Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-08-08
q Gone e the Nar.a

looking over some old notes and papers
the other day, ! took up small, white, fold
cd paper, ard opening it, came upon )
bea.liihl golden curl of Seitesrhair. Mark
led on the Inside Of the paper was the pc
name Of the lovely child from v hose head
had clipped this sunny ringlet years ago.
Il wondered where he might bcnow, ant
what he might be doing. A few days after
as i'll had sought for The information. wa'
told he had gone'to the war.
+" Conc to the warw The words gave
me strange chill. 1t seemed but few
weeks ago since the summer afternoon
when, tired with play, he had fallen asleep
his cheeks rosy with heat, the very pict2re
of exquisite childish beauty, and | had clip,
ped this glossy carl from close to his white
neck, without waking the little sleeper
And now he tolls over dusty roads, through
painless swamps, with gun, and blanket
and knapsaek, his fair youthful face burned
by the Southern sun, and his young heart
exposed TO all the temptations of the camp
profanity, drunkenness aud crime; or
wounded, he is trampled by friends and
foes, peichance mutilated and brutally aban-
doned to worse than soldiers fate.
0, war, horrible, cruel war, that has been
forced, with all its horrors, on the peace
loving and loyal sons of the North, by the
ungratefal, rebellions children of this once
prosperous republic!
" Gone to the war r Aaother, our quiet,
dsrk-eyed, undemonstrative boy, who must
be known TO be loved, SO unobtrusive was
he, and SO retiring, but best loved by those
who knew him best, but the echo of Sum
ter's guns fired his Northern blood his dark
eye flashed, he seized his rifle and was
gone. And SO one by one, thousands by
thousands, all over the land, they have de-
parted, and many home and heart is desc
late. From enc home, the youngest, the
PSs, 'HS uaihhs5 vi tuc hOuses 10 TtiuCtdllly
given up from the next, the eldest, the
proud, noble first-born, on whom his gray
haired father leaned and from the next,
the widows only son; and from across the
way, every son of the household. O, who
but the recording angel 81 all estimate the
agony, the untold sacrifice called out by this
cruelest of rebellions? Yet shall not their
precious blood have been shed in vain, it by
it is purchased liberty for all, now and for
ever. Anything less than this is heartless
mockery. If from these bloody fields the
remnant shall return tc see the Union
restored as it was, and human slavery
still protected by the banner that we love,
and would give our lives to defend,
then vainly have mothers, wives and sis
tiers sacrificed, and labored, and prayed and
wept, and vainly have their beloved ones
bled and died. But if from these battle
fields Liberty shall rise in shining garments,
with new glory on her shield, if, one kim
dred and one people, we stand again with
clasped hands RECONCILIATION, and the black
stain upon our national honor purged out
forever, then blessed shall they be who can
count their best beloved among the heroes
by whose struggles the glorious result shall
have been consumated. God speed the
time, and shield our dear ones in the day of
battle !--IadepcndeRt.