Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-08-30


as silver stars in their county's firma-
nant forever and ever, on behalf of
these heroic fragments of commands
who came from the scorching suns and
| dread miasma of the far south, from the
horrors of Libby and Andersonville,
from the embattled cliffs of Richmond
and Atlanta, of Vicksburg and Peters
burg, from the blood dyed fields of An
tietam, South Mountain and the Wilder
ness, of Shiloh, Prairie Grove, Chica-
manga and Nashville, from all the hard
fought contests of the war, from Sump-
ter's midnight darkness to Appomattox'
| glorious dawn, for these / say a
heartfelt, / thank you. We come to
you each and all with hearts filed with
thankfulness, we empty them at your
feet, and feign would give you more of
thankfulness, but we've no more left
to give.
The "Red White and Blue" was then
sung. the vast assemblage joining in
the Chorus, after which
COL. J. A. wATRoUs
was introduced by President Baxter
and made short address as follows:
Comrades. Ladies' and Gentlemen
| was not pressed into the service in
'6l but am conscript in '83. / did
not come up here expecting to talk and
you did not expect to hear me talk, and
when | get through you will be sorry
you have heard me. | came up here,
as the most of you have come who live
away from here, to meet old comrades.
also came to see this. part of the
country, about the only portion OF
Wisconsin have not seen, and how
have lived in the state for nearly forty
years without realizing that the most
beautiful and most productive part is
| down here in Grant and Iowa coun-
ties is something cannot account for.
Now to those of us who served in the
| late war there is genuine endowment
to-day, it is y red letter day for us all.
Our hearts are filled with happiness.
But comrades we are serving our coun-
try to-day not quite as well possibly as
| twenty years ago, but serving it well,
| and the fires of patriotism which were
kindled here once must be kept blazing
from one years end to another; and
there is nothing under the sun OF
heaven, as well calculated to encourage
patriotism as the gatherings like this
| where we meet in company with our
| old army comrades in the presence OF
| our families, friends and little CUES; in
the presence of those who have come
| to this country to make homes since the
| battles of the rebellion were fought.
So, while we are enjoying these few
years and intoxicating lessons of patriot
ism we are serving our country and
serving it WE'LL
Here are these flags which many OF
us followed when it was not so safe or
so pleasant as to follow them to-day,
urged on by the same feeling that dwells
in the heart of every man who claims
America for his home; that will induce
him to offer his life that it may float;
| that will induce him to sacrifice wealth
and home; that will lead mothers to
give up sons, and children fathers that
| they may 90 to help save the flag OF
our country. Even the men and
women who land on our shores love il
| to less or greater extreme, and there
rests on us solemn duty to take by the
| hand these strangers who have lived
under other flags to teach them if pos
sible, and believe it is possible, that
there is no other government so good,
so grand, as the American government,
and there is no other flag so dear as the
grand school here throughout this re-
union. Your reunion is q school. We
educate our neighbors, we educate our
little children. These little girls twenty.
five years from to-day will be teaching
patriotism TO their little children and
our deeds will be carried ON and on.
The speaker then said he wished to
bring up family matter and called at.
tention to the reunion of the old Iron
Brigade which was to be held in La.
Crosse Sept. 10 and IA and urged all
members of the brigade in this county
to be present on the occasion.
Song, Battle Cry of Freedom by
the choir and audience.
GOV. RUSK
was next introduced to the audience
and said:
Mr.. President, FelloD Soldiers, Ladies
and Gentlemen,- IL came here to-day to
meet old comrades, to shake them by
the hand and talk over the past l did
not come for the purpose of making a
speech. | read the programme sent
me and don't think | was on for any,
thing but the review of the old soldiers
and if | have not done that l will do it
yet, and hope will have the pleasure
of shaking you by the hand; for moth
ing can give me more pleasure than to
shake an old soldier by the hand, who
went out to defend his country. We
meet IN this reunion for the purpose OF
reviewing the past, and to hand down
to our children the facts as they oc-
Cured. History will never contain the
details of half the struggles through
which we passed. They can only be
handed down by us who participated in
them. But when we meet in this re-
union let us remember the comrades
who are not with us. When | arose
this morning walked over and stood
an hour at that monument. There
read one hundred and thirty names OF
boys that had been enrolled in the regi-
ment l led. 1t called up memories
which can never be called up in any
other way. Afterwards | had the
pleasure of meeting. in one of the rooms
of your courthouse, over one hundred
of the brave boys who were with me.
But friends and fellow soldiers, there is
another class whom we must not forget
at this reunion. That class. did even
more, ii it can be than sacrifice their
lives. / refer to those who spent their
time in the prison pens of the South,
and sacrificed their lives and health,
that the county might live. There were
one hundred and eighty thousand OF
those brave boys who were penned up in
those rebel prisons. There they were
offered, IF you will desert your coun-
try and your flag, you shall have every
thing we have" But thank heaven
they said, Nor Less than three thou.
sand of that vast number accepted the
terms. They said, mo, we'll starve
before we will desert our flag and our
country" And how many of them did
starve in that condition, rather than
raise their hand against their country
| say, when think of that class, feel
like bowling down to them. | think OF
| them when the scene that TRANSFERRED in
| congress when l was there comes 10
my mind. This was the discussion over
the removal of the disabilities of JEFF
Davis. An attempt was made to re-
move the political disabilities of Mr..
Davis, although he had made no appli-
cation to that effect, and many of us
thought that if he wanted them re-