The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1864-03-04
Our Soldiers.

our Soldiers.
Among the many good things in the
March atlantic we can especially commend
an article upon cur soldiers, in which the
good offices of the Sanitary Commission are
beautifully illustrated. There is a ch IN
about this article in q1estion which holds the
reader till it is finished Below we give ex-
tended extracts :
When New England's sons siezed their
arms, the first to answer the trumpet-val
that rang out over the land, and went in the
spirit Of their fathers to the battle,-vhtn
these men passed through Philadelphia, hum
cry and weary, the great heart CT the city
went out to meet them. Citizens brought
them into their houses, the neishborins
shops gave gladly What they could, women
came running with food snatched from th.ir
own tables, and even little squaiid children
toddled out of by-lanes and alleys with oavts
and haif-loaves, all they had 10 give, 50 did
the whole people yearn over their defenders;
and then it was seen how other regiments
would come to them, ready y the fray but
dusty and wayworn, and how the ambularces
would bring them back palched and fainting
and-it was hardly known how, oily that, as
in old times, " the people were OF Ole mind
and one accord" and brought Of such ,hilgS
as they had; but on that SAD, YET pr0ud day,
that brought back to them those that te.l at
Baltimore on he memorial nineteenth OF
! ril,-the heroes in whom al claim share,
and the right to say, not only Mas>ach selt'.
! dead and wounded, but ours-aMd there waS
ready for them shelter in TIE unpretendi"g
building famous since as the Cooper Shop.
There the people crowded about them, weep
| ing, blessing, consoling; and from HAT day
there has no regiment from New England,
New York or any other State, been suffered
to pass through Philadelphia uu:elreshed.
Water was supplied them, and tables ready
spread, by the Volunteer Corps always in
attendance, within five minutes af'er the fir
ing Of the gun that announced their arrival.
There was shortly added also, 4 yol.ut, er
hospital for the more dangerously y wounded
when first brought from the battlefield, and
of it is told a story that Americans will Ike
to hear.
1t is Of Wisconsin. soldier, who. taken
prisoner, effected his escape from Richmond.
Hiding by day, he forced his way BY night
through morass and forest, snatched such
sleep as he dared on the damp and sodden
earth, went without food whole DAYS, reached
our lines bruised, torn, shivering, starving,
and his wounds, which had never been prop
erly cared for, opened afresh. Let him tell
the rest straight from his heart.
"When had my rubber blanket to wrap
about me, | was comfortable. and snug and
warm in the cars, thought myself happy !;
and when heard them talk of the Cooper
Shop said to myself, a cooper's shop
that will be the very place Of ali the earth,
for there shall have Il roof over NE, and
the shavings will be SO warm and dry to lie
upon!' but when they carried me in, ara |
saw what was the Cooper Shop, and the long
tables all loaded for the poor soldiers, and
when they took me to the hospital up stairs,
and placed me in bed, ard real ladies and
gentlemen, with tears in their eyes, came and
waited on me, my manliness left me-"
A want of manlness, o honest heart, for
which there need be no shame. Precious
tribute to our country'S love for her sons
For this is no sectional charity, only one ex-
ample culled from thousands for the lanj
must, of a necessity, be overshadowed by .he
tree that has a root und r. almost every
Northern hearth stone; and see how We are
all bound together by the heart strings.
Forty thousand menat-arms are looking
graveiy at the height towering above the val
lev in which they stand. Impregnable
military science pronounced it; but the mel
sealing it know nothing of this word i'm
: pregnable" They have heard nothing of al
order for letreat,-they are filled with a di
vine wrath of battle. and each man is as mat
q as his neighbor, and the officers are power
J, less to hold them back, aud catch the infec
s ton and are swept along with them, AM
r climbing, Jumping, toiling on hands an
d knees, swinging from tree and bush, any way
'e any how, hut always onward, they surge u
n over the mountain top, deadly voleys crash
re ing right in among them, and set on tn
rt Rebels with wild hurrah. and the hear
" below beat faster, and rough lips curse th
1T binding smoke and fog that veil all the cres
J. and on a sudden a shout-such one as til