The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1888-06-01

of his falling in the battle; how the prayer
went up in that hour to the God of battles
for blessing and protection. You recall that
peculiar calm and those touching scenes that
usually came before the battle. Each of you.
veterans, can recall the experience. Some of
you remember as an instance of what | mean
the scenes, for example, before and after and
during Meade's attack upon Lees position at
Mine Run. The Vermont troops. as you
know, were on the right of the line under
the gallant and able Gen. Sedgwck. that
matchless commander of the true and tried
sixth corps. You remember how you marched
out of your bivouac before daylight, and
nassed for attack in columns by divisions UNI
der cover of that pine forest, and were told
that the signal for your advance was to be
Warren's guns on your left You remember
how the Johnnies were up there on the crest
of that partly wooded hill with all the APP
proaches carefully guarded by batteries and
rifle pits and entertainments. You remember
how our boys had been ordered to leave their
knapsacks behind them, so that they might
not he retarded in the desperate charge that
was before them. How anXiously our troops
waited for the signal guns. How quiet every
thing became as the men thought of the un-
certainty OF life i'm the emergency that was
just ahead. Then came the sound of War
ren's guns; then the command Forward"
followed by the steady tramp of armed men.
All, how bright the bayonets glistened in the
sunlight of that frosty morning. Then came
the opening volley, the whizz of the bullet
and the shrek of the shell; then the charge
and the recoil and the counter charge; The
deadly thud of the bullet as it strikes down
its victim; then the opening gaps in
the ranks, closing and opening again and
again: and before the shout of our for
ward line told the boys. the victory was
theirs and the conflict was over, you remem-
Der night had dropped her curtain over the
scene. The same experiences and scenes
were repeated through all the years of the
dire conflict. Some of the boys had them on
the plains of Shiloh, others with tiaant at
the gates of Vicksburg, Others as they went
with Sheridan. down the Shenandoah, and
others as they followed Sherman from Allan
ia to the sea. For some the same scenes
were located at 4 ntietam, and Fair Oaks,
and Mission Ridge, and Charlottesville, and
Fredericksburg, and Malvern Hill. and
Spottsylvania; scenes, some of which will
forever rank with Marathon, and Thermo-
pyle, and Arabela and Waterloo.
And to-day, | say we seem to stand with
our soldier boys OH those CORY fields, and in
the hospitals of pain and on their weary
marches, we see them pierced with shot and
| torn with shell. We think of the thousands
/ brought home, by loving hands, from the
places Where they fell. to be laid in the
tombs of their fathers, and of that other
hundred and fifty thousand, over whose turf
covered graves, on southern battle-felds and
national cemeteries, have been placed those
simple headstones with the touching inscrip-
ton, AN unknown solder.v As some one
has eloquen.ly said, 'These heroes died for
liberty they died for us; they sleep in the
land they made free, under the flag they rer.
dered stainless, under the solemn pines, and
sad hemlocks, and fearful willows and en-
bracing wines. They sleep beneath the shad-
/ ows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine
or of storm. each in the windowless palace OF
| rest" The heart of every true American il
| full of love for them. for their patriotism, and
| herosm and bravery. They sleep to-day in
thousands of cemeteries. Some of them SLEEP
here, and their resting places are known tC
you. For some OF them you must search the
summit of Lookout Mountain, or 90 through
the swamps of the Chickahominy, or amidst
the Sands of tho ~ ilerisess.ss ,..se are
some who sleep along the shores of the Po.
tolnac. some beside the waters Of the Rap
| pahannock, and others by the banks of the
Mississippi. We must seek for others among
the tangled roots in the swamps of the
south land, and in the waters of Hampton
Roads, where their skeleton hands reach
out to us from the decks of the Cumberland.
Others hll martyr graves at Anderson
vile, and Belle Isle, and Libby prison and
Salisbury. And, friends of the Grand Army,
this is their memorial day. Every one of
them has part in the glory of this day hal
lowed to the memory of forever-absent COM
rades. And wherever in the land there
is a spot that is consecrated as the resting
place OF Union soldier, there, in spirit, if
not in bodily presence, will the line of the
comrades of the Grand Army be halted to lay
the floral offering which evidences alike the
comrades fidelity TO his memory and his own
devotion to his country. And as the beauti-
ful ceremony is observed. there will every
where be recalled the memories of those days
of strife and toll, and the nation will be re-
minded again of the great principles for
which the war was waged, and the mighty
results which the yalor of our soldiers
achieved. These principles are greater and
the results mightier and more far reaching
| than we sometimes think. The victory won
| ty the Union arms struck the shackles from
the limbs of four million slaves and made
| them freemen. 1t settled forever the ques-
ton whether the slave owners chains should
clank. or the taskmaster's lash be heard upon
these western shores. 1t lead to the emanci-
patton of the serfs of Russia and the slaves
of Brazil 1t was the prelude to the unitica-
tion of Italy and Germany. and the forerun-
of the French Republic. And ever since the
victory, the genius of freedom has taken
mighter strides toward the accomplishment
of her mag niicent destiny.
The war of the rebellion was conflict be-
tween two absolutely clashing elements, the
world of light and the world of darkness !:
between slavery and freedom. 1t was an
irrepressible conflict. toward which the war;
rlors and armies of the world had been con-
stantly marching from the earliest recorded
struggles ON the plains of Shinar. 1t had
been growing and growing, displaying itself
| first i'll one country. then i'm another, until
| finally it eliminated on our own soil. 1t was
| a war, not between states or armies, but in
reality a war between the order of things
that was passing away and the order of
things that was coming ina war in which all
mankind had a stake. And these soldiers,
whose memory we honor to-day. were the
ones who sprang to the defense of the great
principle of liberty, endangered by this con-
flict of destiny and as they did so, they
showed to the world that chivalry did not
die with mailed knighthood. They showed
to the world that simple manhood, boastess
of ancient lineage. could achieve deeds of
yalor unsurpassed in any age. They fought.
not for private rishts. but on that broader
field and for that higher thought which God
has planted deep in the breast of all men
the thought of liberty and country. And in
spired by such motive, our war was not
fought for conquest, but to secure liberty and
peace. 1t was this for which our soldiers
sighed. and victory gave them no cheer eX-
cept as an earnest of this. And we, to-day,
rejoice in that liberty and peace for which
the soldier fought. and of which he dreamed.
And in the midst of the prosperity and en-
thronement of liberty enjoyed by us to-day,
il is fitting. soldiers of the Grand Army
while recalling the scenes of those days
when YOU stood shoulder TO shoulder with
the men who fell beside you. to remember
that those days have passed away. The val
eys and hills that were furrowed by shot
land shell have been smoothed by the rolling
years. The yolleys of lnusketry have ceased.
and no batteries of artillery awake to-day
their echoes.
"Under the guns of the fort on the hill,
Daisies are blossoming, buttercups fiji;