WHEREAS,  during the Civil War, approximately 80,000 men from Maine served in the United States military as soldiers and sailors; and

WHEREAS,  Maine contributed a higher proportion of its citizens to the Union armies than any other state and supplied extensive equipment and stores; and

WHEREAS,  at the Third Battle of Winchester, which was fought on September 19, 1864 in Virginia, more than 2,000 Maine soldiers fought and more than 230 were casualties; and

WHEREAS,  in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, 68 Maine soldiers were killed, 466 were wounded and 131 were reported missing; and

WHEREAS,  several hundred Maine soldiers are buried at the Winchester National Cemetery; and

WHEREAS,  there is currently no permanent monument to the sacrifice of these Maine heroes, either at Winchester or at any other battlefield in the Shenandoah Valley; and

WHEREAS,  there is a private effort in conjunction with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation to raise the funds needed to purchase and install a stone memorial to Maine's contribution at the Third Battle of Winchester that would be dedicated to all Maine soldiers who fought in the Shenandoah Valley; now, therefore, be it