Volume_29_Issue_2

4 Volume 29, Issue 2 Preservation & Progress Peace eternal? Light eternal? An eternal memorial? Though its name is often confused, the memorial on Oak Hill recognizes and honors the memories of those soldiers, north and south, who fought in the American Civil War. On Dedication Day in 1938 it was unveiled with its official name: the Eternal Light Peace Memorial (Peace Light). The idea for the memorial began in 1887 with a group of veterans and citizens led by Brevet Colonel Andrew Cowan of the Philadelphia Brigade which fought at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. At the time of the battle, Cowan was Captain of the NY Light 1st Battery assigned to General Sedgewick’s VI Corps. The battery was in reserve until called to fill a gap in the infantry line just south of the copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge to help repulse the Confederate charge. 8 0 TH ANN I VE R S ARY o F T H E EternalLight PeaceMemorial By Barbara J. Finfrock