Clarksville evening chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn) 1886-1890, 1888-10-05
The venerable Gen. w. A. Quarles
then came toward and spoke as fol-

/
lows:
Comrades-The eloquent and appropriate
words OF those who have gone before me have
left me little to be said.
! Like the cleaner who comes after the field
has been reaped, can only hope to gather
here and there what they in their abundance
have left; but when come to consider that
the mighty Past is the field in which grows
the harvest ofthe Future, and that the Present
is the Reaperwh gather the ripening sheaves
! for the threshing yard and with the fail
of truth, separates its straw and its chaff from
| the golden grain-I may well take courage
and exclaim. "ths harvest truly is plentioua
but the reapers are few"
But the "Lord of the Harvest has even
now sent "forth laborers unto His harvest
and the deeds OF ofthesoldiers ofthewar between
the States-the glorious deeds Of the living and
those of The still moro glorious dead-are al.
| ready embalmed and enshrouded in the in
destructible catacombs of history. With cold
but microscopic eye it has sorutinized every
event, and with strong and unshalSing hand
weighed every Aot. till a tale Is told, read in
every language and heard in the songs oi
every nation, unmatched in the genius Of its
generals, unmatched in the prowess and cour-
age of its soldiers, and above all, unmat Oh cd
| In the cheerful endurance Of privatiops by its
heroic women.
The monument history has thus raised
through it has its foundation in the earth, It's
| apex is in the sky, and though built at the
cost of millions and cemented with the blood
of thousands, stands to-day sacrifcial altar
| on which the follies and sins OF the nation
have been offered up, "blood Offering" TO
the God OF War, and in the shade OF which
Peace may now fold Its wings as In q ''dwell-
ing place"
Bat, while the general outlines of this great
struggle has as claim, been already written,
it is but the outlines where side by side the
prominent events and men stand forth in
impartial review. Side by side, in words OF
generous praise and just criticism, the story
of Lee and Grant is told exemptIifing as
they do, the characteristics of the races from
which they sprung-the Cavalier and the
Puritan. Lee impersonating all that is high
and noble-graceful and gentle as a WOMAN
to the humble piety of a Christian, adding all
the granduer of a perfect monhood and a
genins for war, that enabled him to SO use his
slender resources as to impress upon his foe,
that like another Cadmus he raised up armed
men from the sOwn teeth Of the slain drag
ons of the strife.
Grant, too is the eXamplar of his race, with
cold indomitable will-unquestioned pluck
and perseverance, and head full of horse
sense, with every quality of "the great Com
mander," he won victory from defeat, and
gave to the world the hitherto unseen specta-
Gle of every crowned head of the civilized
world, taking the tanner-boy of few years
before, by the hand and seating him beside
them on the historic thrones of a thousand
years. While all this has been done, and
well done except in the case OF the ignoble
few, who still walk insthe darkness of their
own ignorance, and in the compahiOnship of
their prejudices, hatred and "all unchantable-
ness'-these even are growing "smau by de-
grees and beautifully less" still there re-
mains much to be done. The outlines OF the
picture may be correct when It's after shading
and coloring may make the picture as much
unlike the original as day is to night
II is with these minuter details, my COM
rades, we specially have to deal. The
greatful duty is ours to see, that no improper
coloring, no dark shade shall distort the pic
ture and make it unlike the reality that
every battle field has its biazony of truth
that every soldier stands now as he stood in
in the ranks of real war, on the sad and voice.
less day, when Lee gave up is stainless
sword" and the apple tree of Appomattok be-
came another cross, on which was crucified
the hopes and aspirations of great and gal
liant people. When the paradise of our ''old
homes, held dear in every memory and pic
tured in every heart the theatre on which
was enacted such a tragedy Of ruthless ruin
ana destruction, such wanton and wicked
that even the eye Of retrospective
grown blind with mingled tears of
sorrow, and of rage and refuse to see the scenes
we can never wholly forget, and only by the
grace of a merciful ana beneficient God we
are enabled to forgive.
But our quarrel is over. We quarrelIed, we
fought, and though for years men looked
askant and now and then groweled at each
other, and show ed their carniverous teeth, we
shed no blood, we made no new grave yards.
and but for the folly Of now and then q bloody
shirt schreecher in Congress, we would glide
On in the way of our destiny, with such un-
prosperity. such wonderful pro-
gress commerce the al is, the sciences, and In
all else that builds up people and nation
day, could they arouse as he did
rom their sleep, would take their corporals
path that they were reading but new edition
Of the Arabian Nights and the light they read
Jy that OF Aladin's Lamp, Let us then be
content, and like the clown, thank God
or 'crust when there is no fruit cake"
,hough the decree of fate was as hard to bear
III d as dark as it was inscrutable.
1t is by collecting and preserving the legen-
larry tales of our struggle, that we may best
discharge our sad but almost sacred duty. |
The light OF the camp fires will never again |
illuminate the wild weird scenes of out Biv- |
,uacs, but the song and the story then heard |
md then sung, now full Of mirthful joy, and /
sow fuli-as If by prescience-of the pathetic
ate that awaited us.
The gallant deeds, the noble daring Of indi-
'iduals-the cheerful and uncomplaihing
endurance OF privation-the keen pangs OF
lunger and of thirst, the freezing cold, the
oils"me marches, the bleeding wound, the
elease in death, the dead soldier in his
lanKet shroud, the narrow and shallow
rave, and worse than all and harder to
'e endured, the unknown grave il the wild
wood or on the bleak mountain side, are but
ome, the "flling up" Cfthe outline already