Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-06-26

Colonel r. &. IngersolI before the Army Re-unic
at Indianapolis, 1876.

Colonel r. &. Ingersoll before the Army Reunion
at Indianapolis, 1876.
The past arises before me like dream
gain we are in the great struggle for
National life. We hear the sounds of
preparation-the music of the boisterons
drums-the silver voices of heroic bugles.
We see thousands Of assemblages, and
hear che appeals of orators; we see the
pale cheeks of women, and the flushed
faces of men I; and in those assemblages
we see all the dead whose dust we covered
with flowers. We lose sight of them no
more We are with them when they en-
list in the xreat army of freedom. We see
them part with those they love. Some are
walking for the last time in quiet wood
places with the maidens they adore. We
hear the whispeFings and the sweet vows
of eternal love as they hngeringly part
| forever. Others are bending over era
dies kissing babies that are asleep. Some
are receiving blessing 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 endeayoring 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 hand waVes-she
answers by holding high in her loving
hands the child. He is gone, and forever.
We see them all as they march proudly
away under the the Haunting flags, keep
ing 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
i do and.to die for the eternal right T
Z We go with them one and all. We are
by their side on all the CORY 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 the rayines running
with bloOd-in the burrows of old fields.
We are with them between eontending
hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst
the life ebbing slowly away among the
withered leaves. We see them pierced by
balls and torn with shells in the trenches
by forts, and in the whirlwind of the
charge, where men become iron with
] nerves of steel 8EG8E1 HA e
We are with them in the prisons of ha-
tired and famine, but human speech can
never tell what they endured.
: We are at home when the news comes
. that they are dead. We see the maiden
in the shadow of her first sorrow. We SCI
, the siIvered head of the old man bowed
; with the last grief. taeaf
The past rises before US, and we see fou
, millions of human beings governed by th'
lash-we see them bound hand and foot
we hear the strokes of cruel whips-we
see the hounds tracking women througl
the tangled swamps. We see the babe!
sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty
unspeakable! Outrage infinite!
Four million bodies in chains-foul
; million souls in fetters. All the sacred
f relations of wife, mother, father and chill
+ trampled beneath the brutal feet of might
f And all this was done under our owl
E beautiful banner of the free. -
{ The past rises before US. We hear tht
: roar and shriek of Bursting shell. Thi
f broken fetters fall. These heroes died
5 We look. Instead of slaves, we see me-
/ and women and children. The wand O
f progress touches the auction-block, tn
5 slave-pen, the whipping=post, and we Sc
homes, and hresides, and school-houses
o and books, and where all was want, an
i crime, and cruelty, and fetters, we see tn
!, faces of the free.
:, These heroes are dead. They died 70
r liberty-they died for US. They are a
v rest. They sleepin thesland they mad
], free, under the flag they rendered stain
!, less; under the solemn pines, the sa
t hemlocks, the fearful willows and tn
/ embracing vines. They sleep beneath tn
e shadows or of storm, e&ch in the window
e less palace of rest. Earth may run re
i with other wars-they are at peace. Il
e the midst of battle, in the roar of confiiC
e they found the serenity of death. "A voic
-"Glory''l | have one sentiment fo
the soldiers living and dead-cheers 70
j. the living and tears for the dead.