The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-18

force nearly reached the village. But here.
right victory seemed TO vibrute.
A. p. HILL with his division, by rapid march from
Harler's Ferry, which he lett that morning reached
to tie Rebel right wing their united efforts drove
back our troops from their advanced position, but
the eastern bank OF the creek they after desperate
fighting, in which General Rodman, one OF their dlv
sion commanders fell mortally wounded enabled
still to maintain their stand upon It's western shore
whist the Rebels fell back to the nights as darkness
The bridge has been known in the neghborhood
ever since the battle as the Burnside Bridge, which
name lor lts pastoral as well as patriotic significance
Thus ended only for want OF light to pursue it
farther, battle that had ragged for nearly fourteen
bloodiest Of the war Twelve thousand of our dead
and wounded warriors and at least as many more Of
the enemy lay stretched upon the field
have, of course, not yentured to attempt more
than the meres outline of some of the most prominent
points OF the action. To note the movements of the
various diysions, brigades and regiments their
marches, manGuvres and combinations and the
names of the officers who led them, possessed
the information necessary for the purpose and that
would insure me against doing injustice to any would
Tar exceed the limits permitted to such address.
sh0ud rejoice TO he able to refer by name to every
man who that day did his duty, from the Genera-n-
chief to the humblest subordinate i'm the ranks, but
nave the satisfaction oil knowing that they all
gisteied elsewhere, and that neither their nor
deeds ale dependent On this ephemera record.
Viewing these hills and valleys we do to-day, in
the full uxuriance Of their autumna beauty restored
by the ndomitabe energy Of their thrifty population
TO the condition they presented before hostile armies
selected them the theatre of their contest aud then
calling up to memory or imagination the spectacle
they exhibited when that contest closed and the har-
vest of death lay heaped in horrid swaths all over
their undulating surfaceand how impressive, almost
appalling is the sense Of the destruction which few
brief hours had accomplished
The day before the battle this region-one of the
most beautiful and productive of the State in its
chards aud meadows, corn fields and pasture, wood
land and water courses-presented
"a happy rural seat Of various view"
that filed the eye of the visitor with delight inferior
only to that Of the happy husbandmen, its owners.
They thus far knowing little of save by its dis
tant echoes awoke the morning of the 18th Of Sep
tember, 1862, to all its dread realities.
"Hark to that roar, whose swift and deacnng peals
In countless echoes through the mountains ring;
Tsgaen SMf1 and sf gS o be basns aRS Bmb
The The falling tree the hS bS M the n the shout
The discofd gToW tin p pae @ Death q s6us he ocne
His cold and bloody shroud!"
But let ms pass from this melancholy retrospect to
the agreeable contemplation of the tribute due
to the valiant dead that lie here at around
us. The posthumOus honors rendered to departed
patriots are commended to MS by the example of the
nobest nations of antiquity and are prompted by
those impulses of the human heart which, in all ages
seek to perpetuate some record or remnscence OF the
good and the brave. In the best days of the republics
Of old these moruary observances were far more fire.
quent and impressive than modern times; they not
only embalmed the bodies of their warriors and states
men, but their funeral ceremonies, the eulOges pro-
nounced over them, and the monuments erected to
their memory, recognized as Of national obliga
ton. Their exploits were chroniced and elaborated
by the poets and orators OF their nation, and nave
theme, on which the youthful mind still delights to
dwell.
year time for the observance of solemn funeral rites
the remains Of their heroes who had fallen during
the year; their bones were collected together their
friends invited to be present; their remains were
decorated ae the fancy or affection OF those friends
might suggest, and after three days thus employed
these remnants of mortality were carried in solemn
funeral pomp to apubhc temple prepared Tor their re-
ception. Nor were they forgotten whose moldering
forms it had been impossible TO recover for Them OF
in memory of them, an empty bier the most gorgeous
in the procession, was especially dedleatedi ana a
full.
We have as vet established such national ami
versaries nor provided any such gorgeous pageantry
No sored urn or cypress coffin may contain the re-
have never vet been gathered within any recognized
cemetery and stu occupy the shallow grave on s TIE
their last resting place probably altogether unmarked
or If marked AT all only by rough stake and occasion
ally few rude letters but whatever be its condition.
wherever it may be-on the banks of the Mississippi
or among the mountains of Pennsylvania in the mo-
rasses Of the Chckahominy, or in this quiet and we'll
ordered cemeteryGreece nor Rome, in their palmest
days, never offered up costier sacrifices in the cause
of human freedom than 'the hearts once pregnant
with celestial fire" which those rude sepulchres
tomb.
regarded the honors to living men--and probably
no age may be altogether exempt from the imputa-
tion-that in the costly statues erected to- ana the
munifcent ovatons showered upon the successful
soldier or accomplished statesman there lurked not
unfreuuently some personal consideration mingling
with the motives that suggested them. Sometimes it
was fear that prompted the timid thus to proptate
| the wrath of the powerful Sometimes it SER
vile adulRtion that, in the time-serying sought by
such means to secure recompense in the shape OF
| other honors or emoluments to be recprocated
1t doubtless the knowledge of such corruption,
and appreciation of the motives that should con-
troll such memorials, that prompted Cato, when
asked by friend why statues had been erected to
| him. while Rome was crowded with many others,
to reply he did, that he had much rather his
| trymen should inquire why he had statues than
why he had dg but the character and circumstances
of the honoTs we are here to render to our patriot
dead, not only vindcate their motive, but in the mo-
tive itself is found the very germ Of the honor we
would confer Let statues monuments to the living
the dead tower 80 high, the true honor, after
ALL is not in the polished tablet or towering column,
but in that pure spontaneous and unaffected grai-
tiude and devotion of the people, that enshrines the
memory of the honored one in the heart, and trans
mits IT from age to age, long after such costly struc
tures have disappeared.
The only honor accorded TO Mitiades the great de-
lyerer OF Athens, was to be represented in picture,
painted by order of its citizens, at the head OF the
other nine commanders of the heroic ten thousand,
anmating his followers to the attack OF the hostile
force, which outnumbered them ten to And yet
that simple painting preserved in the affections o.
succeeding generations, existed for centuries there
AFTER while the three hundred statues which in later
and corupter age were erected by the same people IN
honor of DemetriuS were al uenoushed, even IN mis-
lifetime
THUS in our hearts would we enshrine the memory
of the Union soldier. Generations yet unborn shall
recount TO their offspring the history of their Valor
and long after brass and marble have crumbled into
dust shall their names be preserved, the who
perished to perpetuate what their fathers had so
struggled to establish this Heaven-appointed govern
A sepIilchre as / have said was formerly prepared
for the heroes of ancient Greece IN the most con-
spicuouh suburb Of their cities. This custom, how
this days solemnites the field of Antietam furnish
an appropriate parallel.