1903 SOLDIERS MONUMENT CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL manuscript poem 36 lines

[AMERICANA; CIVIL WAR MEMORABILIA; MEMORIAL/DECORATION DAY MEMORABILIA; PATRIOTIC MANUSCRIPT POEM] THE SOLDIERS MONUMENT, 3-stanza, 36-line handwritten/manuscript poem over three 5" x 7-1/2" pages written for Decoration Day with note "For The News" in upper left corner of first page by a Danbury, Connecticut, teacher whose last name was Cannon, date is sometime before 1880 since Decoration Day didn't become known as Memorial Day until the 1880s (wikipedia); the poem is written in the sentimental, idealized style of the late Victorian period, sample lines are, "Friends, whose dear ones died…We grant to you a sacred pride…Their life-blood drenched the Southern soil…And while we call the heroes ours…Our grief shall make more real…Our holiday emotion…This steadfast column that we raise…Let this soldier-figure stand…"; the poem is enclosed with a 2 page/about 180 words letter dated May 14, 1903, from Martha Stokes Hodge of Plumtree, Bethel (Connecticut) to Mrs. Samuel Miller of Cannon, Conn., in which letter Hodge mentioning "delightful drive in [Mrs. Miller's] carriage last Sabbath" explains that with the upcoming Decoration/Memorial Day, she thought Mrs. Miller would appreciate seeing a poem by her brother he wrote for the "News" while he was teaching in Danbury that Hodge had in her scrapbook and wrote out for her /// NOTES: Martha Stokes Hodge (1849-1904), Bethel, CT; the Millers were a prominent family in Cannon, Connecticut, whose name was changed to Cannondale in 1915 from the urging of Samuel Miller, who was "instrumental in the final name change, acquired a cannon which had been used in the Civil War battle of Galveston [that] was placed at the intersection of Danbury and Cannon roads." (wikipedia) /// CONDITION: well-preserved, handwriting legible, minimal wear, folds as mailed in envelope.