The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-02-08
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

w IL SsS - ale liz 1908,
To Coz. Reuben E. Fe'lton, Albany, N. Y.
SIR: 1 have read with sorrow and as.
tonlshment your letter recommending
national honors to the rebels whoee in.
yasion of the North was stopped by
deathi in battle on the field of Antieta m
You say: = - =
There are local and Individual feeling In
the ne1ghborhood of Antietsna and of6sI
Ra[LS s1,G. oI maryland, naturally caused by the
INVASION, which have created some IndlfEsr-
ence In regard to the Confederate dead. aud
an an ln9ISposltlon to see them buried side by
Sl19 sue Win those who died In defense OF our
tnla1onality; But it Is confidently believed
tnat no such feeling perVades the breasts al
ot., oue Amerlcan people, or the surviving OH.
GERS ana soldiers of the Union armies
w hen we recall the generosity and mod
eTauon tnatmarked the conduct Of the peo-
PIE, the Government and the army during
Tue war ana the emagnanimity that presided
at its close; when we remember that our
counuymen are now engaged in the work Of
reoSonsIr1cting the Union on the basis OF
universal freedom, and with an earnest de.
slre 70 restore to the Southern States a pros
penny lnhnttely greater than that which
Is i'm possible to believe tnat they would de-
sire TO make an 1nvldious distinction against
the mouldering remains OF the Confederate
Qeau, or that they would diSapproVe of their
oelng calefully gathered from the spots
where they fell and laid to rest in the Ma
tional Cemetery, on the battle field of An
"Conquerors as we were In the great strug-
gle, our stern dlsapproval of the cause in
which they fought need not forbid our nd mi.
ration of the bravery with which they died,
They were Americans, misguided Indeed
ana mlsled, but still our countrymen: and
We cannot remember them now either with
enm1ly or unklndneSS."
have read these paragraphs twice
and thrice, but a dimness, other than
the hlm of age, obscures them TO nv
vision. 1t is in vain that have wiped
the spectacles of an old man, and en-
deavored deliberately and clearly to see
In your words justification for the re-
commendation they make. Two forms
come between me and the printed page.
One of them is the figure of my eldest
son, the Colonel of the Fourth PennSVl-
Vanta Cavalry-as brave, devoted, and
generous boy as ever filled father's
heart with pride and made a mother
happy. He covered with his regiment
fetrOgade movement of column OF
our army under Sheridan, in June; 1864,
hghttng every rod of his way. He fell
badly wounded. His men endeavored
to carry him off; but, hotIy pursued,
several OF them were killed or disabled,
He told his major to leave him and
save himself and the command, and
try to make stand on the next height,
and there gain time for the great wagon
train ahead to escape to the James riv-
er. My son was laid upon the grass
beside the highway, his men obeying
his orders to return to their ranks, and
leave him with the dead and wounded
OF his regiment to await capture.
The rebels soon came up, as have
been told, shot him again when he Law
helpless on the ground, stripped him
OF his sword, money, watch, boots and
clothes, and left him naked to die. An
old colored woman, living in the neigh
borhood, brought him water to drink
while he was dying. The next day he
was buried in her garden.
Gov. Fenton, the figure of this MUIR
dered boy so comes between my eyes
and the text of your recommendation
OF national honors to the rebel dead,
that cannot see in it reason from
which fathers and mothers who love
their children should not instinctively
shrink, and which should not shock
patriots who have loved their country,
and have made sacrifices for it.
There is, sir, another figure which
makes flmy reading through my old
spectacles. My youngest son, pri-
Vate In the Fourth Pennsylvania Cav
airy, who entered the army before he
was fifteen years of age. was captured
at Sulphur Springs, when Meade fell
and dfty-six of his regiment, one hun
dred and forty-two OF whom afterwards
perished in prison. Twenty-four of
those who died went out in the Covode
cavalry, from my immediate neigh
borhood-all the sons of my neigh bors
ali objects of interest and care to me.
Alter passing from one den Ofimpris-
onment and cruelty to another, they
were finally immured with thousands
OF other unfOrtunates In the death
pen of Andersonville. Eighteen
menths of hunger and p'Fnaked-
ness, exposure to the scorching sun
and the winters freezing, did their
an Of a1r =
Many of them died idiotic, some of
them feebly insane-all the victims of
system of starvation and cruelty
planned by demons and executed by
devils. My sons bodily v!gor and res
oluteness of spirit carried him through
the horrors Of Andersonville, with life
left in him-with hardly anything
more. He is home again with his
mother, and 1 have just received let
ter from her urging me to "try another
doctor, for he grows worse. But the
energetic, Intelligent, hopeful, self re-
liant. brave boy. who left my house to
fight the enemies of his country, has
not returned to me, and he never will
again.
1 think you will find that, in common
with me, hundreds of thousands of
loyal men, whose hearts yet bleed with
wounds received in the wicked war the
Shareholders waged against the nations
life, have been shocked and outraged
by your recommendation to do houor
to the authors of their sorrows and the
workers of their country's foes.
Had you served in the army, either
in person or through a son, and pre-
sented your offer of patriotism to your
country on the picket line or the line OF
pitched battle, you would never have
made the heartless mistake you have
made, in what your biographer, writing
your life, will call 'the Antietam Let
ter" How much I wish you had imi-
tated the manly and sympathetic be-
havior of Governor Geary, Of Penn
sylvania, soldier and a statesman,
who repelled the proposition to mingle
the rebel with the Union dead under
the Antietam Monument.
''The custom has ever prevailed to specI-
ally honor those in death who won specI Al
honor by meIitoriouR lives. The monu-
men Is reared TO the memory of departed
pie have not been unmIndf1l OF this custom
but where were such memorials ever erected
for men whose actions were infamous, and
gIorify the treason of Benedict Arnold with
such monuments as have risen TO the MEM
Ory of Washington? Who would dare to In
suit the loyal heart of this nation by propos-
ing TO lay, side by side, in the same kepulchre,
the body of the assassin Booth, and that OF
Abraham Lincoln? No loyal man would
take the heartieSs Wirz and the other de
mons that presided over the prison dens OF
cruelty, starvation and death, aud the exc
cuted conspiratorR agai Inst the nations Illus
tTiouS chief, and deposit them in the same
their lives in battling for the right against
the wrong Yet tttS proposed that the loyal
States construct cemeteries for their heroic
dead, and then desecrate them with the
burial OF those who prosecuted against the
country a warfare which for its diabolica1
ferocity is without q parallel in the history of