The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-06-12
A SOLDIERS SPEECH.
GEN. MCCLELLAN AT ANTIETAM on
DECORATION DAY.

| concluding portions Of the Decoration
Day address delivered on May 30. 1885,
Al the Memorial Day services on the
| battle felc Of Antietam by Gen. George
I b. Mcclellan
when I last stood upon this historic
. field the smoke Of battle still wreathed
/ these hills and filed those valleys ;
these rocks still re-echOed the harsh
I sounds OF strife. and the ground was all
too thickly strewn with the forms Of the
I quiet dead, and Of those still writing
in agony.
Two great armies had met in deadly
strife, the fate Of a nation and the tu-
ture OF generations vet unborn hanging
upon the result. Within the walls of
this vast cemetery-peopled almost in a
single day-repose the mortal remains
of the brave men who fell here under
one of two rival banners those who
met death beneath the other. sleep their
last sleep within sound of the guns that
wrought such havoc. After their long
and desperate struggle, these men, who
laid down their own and sought each
| others lives in fierce but loyal battle,
have been placed almost side by side,
awaiting that last dread trumpet sound
that shall call them to life. There are
here to-day those who fought on either
side; men, who, clad in grey, followed
the noble Lee, and we who wore the
blue
I'VE are here with'a common purpose
to testify our reverence for the valiant
dead. In these too numerous graves,
stretching so far and wide around US,
let US bury all auimosity, all bitter rec
objections of the past, remembering on
ly that on Antietam's hills brave men
gave tneir lives for what they thought
the right, and proved that the herOism
of our ancestors still reigned in the
hearts of the Americans of that day.
ut is not my purpose on such day
as this, or in presence of such an assem-
bly,, to rehearSe the various acts of the
great tragedy enacted where we stand.
1t was the most deplOTable of contests,
for it was one os the grandest episodes
in the greatest of fratTicidal wars, waged
by men of a mighty nation, favored be-
yond all others by Providence.
ION this very field brOtheTs-men
born of the same mOther-met in NOR
tai conflict. Had that war occurred in
heatben times, it would have been
thought that the most implacable of the
gods-even of the NoTsemen or the Az.
tecs-had been satiated by the heca-
tomb of heroes offered up on this single
field.
LAS it is, 1 pray that this fair land of
ours may never again be the scene of
such carnage as some of us beheld long
years ago on these bloodstain heights
l shall not touch upon the causes of that
war, of which Antietam was one of the
greatest battles, further than to say that
our children should never forget that it
lrgNH hi oh l.
cessaIy by the extremists of the two
sides. If the moderate men. North and
South, could have controlled events. the
dread aTbitrament of AIMS might have
been avoided
Il and my fellow Democrats of the
North fought for the Union, because
We believed that it contained within it. !
self the power of ensuIing all possible (
good things to this people, and of secur-
ing us against unnumbered evils, and /
chiefly because we believed, as we /
traced the history of America from its /
faint beginnings. that we could see the I.
hand of God guiding our fathers in the |
creation of a nation destined to become /
the greatest of which history bears rec
ord, and having as its mission the ,
fu'tiiment of some great design of His /
I" We feel that it was our sacred duty ,
ments in the preservation of the magnif. {
icent edifice His hands had reared. - !
Men smarting at the time under actual .
or appTehended evils, honestly differed
from this view-I dare not Judge them. I
for their pefect honesty was proved by .
the magnitude or the sacrifices thew
made for the cause they deemed lust
But 1, and those who felt As 1 did. be-
lieved that all other questions of the
time were contained in and subordinate
to the vital, the immense question of .
the preservation of the Union.
Il believed, aud still believe. that it
is impossible for two governments 20
cO-eXist in this land of ours without
soon coming into collision on some sec
OndaTy question. and that it was better
to fight at once for the main issue-au
issue, it seemed to me, directly in har-
Providence
'In the eyes of future generations
how strange, how romantic and how
stirring will always seem the history of
these two armies, pitted against each
other through long years of battle, from
\ OTktOwn to AppOmattOX, where the
scanty and mangled remains of the great
army of Northern Virginia, exhausted
aud depleted in the long struggle. at
length laid down its worn ont arms but
not its honor Thanks to the magma
nimity of the great soldier who then led
the Union hOsts-now alas a prey to
racking disease-theTe were no Caudine
Forks erected there--nOthing was said
or done to create personal hate. OF to
cause the blush of shame to mantle the
face of any, when they look back upon !
the events of that fatefDl dav.
And that other army, that once
made its advance from yondeT heights
across the Antietam-whose dead lie
buried here-that Gran0 Army of the
Potomac, so very dear to me-wbat
more can say of it than | have often (
said in the past l can but repeat that
It was ever worthy of its fame, whether
E adversely or success, and never more
so than on :his field that it was ever
true to itself, and that it ALWAYS deserv.
I'd the gratitude of the country NO
page of its lonE history Is Obscured bv
shame, and as one who commanded it
through times of extreme trial. l can
Justly say that it never failed me i'm time
)f need. So long as fife lasts, / shall
remember with the deepest gratitude
The confidence and aud affection with
which l. honored me.
Il am glad, ineXpTessiblv glad, that
have beun permitted to live until the
fame and exploits of these magnar imous
rivals have become the common proper
" of our people when the ability and
virtues of Robert Lee. and the achieve
nents of the magnificent army of North
ern Virginia, as wei! as the heroism and
-enOwn of the proud army of the Poto-
mac have alrpadv bepOma a Dars Of rho I