SMETHPORT – In remarks prepared for the Bucktail Regiment Honor
Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall, Smethport Mayor Ross
Porterðsaid Sunday the original Bucktails represent more than the
Civil War era from which they were organized.

Porter, who is also a re-enactor with the Bucktail Regiment,
Company I, 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, noted that thoseðinitial
Bucktails represent a spirit that existed in McKean County prior to
1861.

“They were fiercely patriotic, ruggedly independent and skilled
in the use of firearms, and had a wisdom of the woods around them,”
Porter said.

Company I re-enactors today represent the spirit of the original
Bucktails as a living monument, according to Porter.

“We stand before you as a living monument,” Porter said.ð”A
living, breathing tribute not just to these Civil War heroes, but
to the original qualities and values of devotion to country,
commitment to community, love of family and protection our way of
life.”

In his address,ðto the crowd that braved yet another day of
rain, Porter noted how the Bucktails’ offspring later fought in the
Spanish-American War, in France during the Great War, in the
Pacific, Africa and Europe during World War II, in Korea, Vietnam,
Grenada, Bosnia, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Porter said, “During the 1960’s, 100 years after the Civil War,
the great-great-grandsons of the first Bucktails left their homes
in McKean County, just as their ancestors had done, filled with a
fiercely patriotic spirit, a rugged independence and a respect and
knowledge of firearms to defend and protect the country as they
went off to war.

“When you see the Bucktail re-enactors whether in a parade,
encampment or battlefield, remember we are a humble, living
memorial to these brave and hardy men and the values they
represent.

“Like the wall in front of us today, we are a memorial in
tribute to those who died and those who lived defending our way of
life.”

On the schedule for today, the last day the wall will be in
Smethport, is a morning prayer service at 8 a.m. and reflection
ceremony at 2 p.m.