The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-09-04
FREMONT SANDUSKY COUNTY OHIO: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1874
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MEETING or THn RneIMENT.

40elr1.
MEETING OF THE REGIMENT
At the Reunion of the 42d Regiment, o.
l., held at Newburg, on the 26th ult, the fr
lowing poem was read:
Again beneath our steadfast stars,
Beneath our banners crimson bars,
Dim with the stains of ancient wars
We gather where the Summes sun
Streams all our Northern fields upon,
Whose quiet rest our arms have won.
Twelve years ago, on hill and plain,
We swung our cradles in the grain,
In days that might not come again.
For Sonthward rose the long hurrahs,
The banners of an alien cause
Waved in wind of mad applause.
But when our fields lay cold and white,
All tranquil in the sanity light,
And Christmas bells rang through the nigh
A drift of cleaning bayonets shone
On mountain roads, remote and lone,
Far Southwark in a land unknown.
Full many here rememember still,
Those midnight marches; and the chill,
Raw mists, that wrapped US ON that hill.
When first beneath the dripping pines,
We saw the battles heightened lines
Sweep up the long and steep inclines.
The men who led us to the fray,
(Nor less our leaders still are they, J..
We greet with love and pride to-day.
Nobler than kingly accolayde,
The blazons on their shoulders laid,
Tell Of the fight for freedom made.
ofyears beneath the Southern sun,
OF many fields right nobly won,
And their whole duty grandly done.
And we who wrought not less the while
In field or march of many mile.
Oil comrades of the rank and file,
What trophies bring we from the warsP
Upon our shoulders fash no bars,
Nor silver leaves, nor CLEAN of stars.
What bring we from the wasted South?
From land scorched with a fiery drouth,
Burnt black beneath the cannon's mouth?
This-and this Only-that we stood
Undaunted on dark fields of blood,
The memory of our boast made good.
We share the glories of the war,
Still ours tie standards that we bore,
In triumph to the hot sea shore.
Nor honored less than knightly bars.
Than silver sheen of leaves and stars,
Are war-stained blouses and and cid scars.
We meet again when years are fed,
The men who followed, they who led,
To greet the hving-mourn our det.d.
By Sandy River, on Vicksburgh's steep,
Or Chickisaw Bayou in silence sleep
The farmer boys who ne'er shall reap.
In all the summer of peace and rest
The harvest of the golden West,
A double glory their graves invest.
Still shall their names be handed down,
Wrapped in a spIendor of dual renown,
A L.
They rest where warm the South winds blow
Questioning not as they come and go,
If Federal or Rebel rests below.
Nature forgives-her flowers bloom,
One blue, oDe gray-alike in doom,
Alike she decks their common tomb.
Nature forgives-though MAJ. my not,
She knows no passion, while hearts are hot
With rage and hatred unforgot.
Oh! brothers in one common creed
We pray for mercy in our need.
Dare We refuse, when others plead?
Worn and bleeding the crushed South lies,
The fierce light gone from pleading eyes
In anguish turned to Northern skies.
Forgive, where we may not forget.
Curb the hot heart on vengeance set
Remit in full the hated debt.
Remembering still the elder day
Who stormed the wall of Monterey,
Who stood by Bragg, and charged with May.
Stretch hands across the bitter years,
Across the waste Of blood and tears,
And void of malice and weak fears.
Oh, close and bind the wounds that bleed,
Succor our brethren in their need;
The fatherless and homeless feed;
Till the ancient rancOur shall pass away,
In the light Of the new born holier day,
When mingIe as one the Bile and the gray.
Then brothers will hail, our long work done,
A single bright banner beneath the sun,
And the deep true heart of the nation one.