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On September 11, 1889, Captain J.C. Johnson was part of the regiment's reunion and delivered the monument’s dedication speech.  The following is an excerpt from that speech:

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"We are again assembled on the field where we fought more then a quarter century ago, and where we left many of our comrades wounded, mangled, and dying. Time has worked great changes since that day. Many who escaped death here, afterwards fell gloriously on other fields of battle. With us, the remnant, time has dealt as with all mankind. Many now see with dimmed vision, walk with a halting gait and bended form, while our heads are silvered over by the frosts of time. We begin to see that the day is not far distant, when we shall reach the last camping ground and hear the last bugle call of taps, and lie down to a slumber that will awaken only at reveille of resurrection morn.

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But such is the common lot, and like true soldiers we will go on to join the innumerable throng who have received their reward beyond the shining shore. But here, today, we recall the past; we summon up to memory's view the faces of dead and living companions in arms. We recall the incidents of field and camp and march. We greet each other with sacred memories: elbow to elbow we have faced the serried ranks of the enemy. Amid carnage of the red field we have parted touch with comrades. We cannot here recount even those most touching incidents. It is, however, eminently proper here to remember that our comrades who laid down their lives on this field were brave men. And it may be forgiven us if we mention that in this great battle no Pennsylvania regiment lost a larger number than did ours.

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I have been told that it is now taught at West Point the change of front by regiment, that our regiment made on this field under fire, was a movement of such difficulty that it has not been done elsewhere since the battle of Waterloo. These are matters, however, of personal interest alone. It is pleasant to think, and we justly have a pride in the thought, that history will record that in this battle of battles. The One Hundred and Forty-ninth did her full duty nobly and well."