Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-06-19
Worth Reading Again.
Col. r G. IngersolI before the Army
Reunion at indianapolis, 1876.

tue sOunus OF preparatlOn-th
music Of the boisterous drums-th
silver voices of heroic bugles. w
see thousands of assemblages, anC
hear the appeals Of orators; We
see the pale cheeks of women, anc
the flushed faces of men; and II
those assemblages we see all the
dead whose dust we have covered
with flowers. We lose sight Of
them no more. We are with them
when they enlist in the great army
of freedom. We see them part with
those they love. Some are walking
| for the last time in quiet woody
places with the maidens they adore.
We hear the whisperings and
the sweet VOWS of eternal
love as they lingeringly
part forever. Others are bend
ing over cradles, kissing babies
that are asleep. Some are receiv-
ing the blessings of old men. Some
are parting with mothers, who hold
them and press them to their hearts
again and again, and say nothing;
and some are talking with wives,
and endeavoring with brave words
spoken in the old tones to drive
from their hearts the awful fear.
We see them part. We see the
wife standing in the door, with the
babe in her arms-standing in the
sunlight sobbing; at the turn of the
road a hand wayes-she answers
by holding high in her loving hands
the child. He is gone, and for~
ever.
We see them all as they march
proudly away under the Haunting
flags, keeping time to the wild,
grand music of war-marching
down the streets of the great cities
through the towns and across the
prairies-down to the fields of
glory, to do and die for the eternal
right.
We 60 with them one and all.
We are by their side on all the
glory fields-in all the hospitals of
pain-on all the weary marches.
We stand guard with them in the
wild storm and under the quiet
stars. We are with them in ravines
running with blood-in the burrows
of old fields. We are with them
between contending hosts, unable to
move, wild with thirst, the life eb-
bing slowly away among the wither-
ed leaves. We see them pierced by
balls and torn with shells in the
trenches by forts, and in the whirl-
wind of the charge, where men be-
come iron, with nerves of steel.
We are with them in the prison
If hatred and famine, but human
peech can never tell what-tbey en-
lured.
We are at home when the news
ONES that they are dead. We see
he maiden in the shadow of her
.rst sorrow. We see the silvered
iead of the old 4man bowed with
he last grief.
The past rises before US, and we
ee four millions of human beings
overned by the lash-we see them
ound hand and foot-we hear the
-rokes of cruel whips-we see the
ounds tracking women through
lngled swamps. We see babes
Did from the breasts of mothers.
ruelty unspeakable! Outrage in
mite
Four million bodies in chains
our million souls in letters. All
he sacred relations of wife, mother
lther and chlld trampled beneath
he brutal feet of might. And all
his was done under our own beau
full banner of the free.
The past rises before us. We
ear the roar and shrek of the
ursting she'll. The broken letters
Ill. These heroes died. We look.
instead of slaves, we see men, and
omen and children. The wand of
rogress touches the auction-block,
lie slave-pen, the whipping-post,
nd we see homes, and firesides, and {
,hool,houses, and books, and
here all was want, and crime, and
etters, we see the faces of the free.
These heroes are dead. They
led for iberty-they died for US.
hey are at rest. They sleep in
ne land they made free, under the
ag they rendered stainless; under !
he solemn pines, the sad hemlocks,
lie fearful willows and the embrac-
g vines. They sleep beneath the
ladows of the clouds, careless
ike of sunshine or of storm, each
the windowless palace of rest.
arth may run red with other wars c
they are at peace. In the midst
battle, in the roar of conflict
ey found the serenity of death.
voice "Glory."] 1 have one
for the soldiers living and
for the living and