The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1889-10-10
Ingersol and the Soldiers.

1t is well to occasionally recall
the stirring days of the war of the
rebellion. To the old soldiers, In
gersols great speech will be read
with no more interest than will be
given it by the Sons of Veterans,
and the thousands of young men
that have become voters since the
war Read it III the home circle,
and if the boys want defamation
for the school room, nothing is more
appr opriatc. 1t is an extract from
a speech delivered mt soldiers re-
union at indianapolis in 1876 Here
it is:
The past, as it were, rises before
me like dream. Again we are III
the struggle for National life. We
hear the sound of preparation, the
music of the boistcrous drums, the
silver voices of heroic bugles. We
see thousands of assemblages and
hear the appeals of orators see the
pale cheeks of women and the flush
ed faces of men: and iii those as
semblages we see all the dead whose
dust we have covered with flowers.
We lose sight of them no more. We
are with them when they enlist i'll
the great army of freedom. We see
them part with those they love.
Some are walking for the last time
III quiet, woody places with the
maidens they adore. We hear the
whisperings and sweet VOWS of etcr-
nal love rs they liugeringly part for
ever. Others are bending over era
dies kissing babes that are asleep.
Some are receiving the blessings OF
old men. Some are parting with
mothers who hold them and press
them to their hearts again and
again, and say nothing: and some
are talking with wives, and endeav.
oring with brave words spoken in
the old tones to drive away the aw.
full fear. We see them part. We see
the wife standing i'll the door with
the babe in her standing III
the sunlight, sobbing ut the turn
of the road n hand waves, she an.
swers by holding high i'll her loving
hands the child. He is gone-and
forever.
We see them ms they march proudly
away under the Haunting flags,
keeping time to the wild, grand
music of wal-marching down the
streets of the great citics-through
the towns and across the prairies--
down to the fields of glory, to dc
and to die for the eternal right.
We go with them one and all. We
are 10y their side on al the glory
fields, in all the hospitals ofpain, on
all the weary marches. We stand
guard with them III the wild storm
and under the quiet stars. We are
with them in ravines running with
blood-in the burrows of old fields
We are with them between contend.
ing hosts, unable to move, wild with
thirst, the life ebbing slowly away
among the withcred leaves. We sec
them pierced by balls and torn with
shells in the trenches of forts, and
in the whirlwind of the charge,
where men became iron with nerves
of steel
We are with them in the prison,
OF hatred and famine, but human
speech can never tell what they en-
dured.
We are ut home when the new,
comes that they are dead. We Sc,
the maiden III the shadow of her sor
row, We see the silvered head o
the old man bowed with the las
grief.
The past rises before us, and w
see 1000, 600 human beings governe,
by the lash-we see them boun,
hand and foot-we hear the stroke
of the cruelwhip--we see the hound
tracking women through tangle
swamps. We see babes sold froI
the breast of mothers. Cruelty III
speakable ! Outrage infinite Fou
million bodies in chains, 900, ,OO
souls in fetters All the sacred II
lations of wife, mother, father an
children trampled beneath the brr
tai feet of might, And all this wa
done under our own beautiful bar
ner of the free
The past rises before us. w
hear the roar and shrek of tn
bursting shell. The broken fettei
fall. These heroes died. We lool
Instead of slaves we see men an
women, and children. The wand {
progress touches the auction blocl