The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-06-10

The COST OF RICHMOND.
Yes, We shall take Richmond this sum-
mer-the time has come," said an officer
to me last night, one of the most heroic of
New England'S heroic sons; Eyes, we shall
take Richmond, but before that hour the
Army of Virginia and the Army of the Po-
tomac will have ceased to exist" The glo-
rious soldiers of our first army, the holy
martyrs OF Our cause, who have marched
so many times hopelessly son to Rich
mond, must fall before they catch sight
of its walls. They will consummate with
their life the victory which they cannot
see, and their bodies buried in Virginia s
degenerate soil will make it at last "sa-
cred forever.
Of what avail that We shrink from meas
urlng the awful cost of the struggle before
US! A whole generation of men is the sac
ritice which we offer to liberty. This
Southern sun, sending such fervid heat
through the cooling boughs above me, how
it scOrches the wounded and dying who lie
unsheltered under its pitiless fire. Our
wounded and dying, This moment they
fall beyond the reach of our arms, who love
them better than our life.
But daughters give up more than sons
Flags wave, drums beat, and unawares
You flash your souls out with the guns,
And take your Heaven at once
But WE'VE empty heart and home
or lites lte love. We bear to think
You're gone-to feel you may not come:
To hear the door latch stir aud clink
Yet no more yOu.'
To wait, and watch, and pray, in utter
helplessness, thinking of suffering which
cannot be alleviated, of danger which can
not be shared, of death that cannot be
a7erted, this is hard! Life can inhict up.
on love no pang more poignant than this.
| clutch at every reason which presages
victory. Every movement indicates a new
power iinpellng and quickening the whole
army. For the first time, campaign
opens, and its entire plan is not anticipated
and told in the streets of Washington ::
therefore We may hope that it is not wholly
known and prepared for in the streets of
Richmond. We have the promise that
this tried general shall lead the army as
be wills, without interference and without
restriction.
And our army Never has it been
nerved with such a spirit as now. Batfled,
defeated, led 10 heroic death, it has been
in the past; row every man, as he relnem-
bers his comrades slain in truitless battles,
as he remembers his home. his country.
feels that the hour las cone to conquer a
peace
TIE RESULTS OF vIUroRY--THE p.Tuos OF
"Great Union victory" "Names of
the killed and wounded" the newsbovs
cry. And now the newspaper. A rand
CHANGING down its columns, while nv verv
breath is suspended with fear. NJ. and
yet it would be utmost comfort to see
one name with the "slghtly wounded :,
for then l should know that he was not
left behind, with those who, after having
suffered the tortures of thousand deaths
must die, die in the Wilderness, die by the
road, die under the bayonets of human
tends, with no one near to pity or to save.
Passing out Fourteenth street, the trees
by the roa dside droOp beneath the heavy
garniture of May-many-leafed as the TO
liage of a Northern June. Sunshine and
shadow CLEAN and flicker over the deep
emerald of the softly swelling hills which
environ the suburbs. The orchards are
raining down fragrance in myriads of
snowy blossoms. Cottage and villa, and
yonder on that browning knoll, the pale,
stone tower of the Soldiers Home, peer
ing above the empowering trees, and here,
on the green slope of Mount Pleasant, the
cattle grazlng-how peaceful all look !!
Yet through all this beatty, far along the
road, creeps, tae long line of ambulances,
! packed full of wounded men. Here pro-
trudes the stump of an arm; here bare
and bandaged foot; here against these
bars where the May air may kiss it, rests
pale, patient face; and the crimson blot
and white patch on the cheek tell where
the bullet smote. The yard of Columbia
College hospital is filled with ambulances.