By David Corbin
GateHouse News Service
Posted Nov 20, 2009 @ 02:00 PM

Scituate — The following are remarks from David Corbin, historian of Satuit Camp No. 3188, Sons Of Union Veterans Of The Civil War, during the ceremony to rededicate the refurbished Civil War Cannon Nov. 15 at the GAR Hall in Scituate.

Thank you all for coming out on this dry autumn Sunday to celebrate the restoration and rededication of yet another icon of Scituate’s heritage. I would like to take this moment to thank the steadfast efforts of the Scituate Historical Society, the community preservation committee and the people of Scituate, who have made it abundantly clear that they support and promote our town’s historical resources.

I would like to thank the Satuit Camp 3188 Sons of Union Veterans, the American Legion Post 144 and the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry for their enthusiasm and their common belief that those who bore the burden, whether in the snowdrifts of Valley Forge in 1777 or the mountains of Afghanistan in 2009, should perpetually have the thanks and support of a grateful nation.

We celebrate the return of a reminder that our nation’s story has been a tumultuous one, and that story continues today. In 1861, the skillful art of political compromise necessitated by those of the earlier generation gave way to those each ordained with a vision of the shaping of a continent. Civil War in 1861 turned a nation and it’s people upside-down. While I have no proof that 264 young Scituate men “rushed to the colors” to defend the Union, I can say that these men each made a conscious decision to serve their country when called upon. Each community was expected to meet their quota of men to serve. Not one example has surfaced of the draft having to be used.

For centuries, returning armies dragged their “instruments of war” back with them as a symbol of victory. Yet all too often, the weight brought home was not the artillery piece, but in the hearts and souls of the soldiers returning.

In 1875, Scituate’s Civil War veterans met within the doors behind me. They formed the Geo W. Perry Post 31 GAR and pledged undying support to each other. In 1918, a grateful community unveiled the Soldiers-Sailors monument at what is now Lawson Park. By the 1920’s, there were but a few left from Mr. Lincoln’s army. The surviving veterans became revered celebrities, as battlefields became sacred ground and historians and classrooms across the nation embraced the Civil War as a defining moment and its participants heroes.

Perhaps the passing of the years seemed right when summer resident and Boston Police officer George Nee, himself a decorated veteran of the Spanish War of 1898, secured by means yet known the cannon before us today. No comments survive of what Scituate’s aging “Boys of 61” thought of it. Yet with great ceremony, the cannon was dedicated in 1925 where we now stand. Those that attended felt as if they had a direct connect with history, knowing that those who dragged the ceremonial cannon back from war over 60 years before would soon be gone.

As the 20th century progressed, the cannon stood a silent sentinel, a reminder to some, a landmark to others. As the Civil War centennial arrived in 1961, wounds would prove still raw for a nation to celebrate its heroes and outcome. Here in Scituate, our community was preoccupied with a growing year-round population and with it new housing and public schools. Amid the bustle of the “New Frontier,” a young resident, Paul Hansell, a student of the rebellion, decided to find out all he could about this now-peculiar landmark. With passion and determination, his research led him to corresponding with a leading national historian of the Civil War, Dr. James Hazlett of West Virginia. With equal excitement, Dr. Hazlett authenticated what struck terror in the hearts of men of both armies a century before.

As the 20th century came to a close, a building shuttered was busy being a building reborn. Scituate history has a near-magical appeal to many who call it home. Perhaps no other New England community has had so many books published pertaining to its storied past. We preserve as long as we are unwilling to lose sight of the past. It should temper and guide us in the future.