Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-01
would be. was there and all around it.

their firm and fast friend, and if you want
| to make me mad just say something
against soldier, [applause] and if you
want to make me ma6der why the boys
who lost their legs and arms in defense of
their country and are now cared for in
soldiers homes, just call them paupers.
| [Deafening applause.l Shame on the
| man who dares stand up and call
man pauper because he fought
Tor his country. [Applause.] The man
who fights whisky and gets into
the county poor. house is q pauper, out a
man whose distinguished services on the
battlefield entities him to admission to a
Soldiers Home is a hero. [Applause.]
The Governor was quite humorous in his
remarks, and gave description of some
/ laughable scenes at the battle of Vicks-
burg. He closed by saying he hoped all
present would 1--we long and happy lives
and get rich off the sweat of our hired
mans brow.
Federal Relations responded to by
Marcus D. Boruck. He reviewed the war
that California, then a young State, con-
tributed Sl.200,000 to the Sanitary Com
] mission.
1.-The Nations Ward,n responded to by
| Senator W. w. Bowers OF San Diego.
Sacramento City," responded to by
Mayor Gregory.
General q. s. Grant," Hon. E. W.
Holmes.
! Assemblyman G. a. Storke responded to
the sentiment, Prison Life" He said:
was captured. with many others. on that
terrible day at Cold Harbor. We were
sent South to Andersonville. Upon arriv-
ing we saw thousands of little fires burn
! ing and around those fires was gathered
nearly thirty thousand soldiers, almost
naked and starving. They were COM
PEELED to live in the open air, ex-
posed to the inclemency of the weather
without tents and with but few blankets
There these men were doomed to measure
out their wretehed existence, chilled to the
very marrow by the cold rains and winds
| that passed over that horrid prison pen.
In the month of August, during my i'm
| prisonment, 80, 900 men were packed within
that Enclosure, only twenty acres in
size. No one dare attempt 10 picture the
horrors of that terrible hell. Men were
| dying at the rate of one hundred day,
and to thousands of those brave boys
death was welcome relief. Let me say
| comrades, that the heroism and bravery of
those men is without parallel in history.
| No American born citizen ever enlisted in
| the Confederate army TO escape the fortunes
of Andersonville. / say this is heroism
:, that exceeds any ever shown on the battle
| field. In conclusion Mr.. Storke said the
| graves of our soldier boys at ADdersonville
| speak of the sufferings endured.
Senator ]. E. McComas was called upon
to speak to the toast, Southern Calfor-
MA" He'handled his subject in an able
! manner. In referring to what some call
the busted boom,n he said: We have
only stopped to rest a while, so that our
brethren of this part of this State may
have an opportunity 70 catch up, and when
you do, then we will march on IS we have
| in the past, and beckon you to follow"
The speaker said that those who had never
| visited Los Angeles had lost the oppor-
tunity of their lives why said he,
we have the grandest climate, the high
est mountains, the best soil, the noblest
| men, and, above ali, the most beautiful
women in the world. Sacramento ladies
are excepted, of course"
Secretary of State Hendricks in respond
ing to the sentiment Northern California"
| said one way to determine the superiority
| OF one thing over another was by way of
comparison. We can apply this rule in
determining the superiority of one section
over another. My friend, Senator McComas,
| speaks of the grandeur of his part of the
State. We will allow him all he claims,
] but still we have our Mount Shasta and
our Shanahan, and the south can never
eclipse either.
| KNAPSACK VIEW OF THINGS
Comrade P. S. Dorney, il answer to the
sentiment, "The Knapsack," said:
| have often thought while reading of the war
OF secession that very interesting work might
be compiled under the caption, "a Knapsack
View Of Things" That is to say, review of
things pertaining to the great rebellion as they
! appeared TO the men who composed the fight
ing force Of both armies; the men who com
posed the line of march and the front of battle !;
| the men who dug the trenches and flied them !;
who built Notifications, reared ramparts and
| manned them the men whose pluck and blood
ennobled the sorrow of disaster and tempered
| the fierceness of victory.
We know that history-especially war history
is formed of materials found in the archives OF
nation or the records of the warning factions
OF nation. We also know that those archives
and records are composed of the reports and
| opinions OF the heads of departments, and that
they in turn are based upon the reports end
opinions OF leaders and sub-leaders of armies.
Thus defeats are chronicled and causes assigned,
! and thus victories are printed and heroes made.
1t is rarely remembered, however, that heroes
| thus made-while they may be deservedly APP
| plauded-were seldom wholly moved by what
| might be termed impersonal patriotism; that,
in nearly every instance they were fired by the
| hope of personal promotion, personal glory, of
| figuring in the archives of the nation, and
| thereby winning place in the annals OF his
| tory. most laudable as well as most selfish
| and al-powerful motive.
But what of the heroes of the knapsack the
men whose mental girth and education fitted
them only for the places they filed, and upon
whose souls the sunrays of ambition never
shone? What OF the man whose heroism was
prompted so.ely and only by love of country,
| who only knew that a soldiers duty was a
soldiers god, and who grimly poured forth at
the feet of that god the red litations of quiv-
ering and expiring heart? For such men no
trumpets blare, no votiye fountains flow; no
guardian pens inscribe their names, no ponder
GUS archives chronicle their deeds. They are
dead or die and their deeds die with them.
Permit me to make a suggestion. Would it
not be wise, as well as thoroughly American.
| for the Grand Army TO establish central Office
at washington, the incumbent OF which shall
| be type of the knapsack element and capa-
BILE man. The duty OF such incumbent to be to
seek and received personal and well authenti-
Gated "reminiscences from men who had served as
privates in both the Federal and Confederate
| armies, and from the materials thus gathered
10 compile what might be named The KNAPP
| sack View of the War of Secession What a
fund of pathetic stories might be thus collected;
| what a record of unknown heroism might be
| uncovered; what garland of strange narrative.
self-abnegation, grim humor and rollicking fun
m ght be obtained
work OF this kind would be the very bowels
of history. 1t would shed more practical COM
monplace light upon the great struggle through
which the nation passed than all the stllted
and studied volumes of official historians, to-
gether with the selfshly-biased memoirs of sue
cessful aud unsuccessful Generals. 1t would
rescue from oonsioh the views OF men VINO
fought-not for glory, but for what they be-
| lieved to be right. 1t would embalm in the art
preservative of all arts" many singular facts
known only to men who bore the knapsack-
the rank and file; that rank and file now rap
idly passing away, and which, in few short
years, will have joined the vast and ever-in-
ereasing throng, who camped in the shades OF
eternity. await the trump of Gabriel-the last
roll call.
wonld be pleased to see the Posts OF Sacra.
mento act upon this suggestion. with a view 10
bringing II before the next Department En-
campment, that in turn it may be brought be-
fore the national body.
Assemblyman J. w. Ragsdale responded
to the toast, John A. Logan :" Colonel
Cooley The Soldiers Home" E f Ed
wards. The United States Armv;" Phiio
Hersey, Sheridan" A. t. Needham
Army Chaplain and E. H. Tucker, Sol
diers' Pensions"