Litchfield enquirer., 1870-06-09
WHOLE NO 234o
ADDRESS AT wOODBURY ON DE
 CORATION DAY. @
BY WILLIAM ooTHREN, ESQ.


 The vernal season of the year has come with it's flowers and perfumes. Beauty gleams forth on every side. The carol of birds at early dawn and dewy eve, fills the melodious air. The old earth itself is tremulous with joy. The manly heart, the tender bosom throbs with great emotions. Human nature, for the hour, is enobled, and kindly sympathies encircle all with a vast comprehensiveness. We are in this beautiful valley, with it's lovely outlook Heavens chosen place for. the dispensa- tion of munifcent gifts! We are standing in this silent peaceful city of the deadl It is the votive hour! It is the day of sacred memories! With uncovered heads, Come we with our offerings, All our dear and holy things,
 to decorate the lonely graves of the tried, the true and the brave. It is sad but pleasing duty. Beautiful and graceful is the act, when blooming, youthful forms strew these graves. with flowers, cheered on by the whole community. How appropri- ate to revive in each revolving year, with the fragrance of flowers. and the fragrance of 6 perennial honor, 8 fond remembrance of those we loved. in life, who wrought we'll, and have ascended into glory. In doing this, we prove the saying true:- " On the cold face ofdeath the roses are blending, l And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb"
 We come with our floral offerings and tributes of praise to honor the heroic men who gave their lives for us; who stood like wall of fire between us and our foes; who saved the nations life. We come to hon. or the men who went out from our pleas ant hills and sweet valleys, leaving fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and children, the endearments and com. forts of home-a1l that men hold dear in life, to battle for the right, to execute the will of God, to wipe out glaring iniquity from the face of the earth. No venial men were they. All that loving friends, and kind government could do for them, was mere tride compared with the great sacrifices they willingly made. No malice. no thirst for blood, no love of carnage en- tered their manly bosoms. They went forth with high resolve, influenced alone by stern and honest sense of duty. They endured tolls and privations and suffer- ings, which no tongue can tell, and no pen can adequately describe. O the perilous edge of battle" the muskets of their foes pufiing sulphurous death and deadly nlis- siles into their faces; amid the storm of shot and shell; in the desperate charge, steel clashing with steel, while each sec- ond comrade dropped silently or moaning 1 ly down in the death agony; in the ex- hausting march under burning sun; in the nasty bivouac, resting upon thelr arms; in the dim woods, or upon the open plain; in the loathsome hospital; in the horrid prison pen; these gallant men breathed out their lives in noble cause, and ob- tained 8 martyrs crown.
 We miss these gallant men from our so- cial gatherings and from our fresides. We hear no more their pleasant greetings in the hustle of active life. It is sad yet glorious roll-call we make here today: Barnum, the gentle of soul, yet bold as 8 lion; Dutton, the chivalrous, the dashing and patriotic, yielding up his life in the deadly charge and heat of battle, at Ce- dar Mountain; Orton, the faithful and true, victim of Winchester's bloody field; Whitlock, the genial and the brave; the soldierly Hard, Flashman and Galpin; the patient and modest Briggs and Wheeler, who received their death-wounds at Gold Harbor-time fails me to characterize all-- these are but types of the whole patriot band, who served their country during those four dark, lurid years of civil war. and gave their lives for their country. With palpitating hearts we call the roll of our honored dead to-day. We place their names on our ROLL OF HONOR, and treas- ure them in our heart of hearts. We miss these more than fifty stalwart forms, but we garland their memories. We magnify their fame. We'll have they earned the guerdon we so gladly accord to them, while they find other and more glorious employ ment on the heavenly plains. We will teach our children and children's children their honored names. and hand them down to the latest posterity.
 He neuer dies,
 Who, when the battles won, lays down
 His armor, and takes furlough of his aod."
 Memories bright shall guard their fame,
 Spread it from shore to shore,
 The cypress droop above their graves,
 Softly whispering evermore.