The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1880-09-16
BOYS IN BLUE.
E
GEN. GARFIELD TALKS TO
HIS OLD REGIMENT.
REUNION OF THE 4aD OHIO
AT ASHLAND.

! "AS AGLu august > III IL ASulduu
The attendance was large. The vel
come address was delivered by Rev
E. Parsons, of Ashland, and the re.
spOnse was by General L. A. Shell
don, of Lagrange, following which
were speeches by General Garfield
Hon. G. w. Geddis, Of Mansfield
and Captain A, S. Mcclure, of Woos
ter. -
The following resolution was adopt
ed:
awe deem as an honor the promi-
nence given before the nation to our
first Colonel, James A. Garfield, and
we cheerfully and proudly commend
him as man and soldier"
General Garfield was elected Pres
ident of the Regimental Association
for the ensuing year. The next re-
union will be held at Gallon the last
Wednesday in August 1881.
The address Of General Garfield,
as stenographically reported for the
Cleveland Herald, is as follows
FELLOw-CITIzENs-This is family
gathering-a military family-for in
war a regiment is to the army what a
family is to the whole civilized com
munity. Here a portion Of the
platform fell. A military reunion
without some excitement and some
accident would be altogether too
monotonous to be Interesting, and in
this good-natured audience we can
have a good many accidents like
that and still keep quiet and be happy.
I said this is a family reunion, an
assembly of the old Forty-secOnd
military family, and it is well for US
to meet here. Nineteen years ago I
met a crowd of earnest citizens in
that courtroom above the stairs.
Your bell was rung. Your people
came out. The teacher of your
schools was among them. The boys
Of the school were there, and after
we had talked together a little while
about our country and its imPeriled
flag, the teacher Of the school offered
himself to his country and twenty Of
his boys with him. They never
went back into the sChOOlhouse
again, but in the dark days of No
vember, 1861, they and enough Ash
land boys to make one hundred went
with me to Columbus to Join another
hundred that had gone before them
from Ashland county, and these two
hundred of your children stood in
the center Of our military family and
bore these old banners that you see tat
tered before you to-day. OneOf them
was given to our family by the ladies
of Ashland county, and Company G,
from Ashland, carried it well. 1t was
riddled by bullets and torn by under
brush. FIopPed by the winds Of re-
beliOn, it came back tattered as you
see, but with never a stain upon its
folds and never a touch of dishOnOr
upon it anywhere and the other Of
these banners was given US by the
special friends Of Company A, in my
old town of Hiram, the student com
pany from the heart Of the Western
Reserve, and it also shared ike its
fellows the fate and came home COW
cred with the glory of the conflict.
We were a family, I say again, and
we did not let partisan politics dis
turb US then, and we do not let par
enter into our circle here
to-day. We did not quarrel about
outside of our great
work. We agreed to be brethren for
the Union, under the flag, against all
its enemies everywhere, and brothers
to all men who stood with us under
the flag to fight for the Union, what
ever their color of skin, whatever
their previous politics, whatever their
religion. In that spirit we went out,
in that spirit we returned, and we
are glad to be in Ashland to-day, for
it is one of the homes of our regi-
ment, where we were welcomed in
The beginning and have always been
since. We are grateful
'or the welcome rendered US to-day
by this great assembly Of our old
leighbors and friends of Ashland
county.
Now, feIlow-citizens, a regiment, |
ike a family, has a right to be ex
elusive. It does not deny the right
IF any other family to the same priv /
leges, but it holds the members Of
is own family little nearer and a /
title desrer than any other family
n the world, and so the Forty |
second regiment has always been a |
1and of brothers. I do not this |
lay know a Forty-secOnd man who |
lates another Forty second man.
There never was q serious quarrel |
inside the regiment. There was
never q serious disagreement be |
iween its officers. The worst thing I
nave ever heard said against it is that
ii its three field officers came home /
live, and they are all three on this
stand to-day. 1t was, perhaps, a |
title against Us that no one Of rs |
lad the honor to get killed or
seriously crippled, but We hold that |
t was not altogether our fault, and /
We trust some day or other you will /
lave forgiven US, if you have not to- /
lay, for being alive and all here to-
yether.
I want to say another thing about |
he soldiers work. I know of moth /
ng in all the circle of human duty /
hat so unites men as the common /
and danger and struggle !
hat war brings upon a regiment. |
You cannot know man so thor |
)ughly and so soon as by the tre-
tests to which the war sub
ects him, These men knew each |
1ther by sight long before they |
Knew each other by heart, but before /
hey got back home they knew each |
)ther as you sometimes say you I
know song, "by heart, for they
lad been tested by FIRE they had /
1een tested by starvation; they had |
been tested by the presence Of grim
ieath, and each knew that those who /