Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1885-10-08
KANSAS VETERANS.

KANSAS VETERANS.
Address Of Welcome DELIVERED by Governor
John A. Martin ut the Soldiers and
Sailors Reunion. Topeka; September 80;
1855.
Commander Stewarh Comrades Of the Grand
Army ar8 cOidtcrs of the Union:
10 me has been assigned the delightful
duty of welcoming to the capital this great
me that words Of Welcome are Unnecessary.
dsries Of Kansas sssrs Tie soldiers Of the
Union would not be greeted as friends OF
Romrades, and honOred as guests; and 1
know that the loyal people Of the capital.
one and all, will welcome you with hand
clasp far mbre sl5ldent than speech.
from the gloom of the past the lights OF the
Present and the hopes of the future. They
will welcome you a. soldiers who rescued
brought union, liberty and peace out of the
smoke and flames of civil war They will
welcome you as fellow citizens whosS
S q ~ h.ss r. hs ing
greatest aid host prosperous State in the
Union. One and all they will welcome and
You are survivors Of the greatest war tn.
world has ever KNOWN. You were prominent
hctors in the grandest epoch of history. You
fought for the noblest cause that ever
heroes. You have Ii, ed to witness the grand.
eur of your triumph, and the growth and
prosperity it has brought in it's train. You
are here to meet old comrades; to revive
recollections of scenes and events that
should never be forgotten; to siig Old songs;
to touch elbows again in the steadily OWN
ding line that once reached from the Rocky
Mountains to the Atlantic: And /! am glad
and proud to say to you: IAN hail and vel
come. thrice welcome to the capitalr' :,
know that ayspeptic' envious and email;
reunions are: steadily increasing in interest
with ill-concealed distrust. Some years ago,
following q meeting similar 70 this, gen.
pleasant ff Time, no doubt But Of what prac.
teal benefit are these great gatherings of
soldiers? They keep alive. it seems to me,
OF ape period Of strife de and blood
l replied: my friend, did you ever object
to the celebration of the Fourth of July?
That keeps alive memories of period Of
ebrating tho Glorious Fourth for over o
hundred years. and nobody has ever objected
that it did no good to celebrate it"
Similar objections are sometimes made to
the Grand Army of the Republic" 1t is
said that such an organization not only keeps
alive the tnembties of war, bit perpettates
the feelings and prejudices OF period when
the land was atiame with passion; and that
there is something of egotism in these asso-
Citations and assemblages of men to celebrate
events in which they were actors.
unions and the Grand Army organization do
all this, and are all this. make no apologies
for them. On the contrary, i rejoice that the
w with the er men who V wore the blue, and
that soldiers reunions and camp fires are
held with more and more frequency. When
have been times when men cheerfully per-
lied health and life for good cause, they
cease to believe in sucn thing as patriot
ism. There is something in example. and
these organizations of old soldiers, these re-
unions of old soldiers, reviving recOllectlons
of the old days, when nearly three million
men stepped out of the mon0tony OF COM
nonplace lives and gloriiied cause by pa
tient endurance of hardships and privations,
and the heroism of death-this example
can not be without its uses in teaching the
Younger generations of Americans, enjoy
ing the brthright won at Yorktown and
preserved at AppomattOx, that love of coun-
try, courage, and devotion to duty should
And why should not the memories of the
late war be kept alive? Was there ever,
since the morning stars sang together,
more patriotic. hoier, greater war than
that waged for the Union? We have been
celebrating the Declaration of Independence,
az l have said for over century. Yet the
total free population of the Amer can Col
onies, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
war, was, in round numbers, 369, coo less than
tue number of Union soldiers mustered into
service during the late civil war. The Conti-
mental army, during the Revolutionary war,
never exceeded 5000 men, present and alb
sent; our army, during the war of 1872,
aggregated only IS, 1856; and the total force OF
the United States during the war with Mexico
was only 1881 During the war Of the
Rebellion 2,772, 40S men enlisted in the Union
army, and from January LIST, 1863. TO May LIST,
1865, our army numbered, at all times, nearly
LOCO, 900 trained sold erS. Kansas alone FUR
nished nearly half as many men for the
Union army as we're present for duty during
any year of the Revolutionary struggle,
There were more Union soldiers killed in
battle during the war of the Rebel on. and
more died of wounds received in battle, than
war in which the United States has been en-
gagged. In the National Cemeteries, 3lS,870
soldiers of the Union are buried-more than
four times as many as were enlisted during
accurate statements show that A, 23S Union
soldiers were killed in battle: 4925 died OF
wounds received in battle; 9,O5S were
drowned or accidentally killed; 1S4 were
executed BY the enemy; 224,St9 died of dis
ease, and IA l55 of causes not stated-making
total of 34l.119.
and small, during the eight years of the
Revolution. There were 2,26l during the
four years of the Rebellion. And in each of
these the Union loss exceeded 500 men killed
and wounded: in each of eighty eight it was
over LOCO; in fifty-two, over 1900; in twenty.
three, over 5,0O3: in fourteen, over 10000; and
in each of four, over 10000.
The engagements of the war of 1872 num-
bered only SO, and the casualties aggregated
1877 killed and 3,737 wounded-a total Of
1914.
In the Mexican war there were only twenty
one engagements, in which the Americane
lost lO49 killed iSld 40 wOunded-a total OF
k469 At the famous battle of PalO Alto. the
American loss in killed and wounded aggre-
| gated only ia; at Monterey, 4So: at Buena
Vista, 723; at Cerro Gordo, 25O, and at Mohno
del Rey, 1877.
The aggregated casualtos OF the American
| troops in all previous wars were less than
| those of the Union Army at each OF the
| great battles of Charlottesville, Gettys-
| burg Chicamauga or SpOtfsylvania, and
| hardly reached one-half the casualties OF
| Grants campaign through the wilderness,
or Shermans campaign against Atlanta
| I am not citing these facts to depreclate
tainly would be the last person to depreci-
ate the patriotism and valor of the soldiers
who took part in them. l reverence the
| memory of the "embattled farmers" who, on
| the village green at Lexington, "nred the
shot heard round the world" l honor
the soldiers who, from behind the cot
| ton bales at New Orleans, taught the trained
| soldiers of Great Britain a new lesson OF war;
| and glory in the fame our little army won
on the red fields of Mexico. But | want to
| make plain and clear the faN that the war
| for the Union was immeasuraby greater
than sny struggle OF modern times, not only
| in the gast armies it called into being. but in
| the herosm and patriotism it inspired, and
| the momentous results depending on its
| issue.
Why, too, should not the sentiments and
| prejudices of the late civil war be perpetu-
ated! The war saved the Union and eman-
| cipated race. And in that single sentence
| what volumes of precious history, what
1 - Of hf.aSQ