The National tribune., 1881-12-24
A Retrospect and Look Ahead.

EIGHT hundred and seventy men, many of them
college students, the average OF whose ages could
not have much exceeded twenty-one years. After
passing through the first Bull Run the regiment
received about four hundred recruits, one COM
pany (about sixty mem in the meantime having
been transferred to another organization. In
March, 1862, it went to the Peninsula, partlcl-
pated in the siege of Yorktown, in the battles OF
Hanover Courthouse, Mechanicsvlle, Gainess
Mill, the Chckahominy, and Malvern, and, re-
turning to the vicinity of Washington, passed
through the fiery ordeal of the Second Bull Run,
helped fight the battles of Antietam and Shep-
herdstown and took part in the glorioNs but
useless charge through the streets of Fredericks-
burg and up the deadly heights beyond on that
fatal 18th of December nineteen years ago.
In May, 1863, the term of the regiment ex
pired and it was mustered out of service, and a
heart of stone must have melted at the sight of
the sadly thinned ranks the shortened line, when
drawn up for final discharge Of all the eight
hundred and odd men who two years previous
had sworn to bear true allegiance to the Flag all
loved so well less than one hundred were left;
and Of the four hundred recruits received after
the First Bull Run about the same number
mained-two hundred men, perhaps two hun
dred and fifty out of twelve hundred We
knew where many of the absent ones were alas!
too well. Tom, and Dick, and Jerry, with an
hundred others-we could almost name them
every one-fell in the first real battle of any
magnitude during the war. Sandy and Scollops
I'VE had pet names for many of the boys died
on picket; Slocum and Peters, with scores of
Others perished upon the Peninsula, in the
trench, on the skirmish line ON picket, and in
hospitals. Saunders and Gordon and Hemen-
way, with nearly two hundred more we left
along our bloody route from Mechanicsville to
Malvern, where during seven days of battle we
set up bloody mile-stones to mark the way.
Savage and Hasler and Kiehle Snyder Herten-
dorf, Stewart and hundred more besides fell
at Groveton and the Second Manassas Others
at Antietam and Shepherdstown, and the paved
streets and slippery slopes of Fredericksburg on
that chill December day drank the life-blood
of scores Then there were the others, those
who sickened and were discharged or died in
hospital or in the enemy's prisons, some in Libby,
some ON Belle Isle, with few-a very few, thank
God who forever disbonored themselves by de-
serting the cause they had espoused.
As We write, the great past seems to unrOll like
a vast scroll wherein is written the name of every
comrade that left US, and when and where and
how we came to part company. Then rises up a
vision, and the dear faces come back once more,
and seem to us Just as they did that bright May
morning, when, treading upon the fallen pink
and white blossoms of apple plum, and peach
trees, we marched, marched away, to stirring
music, leaving our peaceful lives behind us await
ing our return.
Next we see those that are left of the same
faces two years later. The careless, happy look
has disappeared. The features are bronzed and
care -worn-the buoyancy Of youth has given
place to the steadiness of sedate manhood; the
smooth, fair faces have become bearded; the
once laughing eyes have deep and thoughtful
look; there is a compression of the lips, set of
the jaw, precision and celerity of action that
show palmer than words can tell the school
through which all must have passed. They are
veterans now-men who bave graduated in the
art of meeting death bravely upon the field of
battle.
Turning away from these pictures which MEM
Dry paints so wildly, we look upOu the rem
nant of that gallant band as we find them to-day
There are not many of them-less than one hun
dred in all-for some, a majority perhaps, re-en-
listed for the war when their first term expired
and many of them perished in the Wilderness
and around Petersburg; but those who yet sur
vive are sadly changed. With a few life has
gone smoothly, and they have reasonably pros
pered. With others, it has been the reverse
They found it difficult to pick up the threads
where they let them fall when they listened to
their cOuntry's call for defenders
The youth who, twenty years ago. was yet in
his teens is now, though less than forty, visibly
ageing. A soldiers life causes one to grow old
rapidly. The stalwart volunteer of twenty-fye
now less than fifty, is an old, gray-haired man.
and he VINO enlisted al forty is sixty years of age
M 6yy fo, tr i