Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-06-03

triumph of tie Union arms, yet the ini
terest manifested each recurring season
by the people of this vicinity, shows that
the memory of the heroes who won that
victory, is still fresh in their hearts, that
they are gratefully remembered, and
that those who survive, are held in honor
and esteem.
Seldom has there been SUMMER day
than Monday, when soft May and gen
erous June, with its wealth of flowers.
clasped hands,-or a day more fitting for
the observance of the sad services of
Memorial Day. At o'clock, Drummond
Post G. A. r met in the court house,
about sixty veterans mastering, prepared
for the solemn duties of the day, and
about $50 happy faced and gaily dressed
school children, gathered at the school
house, each bearing boquet of flowers
and tiny flag, and shortly afterwards,
the procession under the guidance of
John B. McMechan, cbief marshal, with
l.. II. Waters and J. b. Meyer, assist
ants, was formed in the following order:
Drum Corps. B R Burlington, leader;
Banner and Flags, Comrades Chas Shatz
and Matthew Davies; Glee Club, j B
Longley, leader; Orator, Rev W H Has
kell; Drummond Post, and other solt
diers; Public Schools; Citizens; carriages
with flowers. and marched west to Ma
rietta street, and counter-marched, re-
turning to the street east of court house
through which they marched to the
NJ Z cemetery, where services were con.
Quoted at the grave of Capt. Thomas
DrummOnd, in the presence of large
and interested assemblage grouped
around the tomb of the sleeping hero
Commander f Charleswor presided
The Glee Club sang beautifully piece
entitled "Slumber Song after which
the Chaplain pronounced an appropriate
prayer and quartette of male voices
sang There's Rest in the Shade of the
Trees" Rev w H Haskell was then
introduced and delivered the folio wing
address, which elected the closest atten-
ton:
FeLlooo Citizens, and Comrades Of the Grand
Arny Of the Republic:
The annual day for the decoration of the
soldiers grave has returned. One year age
yesterday we met beneath these trees, and
with solemn rites, strewed the graves of oul
beloved and honored dead. To-day we are
gathered beneath this genial and balmy sky,
amid the bright, clean foliage, the singing oi
birds, and all the joyous ana refreshing scenes
of early summer. 1t is with evident fitness
that this cheeriest and cleanest month of the
year should be chosen, and that with song
and patriotic rites and impulses we should
place fragrant flowers aud sacred garlands
upon these mounds of cOnsecratod earth.
We are reminded that the events OF the
civil war are fast receding into the past.
Great changes are taking place-men of dis"
tiuction who led armies with great ability and
success, are passing away. The General who
led the armies to final and consumm4te
triumph, within the year, has passed through
months of suffering into the spirit world. Al
least three other men of military fame have
died. These were men who, in 1S61-5, were
in the prime of life, but have passed away
with flight of more than a score of years
which have come and gone since the events OF
the civil war
They represent 8 vast number of men,
brave and true, whose ranks have been thin>
ming as the months have passed. The names
of the great, who were distinguished by rank
and talent, are heralded as they die, but the
many who served their country in humble
places, and with equal fidelity and PATRIOTISM,
pass from Us unnoGiced, except in the im>
mediate neighborhood where they CHANGED to
live and die.
The ranks of the soldiers are melting rapid
ly and insensibly away, and it will not be
many years before only few veterans can be
gathered to conduct these rites; and, finally.
it will be left for others to take up the solemn
and sacred duty and perpetuate it for years to
come.
1t is happy feature of these years, that
the animosities of the civil conflict are dying
away, and fraternity and good feeling are re-
turning. 1t would naturally and inevitably
happen that in such mighty and fierce con-
test, great and bitter feelings would be aroused
and rankle for years after the sounds of open
war had ceased. SUCH has been the case, but
latterly there has been growth of good feel~
ing which is a marked and plt asing feature of
the times. Even our misguided brethren,
who made war, and after heroic struggle,
worthy of a better cause, were beaten, are
convinced that their own defeat was merci>
full event of an all>wise Providence. | ven>
ture to assert that, if we could get the candid
sentiments of the peop'a of the South, who
went into the rebellion, we should find very
large minority, if not an actual majority, who
feel thankful for their own defeat. They
look Upon those years as a stupendous folly
on their part, and are happy and contented as
they are, and begin to feel genuine love for
the Union
Even those of our brethren who live in the
north and were too much in sympathy with
treason and rebellion, and whose love Of the
Union was cold or had no real existence
whose satisfaction and glee, when the Union
armies were beaten and humiliated, was too
forgotten those facts, or wish
TO oblterate them. They are now ready to
celebrate the virtues of the loyal dead, SO
mighty has been the change of a score of
yeIrs. We are fastening to time not far in
the future when there will be no North, no
South, no Eas., no West.
We are here, to-day, of all creeds and parties,
and conditions, to pay willing and patriotic
tribute to the nations dead. We take the
purest flowers and place them upon these
We take living plants and set them in
the earth that they may grow and bloom dur
truth that our sentiment of gratitude and love
of country are living realities.
We pay our tribute to our native soldiers,
whose parents came to these parts and settled.
They were young men who were born Ameri-
cans and of American parents. They had ever
lived under our liberal and benifcent institu-
tions, and had learned to love them. They
gave their blood freely for the defense of our
liberties and our integrity But, with them, in
the same companies and batallions, were those
who were born of foreign parenate or who
were actually foreign born. Parents, who
hated the despotisms of the old world and
hated them because they had felt the Oppres-
sion, sought our shores where there are no vast
armies and military establishments, for safety
and liberty. They cane that their sons might
not be conscripted into such armies. When
the rude shock of civil war burst upon us, they
forgot the dread of war in the imminence of
danger and gave their sons freely to fill tie
volunteer ranks. Perhaps they saw with
clearer vision than did we, that to break up this
united land into separate nations, meant stand
ing armies and international feuds and jealous
les and ambitions like those which have been