1903 SOLDIERS MONUMENT CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL manuscript poem 36 lines

Description

[AMERICANA; CIVIL WAR MEMORABILIA; MEMORIAL/DECORATION DAY MEMORABILIA; PATRIOTIC MANUSCRIPT POEM]
THE SOLDIERS MONUMENT, 3-stanza, 36-line handwritten/manuscript poem
over three 5” x 7-1/2” pages written for Decoration Day with note “For The News” in upper left corner of first page by a Danbury, Connecticut, teacher whose last name was Cannon, date is sometime before 1880 since Decoration Day didn’t become known as Memorial Day until the 1880s (wikipedia); the poem is written in the sentimental, idealized style of the late Victorian period, sample lines are, “Friends, whose dear ones died…We grant to you a sacred pride…Their life-blood drenched the Southern soil…And while we call the heroes ours…Our grief shall make more real…Our holiday emotion…This steadfast column that we raise…Let this soldier-figure stand…”;
the poem is enclosed with a 2 page/about 180 words letter dated May 14, 1903
, from Martha Stokes Hodge of Plumtree, Bethel (Connecticut) to Mrs. Samuel Miller of Cannon, Conn., in which letter Hodge mentioning “delightful drive in [Mrs. Miller’s] carriage last Sabbath” explains that with the upcoming Decoration/Memorial Day, she thought Mrs. Miller would appreciate seeing a poem by her brother he wrote for the “News” while he was teaching in Danbury that Hodge had in her scrapbook and wrote out for her
/// NOTES:
Martha Stokes Hodge
(1849-1904), Bethel, CT; the
Millers
were a prominent family in Cannon, Connecticut, whose name was changed to Cannondale in 1915 from the urging of Samuel Miller, who was “instrumental in the final name change, acquired a cannon which had been used in the Civil War battle of Galveston [that] was placed at the intersection of Danbury and Cannon roads.” (wikipedia)
/// CONDITION:
well-preserved, handwriting legible, minimal wear, folds as mailed in envelope.