American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-09-13
COsHMUNECATIOYs.


most interesting meeting is announced to
be held in Butler Its object appeals to
the love, pride and patriotism of every
man and woman. In love to those whose
kindred and friends fell in defending our
homes; in pride to those whose hearts
swelled with hope as our soldiers marched
forth to fight the battles of mankind; in
patriotism to all whose country was saved
by the heroic daring and glorious death
of our own brave sons.
Mothers, whose sons sleep in the ene-
mics land, ask us, Will you not rear us
monument to the memory of our sons? p?
Wives, whose husbands blood made sa-
cred the soil of distant States, ask us,
Will you not do honor to our dead Sis
tiers, whose brothers lives were cruelty
taken in loathsome prisons, ask US, Will
you not write their names in our midst,
and with us weep beside their tomb
True, indeed, such men need no mar
bic to preserve a fame which is wide as
the world, and which will remain uudeni-
ed forever; but we owe it to ourselves
and our children. Men who left home
and friends to fall in the thick fight, or
waste out their young life in rebel pris-
on-that
"Fittest earthly type of helI,'
that we might enjoy the purchase of their
blood, require no proud monument to point
mankind to the place where sleep the
martyrs of liberty.
o, what record of noble suffering and
glorious death does Andersonville and
Belle Isle afford. The triumphs Of the
martyrs stake don't excel it, In vain we
seek for examples of human suffering and
human courage to equal those of the pris-
on dens of the South.
The heart of the prisoner may have
broken, but his proud spirit never bowed.
His bosom may have heaved like the
swelling ocean, but no tears fell in the
presence of the cruel captors. When
night gathered the curtain of darkness
and shut out from his gaze the scenes of
suffering ty which he was surrounded,
tho'ts of MOTHER, WIFE and HOME
may have wet his sunken check with
hopeless tears; but before his naughty
keeper he was as unbent as his own north
ern oak.
Thousands of such men gave up their
lives an offering on the altar of their coun-
try-a sacrifice to the demon OF disunion
and rebellion.
All over our land are vacant chairs, and
desolate homes, and weeping friends, and
bleeding hearts and all over the South
are the bleaching bones and unmarked
graves of husbands, brothers and fathers,
whose life went out in the gloom and des-
olation of prisons-men who with unpalcd
cheek had faced the cannon's mouth, who
never recoiled from any danger, nor put
one stain on the bright flag they bore
such man died in Andersonville, Belle
Isle and Libby
He walked erect and proud before his
unfeeling tyrants, while the walls of his
prison he knew bounded forever all of
earth to him. AS he stretched his weary
form upon the cold prison ground, his
shivering comrades around, and the mur-
Ky sky above, shutting out relief and
hope, he unused with his own thoughts
while
Il The dreams of his childhood came over him there,
| As gentle and soft as the sweet summer air,
| And happy remembrances crowding ever,
As fast as the foam flakes drift down the river;
Bringing fresh his heart happy days, long gone by,
| Till the tears gathered heavy and thick in his eye;
But the tears didn't fan, for the pride at his heart
Would not suffer drop down his pale cheek to start
and he sprang his feet in the dark prison cave,
| And he swore with a iereeness that misery gave,
By the hopes of the good and tho OF the brave,
| That when he was mouldering in the cold grave,
| His enemies never should have 1t 10 boast
Ills of their vengeance one moment was lost;
Ills bosom ight bleed but his cheek should be dry
/ For undaunted he lived, ard undaunted he'd die.
MONUMENT.