brass

On April 19, 1836, the people of Concord completed a monument to the "ëmbattled few" who stood "by the rude bridge that arched the flood" and helped pave the way for our freedom. One reading Emerson’s "Concord Hymn", memorializing the event, would be amazed at the similarity of the mindset of that time to that of the people of Berlin 170 years later on that Saturday at Riverside Park when the Berlin Veterans Foundation dedicated their cenotaph. The two concluding stanzas bring to life his words:

‘’On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

"Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

the shaft we raise to them and thee.’’