Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1891-06-05

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Before / put the two garlands am twist
ing upon the northern and southern tOmbs
[ detain the garlands a little while that
may put them upon the brow of the Twins
soldiers and sailors of the north and south
who. though at variance for long while
are now at peace and in hearty loyalty tC
the United States government, and ready
If need be, to march shoulder to shoulder
against any foreign foe The twenty-si,
winters that have passed since the war,
think, have sufficiently cooled the hatredi
that once burned northward and south
ward to allow the remark that they who
fought in that conflict were honest on bOtt
sides. The chaplains on both armies wert
honest in their prayers. The faces that
went into battle, whether they marched
toward the Gulf of Mexico or marched tow
ard the north star, were honest faces
It is too much to ask either side to be
lieve that those who came out from theiI
homes, forsu,ing father and mother and
wife and child, many Of them never to re
turn, were not in earnest when they put
their life into awful exigency. Witness
the last scene mt family prayers up among
the Green mountains or down by the fields
OF cotton and sugar cane Men do not sac
riiice their all for fun. Men do not eat
moldy bread or go without bread at all fol
fun. Men do not sleep unsheltered in equi-
noctial storms for fun. There were some,
no doubt. on both sides who enlisted for
soldiers pay, or expecting opportunity for
violence and pillage, or burning with re-
venge and thirst for human blood, but
such cases were so rare many Of you who
were in the war four years never confront
ed such an instance of depravity.
As chaplain Of Pennsylvania regiment,
and as Il representative of the United states
Christian commission, ! was for while at
the front, and in those hospitals at Hagers-
town and Williamsburg and up and down
the Potomac. where all the churches and
farmhouses were filled with wounded and
diving Federals and COnfederates, forgot
amid the horrors to ask on which side they
fought, when with what little aid | could
take them for their suffering bodies, and
the miqhtier aid / could pray for their
souls, ! passed the days and months amid
scenes that in my memory seem like a
CHASTITY dream rather than possible real
ity.
When a New Orleans boy, unable to an
swer my question as to where he was hurt,
took out from the folds of the only gar
meut that had not been torn off him in the
battle n New Testament, marked with his
own life blood, and | saw the leaf turned
down at the passage, 'My peace give unto
YOU, not as the world giveth give unto
YOU it read just rs though it had been a
northern New Testament. And when /
sat down and took from a South CAROLYN
ian diving in barn at Bonneville his last
message to his wife and mother and child,
it sounded just like message that
northern man dying far from home would
send to his wife and mother and child
And when I picked up from the battle
field of AntietiAn the fragment of letter
which / have somewhere yet, for the name
and the address were torn of, | saw it was
the words of wife to her husband telling
him how the little child prayed for their
father every night that he might not get
hurt in the battle and might come home
sound and come home we'll, but that if
anything happened to them they might
all meet again in the world where there
are no partings, it read just as northern
wife would write to a husband away from
home and in peril conveying the mes
sages Of little children. Oh, yes; they
were honest on both sides. And those who
lived to get home and are living yet were
Just as honest, and ought they not for the
suffering they endured have coronal Of
some kind?
COURAGE on BOTH SIDES.
Yea, there was courage on both sides.
They who were at the front know that
When the war opened the south called
the northern men "mudsills" and the
north called the southern men "braggarts"
and "pOmpous nothings," but after few
battles nothing more was said about
northern "mudsills' and southern "brag-
CARTS" It was an army Of lions against an
army of lions. 1t was a flock Of eagles
mid-sky with iron beak against another
flock of eagles iron beaked. 1t was thun-
derbolt against thunderbolt It was arch
angel of wrath against archangel OF wrath.
1t was Hancock against Longstreet 1t
was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hampton.
It was Slocum against Hill. 1t was 0. o.
Howard against Hood. 1t was Sherman
against Stonewau jackson. It was Grant
against Lee and the men who were under
them were just as gallant, and some Of
them are here, and detain the two garlands
that / have twisted for the departed, and
in recognition of honesty and prowess put
the coronals upon these living Federals and
Confederates.
North and south, we will make great
fuss about them when they are dead. There
will not be room on their tombstOnes to
tell how much we appreciate them. We
shall call out the military and explode
three volleys over their graves, making all
the cemetery ring under our command of
"Firer' We will have long obituaries in
newspapers telling IN what battles they
fought, what sacrifices they endured, what
flags they captured, in what prisons they
suffered, but all that will come too late.
One word in the living ear of praise for
their honesty and courage will be worth to
them more than military funeral two
miles long, or pile Of flowers half a mile
high, and ten bands Of music playing over
the grave "Star Spangled Banner" or |
away Down South in Dixie"
Now, while they are in their declining |
years, and their right knee refuses to work |
because of the rheumatism they got sleep |
ing on the wet ground on the hunks Of the |
Chickamauga, or their digestive organs are |
OF on furloagh because OF the six months |
Of prison life in which their rations were |
big slices Of nothing, and their ears have l
never been alert since the cannonade in /
which they heard so much they have been /
able to hear but little since-in these eases
call upon the people Of north and south /
to substitute a little antemortem praise /
for the good deal of post-mortem eulogium. !
luese Two 4dflAuAlf Nuhb w latH4 AoA lAoAAA-
ern and southern graves shall not be put I
upon the grass OF the tomb until they have |
first encircled the foreheads Of the living /
l will let the front Of the wreath come
down over the scar Of a scalp wound made
by the sward Of cavalryman at Atlanta
and droop little over the eye that lost its
luster in the mine explosion at Petersburg
HuzZa for the livingl Gala lilies and ca
mellias and amaranths and palm branches
for the livingl
THE DEAD KNOW.
But we must not detain the two garlands
any longer from the pillows Of those who
for a quarter Of a century have been pros
trate in dreamless slumber, never oppressed
by summer heats or chilled by winters
cold Both garlands are fragrant. Both
have in them the sunshine aud the shower
of this springtime. The colors Of both
were MIXED by him who mixed the blue Of
the sky, aud the gold Of the sunset, and
the green Of the grass, and the whitencss
Of tho snow crystal. And | do not care
which you put over the northern grave and