Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1886-06-03
fills the world with it's radiance, ex

looks the battling hosts, where you can
see the cleaning bayonets and the eff
feet of the leaden hail of death as
battalion after battalion is swept down,
and where you can hear, amid the roar
of artillery, the moans of the mangled, |
dying; or stand on the wharf |
where you see and hear the curling, |
cracking flames us they sweep through |
the vessels rigging, rapidly following
the terror stricken victims who are |
hastily receding before them, and who.
in their phrensy are leaping from their
tirery foe into the water, only to find |
an easier and more speedy death by
drowning, then you realize the differ
ence between description and realities. !
So the orator or historian may present
their most glorious descriptions and
most vivid pictures OF the soldiers sur
roundings and sutfcrings in war, but
how unreal! How llfelcss! How far
short of the reality do all such descrip-
tons come! Every soldier who has
been through campaign knows the
difference between the comforts of
home and Il position in the ranks from
morning till night, standing before the
volley OF the enemy, many times with
out food or even drink, and at night
having nothing but his llnapsack on
which TO pillow his aching head, and
nothing but the canopy of heaven to
shelter his Wearied body from the cold
night winds.
The idea that seems to prevail many
times, that soldiers become so adapted
to their situation as to lose all sense of
physical and mental suffering is a great
mistake. He may become Injured to
hardships, and lose some of the refine
ments of society: but he does not be-
come impervious to the bayonet or bull
let. nor inSensible to their penetration,
except when they strike some vital
part and send him beyond the limits of
suffering There is no such transfor-
nation. The soldier can feel and suf-
fer as do Others, until death comes,
many times as a welcome guest, to
grant relief. To realize the horrors of
war and the soldiers sutferings you
must see the battle field after an en-
gagement. After the engagement at
Port Hudson the survivors found that
only one IN four Of their comrades had
escaped the winged messenger that
speeds his way through head, heart or
limb. Under the covert of night they
go to bury the dead and to care for the
wounded. Some they find with lips so
VI tll't puLSiClt llltin JltOf SuuLOV SlCth.
Others with reason gone. struggling in
the embrace of death. One Who was
too far gone to hope for life, said, "the
sacrifice l have given to my country is
triiling if what / have done shall help
the stars and stripes to float over the
Union free and undivided" The
stout hearted who could stand undis-
mayed before the cannon wept like
| children. This, my friends. Is no over
| drawn picture. Some of us were there,
and all of us had friends there. But O,
| how few of them were spared to re-
turn with us to their homes, or only to
/ be borne too soon to their graves.
| There are before me to-day those whose
husbands, fathers, brothers or sons fell
| in those terrible hours that put to the
| test the courage and fortitude of arm
les.
At Gettysburg, on the evening Of the
Sd of July 1868, lay fifty-tivc thousand
men, dead and wounded; many of whom
/ fell on the first and second days OF
July, and had been lying there for
| twenty-fuur or forty-eight hours. O,
how lingering and terrible the death
of thousands, who, being wounded,
could not get from the field, and must
lie without drink, food or care, under
the rays of the burning sun, until one
of the bloodiest and most hotly con-
tested battles in the annals of history
was ended. or until death released
them from their lndescribable suffer
ings. The slaughter of those belliger-
ent hosts, as, for three successive days
they continued to pile the ground with
the dead and dying, was rendered
most terrible from the fact that the
southern army was in their enemies
country. and feared annihilatlon if de-
feated, while the army of the North
were ready to die, if need be, in the de.
fence of liberty and the Union. Urged
on by the fear of humiliation on the
one hand, and by the fear Of the loss
OF the Union, the loss Of national pres
tige and honor on the other, what
wonder that the great armies of Meat
and Lee fought with desperation sci
dom if ever equaled? Success ant
failure had been so nearly balanced
between the contending powers, that il
was doubtful on which side final vic
tory would turn. But the capture O.
Vicksburg and the victory of Gettys
! burg, on the same day, sealed the doom
of the rebellion.
In the valley of the Potomac lie tn
, ashes of a hundred thousand brave
: men. or more than all who bore arm
in freeing this land from foreign dom
: ination. Shall the fame of those VIII
, lie in that valley of death fade iron
7 the memory of the first generation tina
!. has arisen to enjoy the fruits OF thei
| sutferings and death? No, no, thei
5 fame shall llnger upon the page of his
1 tory with the equally we'll earned fam
t of many more who fought and sutferc
! 1,,,f ,1,1a afil
4 some of whom are with us this day, t
share the blessings their bravery S
} gloriously won.
s But great as were the sutferings Q
3 our comrades on the battle field, the
: were more than equalled in the soutl
: ern prison. Could the graves at Bell
d Island, Libby and Charlotte. Milan
G Salisbury and Andersonville, spel
d they would tell you of misery whic
l. none who have not experienced it ca
I possibly depict. Could you, in SON
$ wild dream, see those wretched prison
O ers, shoeless, coatless, with no pr,
n lection from the pelting storm or burr
s ing sun, pale, cadaverous, ghOstly, {
IS they lay in those lethal pens. dismu
n dreary, dreadful as the internal abode
# you would feel that the Republic whicl
e as the result of all this, has been han,
y ed over to you aud your descendan
N for enjoyment and protection, cost thos
% who saved it from ruin, more than Cd
;e be estimated in gold and silver. VIII;
e are riches compared with comfort ar
l. life? What is the national debt whit
y the civil war imposed upon us cor
l. pared with the lives OF half a millit
n of our best men upon whom dependt
it four times as many helpless womt
l Il .,l,.l 4 .,I. 4
n more who survived the war, only
1t bear through life the marks of sutfe
l. ing which they endured. Living re
i resentatives of these battles and pr
ons are found all over this land, ev,
e. after the lapse of more than twen
N .-ears Some of them are with us
ID day and Others are lying in our CEN
Il, terry.
erf Comrades, it is proper that we jo
ne our friends in giving expressions
he sorrow, sympathy, gratitude and prai