Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-07-03

| digniiied and inspiring of any of the meet
| Jugs of survivors of the war that have DC
Cured since Appomatox
The place was the national cemetery
where beneath the sloping greensward
| shaded by murmuring trees and dotted with
| conceutrc lines of granite, marked with their
names, or else marked vita the grim "Un,
| known SO many thousands of the nations
| dead lie in peaceful Sleep. The actors we're
| the very men who defended the ridge on
whose lopas the cemetery lies, against the
repeated and desperate assault led by the
very men twenty five years ago yesterday
who Joined them here now in pledges of
friendship, loyalty to common flag, and
unity of devotion to /. common country. The
place, scene, and living figures Of the men
themselves were inspiring. Five thousand
spectators--men who wore the blue, men who
wore the gray, women who toiled and wept
at home, children born since the bloody strug-
gle encled--looked on and cheered and laughed
and wept by turns.
Tue procession to the cemetery marched
out from the dusty town at little after 4
O'Clock Tho regular troops led the
way Tie Ninth New York militia came
next, and behind all their brave array of new
uniforms, sparkling gold lace, and glistening
helmets marched IA body of men whose older
faces, dusty clothing and hands bearing no
arms were more eloquent than all the gilt
ter and parade in front These were the
Grand Army men, amounting in number to
battalion, and the thin ranks of their
former Toes There were not many of these
Confederate veterans, but the people who
lined the wayside cheered until they were
huarse, as their thin ranks tramped by. Men
were among them from Virginia, North Car
DINA, Georgia. Mississippi and Louisiana. As
the line of ex- Confederates neared The ceme-
terry they were made a little fuller by re-
cruitS These were men who had been Grip
pied. most of them had lost a leg, and had
hobbled out to the road on crutches and
waited for their comrades to come along.
None Of the marching troops were adj
mitted within the cemetery gate, but the
veterans and the throng of people poured
through and gathered about the arbor at the
western end of the great enclosure. They
stOnd closely together, the crowd scattering
a little at its edges, and there must have
been 5000 of them. The centre of tue gath
ering was the arbor, platform of earth
about twelve feet above the ground. Brick
columns support roof and these columns
are covered with ivy
On this platform were gathered a group of
veteran officers, and scattered among them
were not a few of those who wore the gray
The corps comma nders there were Major
Generals Sickles and Slocum, the division
commanders were Generals Barlow, Craw-
ford and Robinson. Then there were Brig
adler Generals Lynch, Carr. Graham and
Ward, and Major Geueraf- Butterfield,
Meade's chief of staff Representing the
Confederate side were Generals Longstreet
and Gordon, of Georgia, and Hooker of Mis-
sissippi. In the midst of this array of vet
eran officers, nearly all clad in civilian attire,
but adorned with badges of the army of the
Potomac and of the army OF
northern Virginia, was Governor Beaver
surrounded by his staff. George
William Curtis and ex-senator Warner Mil.
Ter sat near him.
Gen. John c. Robinson, president Of the
Society of the Army of the Potomac, intro
duced as the presiding oiIicer of the reunion
Gen. Daniel Sickles, who, with few words
of acknowledgement, introduced Gen Cor
hon, who spoke on behalf of the ex -Confed-
crates. As his sentences, eloquent and ring
ing were uttered there was frequent ap
plause. He said:
Ms. President AND FEIIov Sol DTERs:-I -ereef
you to- night with far less trepidation and inf
nitely more pleasure than in the early days Of