372 History of Hingham. 



into a sweet memory, and whose sadness is only tempered by an 

 unspoken hope. They are all here, — these and the young 

 maiden, the coming men, and the happy children of to-day. And 

 they all gather closer as the Grand Army forms in front around 

 the large semi-circle of baskets overflowing with the blossoms 

 brought to mingle their brightness with the green of earth. In 

 front is the monument, and to the east, upon the side of the highest 

 ground in the cemetery, was the fort erected to defend the harbor 

 against the Spaniards ; on an adjoining elevation northwesterly 

 still stand the defences of 1676, when Philip menaced the town ; 

 between the monument and the valley, and beyond it by and near 

 the old general's resting-place, lie the slumbering brave of the 

 Revolution ; everywhere, among the fathers, beside the old sol- 

 diers, and in the new ground alike, the flags which mark the sleep- 

 ing heroes of the Civil War wave gently in the soft spring breeze. 

 From the band stationed near floats a hymn, — an old one, dear and 

 familiar ; the chaplain hushes the assembly in prayer ; a short, 

 earnest plea for country, a tender tribute to the fallen, a word of 

 pride in their sacrifice, of sympathy for the sorrowing, and the 

 orator — local and uncelebrated perhaps, but reverent and full of 

 the occasion — is through. A word or two from the commander 

 of the Post, a signal, quietly given, and the violets and the lilies 

 are blooming and nodding in new places, and saying, in language 

 equalled by no other, that here sleeps a soldier whom his loved 

 ones, his comrades, and the great Republic have not forgotten. 

 Again the music sounds; the street, full of the homes and the 

 history of other days, re-echoes with the martial strains; the sun- 

 light fading away from the lowly mounds gilds still the Old 

 fleeting-house steeple, touches with its rays the top of the monu- 

 ment, and reflected from the masses of clouds in the western 

 horizon paints the harbor with the color of the rose. From the 

 distance the last notes of " retreat " borne from Grand Army 

 Hall come floating on the evening breeze, "old glory" flutters to 

 the ground from many a staff, and Memorial Day, fitly and faith- 

 fully observed in this old town of the mingled Puritans and 

 Pilgrims, has come to its close. 



With the exception of the company formed under the law of 

 1864, which elected Henry Jones captain, but in consequence of 

 the repeal of the Act soon after, never met for drill or parade, 

 there has been no strictly local military organization in Hingham 

 since the disbanding of the Lincoln Light Infantry, September 

 29, 1862. 



Upon rising ground stretching along Broad Cove, overlooking 

 the early anchorage of many of the fleet which long years ago 

 whitened Hingham's bay, — some undoubtedly built in the ship- 

 yard then situated just below the bluff, but since disappeared and 

 forgotten, — and directly opposite the southern slope of Otis Hill, 



