Fort Hill Cemetery
Waterville, Conn.
May 29, 1999
May 1923
Dear Friends,

It does not seem possible that nearly sixty years have passed since we were engaged in the fateful struggle to preserve our union, yet so few of the comrades that were like family remain. At a recent ceremony at the Fort Hill Cemetery in the Waterville section of Waterbury, some of the members of the brave old Eighth gathered to pay our last respects to one of our brothers. Musicians played the venerable Battle Hymn of the Republic on drum and fife, while my daughter placed a wreath on the grave of Horace Garrigus, a corporal of company H who survived wounds at Antietam and Walthall Junction, to be mustered out of the Eighth, return home, raise a family and live a long and productive life.

Horace passed on last year, and those of us that were able felt it only fitting to join the ceremony honoring those veterans of our war, and the late great war interred here in Waterville. As the musicians played, and Heather placed the wreath, former privates were joined with a former adversary from the First Maryland, and fired a salute honoring Horace, and all the brave men who have faithfully served their country.

We may be few, and we may be old and frail, but when duty called we answered, and we will continue to do so, in the hopes that our struggles and what we chose to stand for, not be forgotten, in this day, or in any to come.

Hal