[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 102 (Monday, July 12, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S5740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO VERMONT'S SOLDIERS

 Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, as we celebrate the 147th 
anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I celebrate the contributions 
Vermont's brave citizens made to keep the Union whole.
  As the Civil War began, President Lincoln sent a message to Governor 
Erastus Fairbanks: ``Washington is in grave danger. What may we expect 
of Vermont?'' The Governor's reply: ``Vermont will do its full duty.''
  Fairbanks called a special session of the State legislature and told 
lawmakers, ``The United States government must be sustained and the 
rebellion suppressed, at whatever cost of men and treasure.''
  Vermonters fulfilled that pledge.
  During the Battle of Gettysburg, waged from July 1 to July 3, 1863, 
Vermonters fought heroically. Under the command of GEN George Stannard, 
Vermonters ``broke the back of Pickett's charge,'' helping lead the 
Union Army to victory in the decisive battle, says George Gunlock, a 
local historian in my State.
  Another Vermonter, William Wells, won the Medal of Honor for leading 
his men in a daring cavalry charge against Confederate lines during the 
Battle of Gettysburg. A statue was built in his honor in both 
Gettysburg and in Burlington's Battery Park. Wells, who rose to the 
rank of general, served as Vermont's adjutant general after the Civil 
War.
  But it not so much the officers, but the brave men who served under 
them, that we most remember, even at this historical distance.
  Despite its small size, Vermont was a major contributor to the Union 
Army.
  In all, 33,200 Vermonters fought in the war, or more than 10 percent 
of the State's population at the time. Twenty-eight thousand Vermonters 
served in the State militia and another 5,000 enlisted for Federal 
service during the Civil War. At the time, the State's estimated 
population was 320,000.
  According to historians, nearly half of the men in Vermont who were 
of military age signed on to serve their Nation.
  Great sacrifice was exacted from these brave volunteers. Vermonters 
suffered 5,194 deaths, during the Civil War, including 1,832 Vermonters 
killed or mortally wounded in battle, 2,747 who died of disease or 
other causes and 615 who died while prisoners. More than 2,200 
Vermonters were taken prisoner during the war.
  The history of the Vermonters who fought during the Civil War lives 
on. The Vermont National Guard's 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, now 
deployed in Afghanistan, uses a famous line from the Civil War--``Put 
the Vermonters ahead''--as its motto today. The line comes from a 
famous order by Union GEN John Sedgwick.
  When the battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863, Sedgwick's 
soldiers were in Maryland, 35 miles from the battlefield. ``At dusk 
orders came to move, but it was about 10 o'clock at night before the 
column started for Gettysburg. It was on this occasion that General 
Sedgwick issued his famous order: ``Put the Vermonters ahead and keep 
the column well closed up.''
  As we recognize the dedication of Vermont's soldiers in the Civil 
War, so should we recognize the dedication and bravery of Vermont's 
soldiers today, when more than 1,500 members of the Vermont National 
Guard are serving in the war zone in Afghanistan. Approaching July 4th, 
the day which marks our Nation's independence, I want to celebrate the 
courage of those brave men from Vermont who fought to preserve the 
Nation in the Civil War, and the brave men and women who are answering 
our Nation's call today in the mountains and valleys of 
Afghanistan.

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