Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-07-23
The Soldiers Reunion.


rative, are enough to give zest to the memo
res of the camp and stricken field. For the
first time there is to be meeting of the rank
and flelas we'll as of the officers, land on larger
scale and with more regularity of manage
ment than has been seen outside the State.
This meeting will be the first of a long line
of similar ones, no doubt, not only in Yer
mont, but throughout the Union.
1t is true that our neighbors in Little
Rhody have led off with meeting somewhat
similar in character, and were reviewed by
that GO Draw Scot " and brave man, Ambrose
Burnside, but they never can have regular
reunion down there for there is MT room for
them to be fairly separated unless they 60
outside the State lines. So we claim the
lead in this matter Rhode Island may call
it she had the deal.
Nor has any State better right to have a
rousing reunion than our own. Of course
self praise. it is shameful thing, but look al
what it has done for the old Bay State. Not
one of her citizens but goes around repeating
to himself the words of the great Daniel
IS Massachusetts, at her, Why, q
young fellow went down there to teach
school and he said the only way he could
get through the winter was, whenever the
| subject became too suffocating, to invite his
friends out doors, point to Mt. Monadnock
there fortunately in sight, and say &c there is
one thing that is MT in Massachusetts. -
This suggestive remark was observed to per.
pick the mind to the manor born, and to
cause confusion like that once made by the
same person in the army. Being then, like
Trim, corporal, it was thought best to trim
the company upon him, and to his discom-
tort he was made to act as left guide. Now
the second sergeant received compensation
greater than the corporal's, which made il
yet more aggravating to the latter to de
duty properly pertaining to the former Blu
the captain insisted and the duty was gone
through with for day, though the company
pany spent most of its time in changing
step, the left guide stumbling at times like
the worst of sinners. When night came on
the corporal was told to look up the duties
of left guide, and this he proceeded to do.
At the drill next day never was company SC
guided. Hogarths lines Of beauty and
grace and the lines of care on the captain s
brow were all surpassed by the waving line
OF men. The captain finding" Guide Left ,
brought no relief thought he would go for
the lett guide The brief colloquy which
ensued was the occasion of the return of the
second sergeant to his regular place, and the
corporal was no longer an exemplar to his
fellow men. " Corporal, are you guiding
this company?" Yes, sir" 50 How are
you guiding it?'' 90 By the rule g What
is the ruler - To guide by one point dis
tant and one intermediate " What are
your points 20 "One is that stub and the
other that crow flying beyond; see him -
We were speaking in depreciation of self
praise; bat the fact is it is not among the
possibilities to write discourse with head.
and points to it, the way the boys used tc
have to lie in the early days of % A " tents
On the subject of the soldiers reunion a
Rutland, for one naturally begins to thinl
Of the good time, there will be, and who o
the boys will be there, and lots of things no
thought of for years come trooping along
aud confuse things. That matter of self.
praise, however, We propose to have our say
about. There won't be any such thing a
Rutland; not bit of it. But there will b.
The know ledge that there was one corps, the
nest; and one division. you know and tht
| OLD BRIGADE Some will remember the &c
stasy OF the old German staff officer as he be
held the onward sweep of the line in one o
the charges in the Shenandoah Valley, wher
he exclaimed, beside himself with delight
division cannot be beat!' There will be
TOO, the men who, brigaded with brethren
rom other States, found brave comrades, ant
side by side with them fought a good fgh
or the common Union. Some of those wood
en- nutmeg boys that used to stand up to tn
work by the eighth in Louisiana, and after
wards in the Valley, ought to come up AM
trade for some gum; they will be hearth,
welcome.
Besides the above " cornstalk militia,
there was the second brigade; the min
months men that Doubleday wondered, tb'
night before Gettysburg, what in -
they had been sent to him for" Losing
tells what, when on the third day of July
Plcketts brave Virginians on the grand as
sault, stood on the topmost pinnacle reached
in all the rebellion and the Union toppled al
their blows. At the same time Stapnard'
Vermont brigade, of Doubleday's division
opened destructive fire on Pickett's flank
which broke the spirit of his men, and very
soon twenty five hundred of them were pris
oners, and with them twelve battle flag
were captured. Three-fourths of the gallan
brigade were dead or captives. Wilcox, wht
failed to attack until Pickett was repulsed
met similar fate in the loss of his men, be-
ing struck in the flank and ruined by Stan
nard's Vermonters. Who in the brigade
does not remember the moonlight night a
Emmettsburg when the last June breeze
came cool and fresh from the western noun
tains? What band was it that lulled us t.
sleep by its serenade at the cloistered-wall
of that convent? Were there any monks o.
nuns Il ere after all or was it all a mediava
scene set in vision before the sleeping army
a token sent from the days of chivalry tx
modern times to grace the eve of the mighty
battle?
Not all of the brigade, though, was ther,
to share the glories of that day. Part of III
were counted out before we were counted in
And talking of counting reminds US that the
boys thought Adjutant Poland of the ff