The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-05-18
POST OF OBSERVATION or A VOLUNTEER
SURGEON IN THE WAR OF THE
REBELLION.


SURGEON IN THE WAR OF THE
REBELLION.
have noticed In private life, IN course
of business, In traveling,-and 1t was espe
cially SO In army experiences-interes
attaching to certain persons and time
expended at particular places, far beyont
all that at the period could be considered
essential to principal purposes. We seem
somehow, to get hung to persons and pla
ces, for reasons inexplicable, then or after
wards.
Though most mastery continued, very
successful endeavors have been made still
conceal the real facts as TO the scenes OF
Pittsburg Landing, that horrible siege OF
Corinth, and the Great Commanders re
sponslbllity for them by artful and vel
paid quasi historians 1t still remains to be
told that IL was a miserable, dreadfully
sickening failure all the way through; as
was also the strangely unaccountab)y exalt-
ed, "Silent Man Of Destiny" responsible
for 1t, instrinsically, and In very truth, him.
self failure. 1t was ghastly, deadly
nothing but fiendlsh mockery; the work of
selfish machine" plotters and traitors,
then In power and authority; the useless
sacrifice of 80 many lives; des9lating such
multitudes of happy homes; costing so
Immensely of national treasure. Never a
man 80 utterly insignificant in ability,
natural endowments and education, was 80
borne as on tidal wave of destiny TO such
exalted positions. Feasted, honored, Law
ished upon with treasure and precious
gifts, all around the world, and to the end
of life. These poured as orally on his
family after his departure. 1t long seemed
though no place on earth were broad
enough and deep enough for a resting
place, and that his remains would finally
have TO be cast into the all Astounding
ocean TO afford them room enough. No
heather god so idolized and in lavish pro-
fusion bestowed upon with costly offer
ings.
The stern fact forever remains; never
was man who could become greater than
the average limit, nor Individually rise
higher than the level of the times in which
he lives Though quacks and pretenders
be of all times, fallacies and popular
.turOres attending their brief careers are
not the imperishable facts of history. 1t
Is among the strongest Of human phenom-
ena, that what can be considered nothing
but the spirit of panic seizes men at cer>
tain crises In their desire to find some one
who can know, and do, and teach them all
things, and be their leader, that they will
set up and in imagination invest with all
these qualities they SO desire to find; some
very common fellow "who knows Just
enough to keep his mouth Shut forget.
ding that no man can b. so supremely en-
dowed as they imagine him to be and con-
tinue mortal
Saith Emerson, speaking of a mans
reputation: What hath he
doney' The king hath triumphed lie
stands for his troops-for the law The
king Is all. Let 1t be told who led our ar.
my from Cairo to the Gulf, and through
these awful battles that carried our stand
ard so triumphsntly through the hell of
Nicksburg, and the Slaughter Cuffs with
which the Gulf States SO abounded then.
Their names and their deeds are truly re-
corded. No brazen image did It that any
"Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up.
But this new generation are forgetting our
actual heroes-those spirits immortal
worthy of apotheosis, to whom the world
and the work of progress owe 80 incon'
ceivably vastly, They are already submerg-
ing in the quicksands of profane and
shameful forgetfulness. ! here recall the
shades of Thomas, of Lauman, of Ransom
OF most gallant Mcpherson; of mighty
inyincible Logan; of Meade; of that great
or than Murat-Sheridan; equally worthy
hrst 10 be mentioned, Hurlbut; host of
others not less worthy, and so soon almost
forgotten; as well as some still surviving,
who are dwelling In seclusion, while stllI
fictitious and departed greatness overshad.
ows and absorbs the all that should belong
10 them
That" Silent Man of Destiny" kept sew.
eral horses,--rode either, according to the
ground over which his purposes indicated
1t best to travel, and the class of people
among whom he was TO show himself. AT
all times ready TO mount the southern
horse, IL the northern failed before the end
Oh the race. His presence at Pittsburg
Landing, was, TO say the least Of II, su.
pernnity, 30 far as his doing anything