The Columbus journal., 1881-09-14

some of your faces at different time
from this; | have seen your face
when with eyes bedimmed will
tears you bade farewell twenty year
ago to the home and friends; | have
looked into your faces when they
expressed the fatigue of the toilsOmt
march; | have looked into your
faces when they were lighted with
battle fires; have looked into your
glad faces on the day of glorious
victory; | have looked into your
faces when you returned after -four
years of fearful strife, victorious
and glorifyiDg in a nation, yet never
looked into your faces with more
pleasure than / do tonight. 1t is
twenty years - more than twenty
years-since the war commenced,
and fifteen years since il closed, and
tonight | see upon your faces that
you who have helped the country
are reaping the ripe fruits of your
victory. My friend Marquette
speaks of this new era of prosperity.
Why, where is there more prosper
ity than in this young state of Ne
braska, of which we are so proud 4?
Good crops are rewarding the skill
and industry of the husbandman.
You have come here with your
wives and little ones and friends to
shake each other by the hand, and to
recall your battles fought and lost
or Won. These gatherings of the
federal soldiery have been criticised
somewhat. We are told they should
not be held; that they keep alive a
sectional and unfraternal strife that
ought to be forgotten. | am not one
that so believes. | feel like saying
To you tonight, as your great chief
tain, Gen. Grant, said at Des Moines
not many years ago, that he was not
ready to apologize to anybody for
the part he had taken in the war.
Loud applausel. You are not ready
to apologize and never will be,
voices "nO"l, and your children's
children TO the most remote genera
ton will point to your record as
union soldier as the brightest blaze
on the family escutcheon. Renewed
cheers |. Army reunions are held
all over this country, bnt | believe
in no state do they create 80 deep an
interest as they do in Nebraska.
Nebraska had two regiments of in
fsntry and one of cavalry during the
war. There are few survivors of
those battalions, and 10 them, we
who come from other states assign
i'm these encampments and among
our battaliOns the place of honor.
You represent our whole army. I'm
this encampment | doubt not there
are veterans from every northern
state. When the roll of states was
called at Camp Buford a year ago |
every northern state answered cX-
cept Nevada, and the border states
that sent troops to the war were |
also represented i'm the battaliOns |
there, and | have no doubt but that |
il will be so here also. You come |
from the rocky granite hilled New |
England; you come from the mines
and workshops of the middle At
lantic; you come from the fertile
valleys of the western states; you
have come here to make the prairie |
bring forth its abundant and satis-
flying harvest. | see gathered here
tonight men who were comrades of
Sherman, who marched with Sher-
man and his bummers from Atlanta
to the sea. Loud cheers. l see
those, also, who were comrades of
George ii. Thomas; peace to his
memory; those who stood with him
when he was the rock of Chicka-
mauga and wrestled victory from
defeat. / see those here who stood
with gallant Phil, the hero of Win
chester. Indeed, / see representa-
tives of all localities and all our
armies of the Potomac, of the Cum
berland, Tennessee, Ohio, of the
James, of the Gulf, and of the south
west-all these have representatives
in this reunion. Why, had a sur
prise here to-day; a man came TO
me and at the first glance | did not
recognize him. There was some
thing unnatural about his appear
ance. A little boy was i'm his arms,
and that boy l certainly had not
seen before a laugh and there were
grey hairs in his head. Yet there
was something in his face that was
familiar, and taking a second glance
and l knew him to be a man who
had served in company ID of the 10Th
Ohio. He was one of my own boys
"a man whom l could take heartily
by the hand and congratulate him
on the past and on the present. So
with you all. You meet those who
stood with you shoulder to shoulder
in the fight; who drank with you
from the same csnteen in the jolly
days of the camp and bivouac; who
travelled with you on long and tire
some march; who went with YOU
into the battle; who rejoiced with
you when the victory was won. and