Bridgeton pioneer., 1888-07-12
BRIDGEToN, N j., THURSDAY, JULY Il, 1888.

ficial record of the Adiutant General,
was present in 80 general engagements
with the enemy. Its total loss by
death, during its term of service was
261, a larger percentage of loss than
was sustained by any other of our reg.
iments, except the 18th. What this
regiment did is but type of what all
our regiments did.
These veterans who are present to-
day, are the survivors of troops whose
valor has never been surpassed. These
mere squads of men once formed part
OF those impetuous columns which
streamed up the bloody heights of
Eredericksburgh, spurned the onset of
the enemy upon this field, fought their
way through the tangled thickets of
the Wilderness, won final and endur-
ing victory. These voices now tremu-
lous, many of them, once drowned the
roar of artillery with their cheers;
these arms, now enfeebled, once WELD
ed the sabre and musket; these eyes
now dimmed, once glanced keenly
along the deadly rifle; the army which
they represent, once stood a wall of
living valor between the enemy and
our peaceful northern homes. Our
names, our services, our sacrifices, our
achievements, will soon be but memor
les. We say unto you: preserve them.
We ask not rewards; but gratitude
and remembrance.
The last survivors of the Grand
Army of the Union mnst soon pass
away. These monuments, though of
granite, may crumble and be over
thrown; but the government which
we saved, the cause for which we
fought, and for which our comrades
died, these will endure. Our best
monument will be that mighty ma
tlon, through all coming time, shall
hold our patriotism and our cause, be
yond comparison, sacred. Our ser
vices and deeds stand for patriotism,
loyalty. devotion to the highest inter
esVs Of the whole country, as well as
for courage and resolution.
But let US cherish firm and clear
ideas of the late war. There is
a great gulf fixed, as wide as the over
arching sky, as deep as the fathomless
sea, between treason to the Govern
ment of the United States and unwa-
vering devotion to the Government of
the United States. Into it were flung
with lavish hand, not only vast trea.
sure, but the priceless lives of 100000
" VIZ cCSo olIel vi csNSou VI Ullo yOuuS
men of the loyal states. Neither time
nor space, nor changed conditions, nor
false sentiment can shroud these facts
from view. There is, there can be, no
just comparison between this great
Government of civil liberty guarded
by law, and the Military Despotism,
born amid the throes of war, over
thrown by the shock of arms. without
history save four years of bloody strife
lmpelled by the twin Furies of Slavery
and Treason.
These monuments which stand mute.
but eloquent, sentinels along this his
torlc crest, are dedicated to the mem
orles of those whose patriotism led
them to die for constitutional liberty.
Whatever else this occasion teaches,
let this be the lesson of the hour to
ourselves and to the generations vet
to be.
From every grave of a New Jersey
soldier, that undulates the mould of
yonder cemetery, from the nameless
resting places of their comrades whose
precious and sacred dust lies mingled
with the soil of every State from the
Potomac southwark, from the living
as we'll as the dead, there comes up to-
day the spirit of that pathetic invoca-
ton craven upon the monument reared
to those who fell at Thermopylae: in
the gray dawn of History.
Traveller, to the stranger tell,
How we here for Sparta fighting fell
Obedient to her laws"