Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1880-08-26
EASTERN DISPATCHES
GARFIELD AND HIS SOLDIERS.
He Meets and Addresses His Old
Companions .in.Armi.

fields regiment held a~reunion yesterday
at Ashland. and after speeches by Gen.
eral Garfield and others, q resolution
was adopted proudly commencing the
frst Colonel Of the Forty.second Ohio
as q man and soldier who deserves the
votes OF oil men. General Garfield
said "This IL . family gathering-s
military family-for In war Q regiment
in the army is what q family Is to home
civilized community. Here Q portion
Of the platform FELL. A military reunion
without some excitement and some acct.
dent would be altogether too monoto-
nous and tame, and In this ~good.natured
audience We can have q good many &C.
cidsnts like that and keep quiet and DO
happy. I said this 10 . family reunion.
an assembly OF the old Forty.second
military family. and It IL we'll for rs to
meet here. Nineteen years ago I met Q
crowd OF earnest citizens In that court
room above stairs. Your bell was rung
in the town. Your people came out.
The teacher Of your school was among
them. The boys Of the school were
there, and after we had talked together Q
little while about u country, Its impsr-
lied Gag, the teacher Of the school offered
himself to his country and twenty OF his
boys went with him. They never went
back into that s%chool-house again; but
In the dark days OF November. 1861,
they and enough Ashland county boys
to make 100 went down with me to Co.
lumbus to join another 100 that had
gone before them from Ashland county,
and these 2OO Of your children stood 10
the center OF our military family and
bore these old banners that you see tat.
tered before you today. One OF them
was given to our family by the ladies' OF
Ashland. and Company G. from Ash
land. carried it. Well, II was riddled by
bullets and torn by underbrush. and
tapped by the winds OF the rebellion.
1t came back. battered as you see, but
with never Q stain on its folds and
never q touch OF dishonor upon It any.
where ; and the other OF these banners
was given US by the special friends OF
Company A, in my " town OF Hiram
tho student company from the heart OF
the Western Ressrve-and II also shared.
like its fellows, the same fate, and came
homo covered with the glory OF the con-
flict. We were q family. / say again.
and we did not let partisan issues dis
turb US then. and We do not let partisan
ship enter our circle here to-day. We
did not quarrel. We agreed 10 be brethren
for the Union under the flag against oil
its enemies everywhere, and brothers to
oil men who stood with Us under the nag
to fight for the Union, whatever the color
Of the skin; whatever their previous pol
itics; whatever their religion. In that
spirit We went out. In that spirit we
returned. Their never was q serious
quarrel inside the regiment. There was
never q serious disagreement between
its officers. The worst thing / have
heard said against 1t IL that oil Its three
field officers came home alive. and they
are all here on this stand today. 1t was.
perhaps. o little against US that no one
OF us had the honor to get killed or be
seriously crippled; but We hold that 1t
was not altogether our fault, and we
trust that some day or other you will
have forgiven US. II you have not today.
for being alive and all here together. i
want to say another thing about the sol.
diers' work. I know Of nothing in oil
the circle OF human duty that 30 unites
as do the common suffering. and dan
ger, and struggle that war brings upon a
regiment. You cannot know o msn 30
thoroughly and 30 soon ~ by the ire.
mendous tests to which the war subjects
him. These men knew each other by
sight long before they knew each other
by heart. But before they got home
they know each other, as you sometimes
say you know o son, ''by heart" Tor
they had been tested by Gre, they had been
tested by starvation; they had been
tested by the grim presence OF death, and
each knew that those who remained
were Union men-knsw that In oil the
hard. close chances Of lie they had the
stuff In them that enabled them TO stand
up In the very EXTREMIST peril. and stand
up ready 10 die. These men went out
without one single touch Of revenge in
their hearts. They went out to main
tain this Union and make 1t Immortal.
and to make it possible that the people
OF Ashland should make the monogram
OF the United States. as you see up
there-a wreath Of Union inside Of q
very large Ma capital N. that stands
for Nation. o Nation so large that 1t
includes ~. S. A." all the people OF
the Republic. and will include 1t forev-
ermoro. That 10 what we meant then
and is what we mean now. And now,
fellow citizens and soldiers Of the Forty
second Regiment, I greet you today
with great satisfaction and bid you o
cordial goodbye.
General Garfield returned to Clsve-
land tonight, aud will 90 to his homo in
Monitor tomorrow,