the prison-ships of the Revolution is deemed
by all the world a black mark on English history.
THE IRISH IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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