Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-06-05
The Army of the Dead.
COVER THEM OVER WITH BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS;
DECK THEM WITH GARLANDS, THESE
BROTHERS OF OURS"
DECORATION DAY.


est on Friday. Ii is day which stand
out pre-eminently. as the day upor
which the people acknowledge will
thankful hearts, the d -bt of gratitude
they owe To the country's defenders.
In answer to the announcement thai
! d. COZ alton services would be held in tn,
afi ernonn, shortly after dinner the street.
were alive with people who had come
from the country to join In the exerci
ses At the school house several hun
dred children, uuder the direction of
superintendent Hitchcock, had gathered
by n'clnck, many of them bearing theil
tribute 0f flowers, and company OF
young men, forty in number, under com.
mand of 1t. Jesse B. Meyer, were drawn
/ up in front OF the court house.
DrummOnd Post & A R No 2O3, es
tablished headquarters at the Recorder
Office, where fiowers in great profusion
were previded-there were wreaths and
baskets of creeping vines, and roses, and
| lilies, aud vlolets. Here committee OF
25 young ladies' lent their presence, and
each ot them bore a garland of flowers
Shortly after / o'clock the procession
formed under the guidance of 4 L Nc
kelvev, Esq, chief marshal, and aids,
w J Thompson and Jesse B Meyer, who
mad been designated by Drummond Post
e a r, in the following order:
DRUM CORPS.
l. 4. Burlington, Fifer; 2. Freddie
Geller, lst drummer; 3. Charlie West
4 Andy GelleI 3. SmOnWest; 90. Frank
Troll, 3d. ALVIN Sedwick
Comrades Hobbs and West, bearing
the picture of Comrade Thos DrummOnd.
wreathed in flowers, and the old Flag
of the 25th Ohio; % young ladies with
Wreaths and flowers; choir. I ID Bailey,
Esq. director; orator of the day, Hon l.
Danford; Post 203, 80 men, with baskets
of flowers; public schools and citizens
generally.
The procession, which presented jne
appearance, moved to Marietta street
and counter 10 the n E Genet
cry. and halted at the grave of Captain
Thomas Drummond
The exercises began by the reading of
orders by Adjutant II NJ Davies, follow
ed by Commander Charlesworth's s
address TO the Post and music by the
choir. Rev DIR Minor pronounced a
beautiful prayer, III which he thanked
God that it had been put into the hearts
of the people To cUme annually tU the
pla1e where the departed soldiers rest.
sHd call 10 mind their deeds of vaor.
The choir then rem Tered Nearer my
Col To Th e, after which the com mander
introduced the orator of the day, Hon.
l. Danford, who spoke substant ally as
follows:
COMRADES AND NEIGHsoRs: This is q duty
that | cannot shrink from when called upon to
perform. | come to this duty as | come 10 one
of the most sacred duties of my life. These
services that we perform annually at the graves
OF our soldier dead are not new services in the
history OF the world. Every race and people
on the face OF the earth have always held in
high honor their soldier dead. Greece, in the
day of her greatness and culture, gave special
honor to her dead heroes, and even Rome, hard
and brutal she was TO the living soldiery,
was tender and considerable of her brave dead
1t is nothing strange then, that this new and
great Republican government of all the people,
the heir of all the ages, foremost in the files of
time, should pay this special honor to her dead
defenders.
The love of country-patriotism- a senti-
ment as universal as the human race. Our
Country! it does not mean simply an organizs
but to US it means everything, the home where
we were born, our mothers lap, our fathers
knee; it means brothers and sisters, wife, child,
everything that our affections cluster around.
Our Country! il means the scenes of our child
hood and Of our manhood, the bills and the val
leys, the streams, the fields and the flowers, the
birds, the sky above US, and every sweet indu-
encc of nature that warns US into being and
fills US with happiness. Our Country! it means
the school, the associates of our youth, the
church bell, and all that we reverence in life.
Our Country if we lift our eyes beyond our i'm
mediate horizon, il means the great, broad State
in which We live, its institutions of learning
and benevulence, in which We take such great
pride Our Country, lifting our eyes still higher,
it means the broad and mighty nation, full of
rushing energy, fifty millions of wonderful peo
pie; cities, that have sprung up like magic; all
of the mighty energies and industries of this
great land; continent spanned by railroads,
the industry OF the last third OF II century-a
great land holding apart the two mighty oceans
Of the world. Our Country it means WON
derful history, the fathers of the revolution all
the g,eat names that land has produced
Washington, Lincoln and Garfield; all that we
have accomplished i'll the arts, sciences and
literature. lt-means everything that We hold
means these soldier dead that We come to honor
to-day.
1t is the duty of every man to defend his own
person from assault; the law gives him the
right to defend his life even to the taking of
the life of his assailant. 1t is the duty of every
man to defend his family, his wife, his children,
from the assaults of an enemy. And the man
is a craven who will seek his own safety that
he may preserve his own life, when the life of
his dear ones is assailed. He is required by the
very highest law of our being to stand by his
weak and defenseless family even at the peril
of his own life, and the man who does not do
it, will have no sympathy from manly men.
And the love of ones country, standing by it
in its hour of assault, is duty as high that
We owe to ourselves. We can have NO we'll or
ganized government, no safety to our institu-
tions, unless We defend them when assailed
Wrong is always the aggressOr and the assail-
ant of right, and must be met and crushed by
force.
These brave men who went out more than
twenty years ago and stood between us and the
enemy-they performed a high duty, but did
nothing more than duty. The world would
not have forgiven them if they had done less
than they did. History would have pointed
the finger OF scorn at them if they had failed in
the hour of the nations want.
These men who braved these dangers did
their duty, and | take it, if called again TO the
tied of carnage, would he ready to respond
These men never doubted what the result would
be, and trat the rebellion would he put down
There were doubts at home, but the soldier
never wavered in his belief that the army would
triumph.
These young men who went out to defend
their country twenty years ago, were men who
left just as pleasant homes as you have. They
had about them all the comforts OF life they
could have lived; the grass would have grown;
the birds would have sang, and all these sweet
influences of nature would have been around
and about them. even though they had neglected
the first great duty of the hour, but | take it
they would have lost their manhood, lost the
respect OF the world, lost the respect of their
wives and their children, lost their own self
respect, they would have lived cravens and