The National tribune., 1891-11-12

Now about the monuments. With the feel
ings Of a soldier and participant at Gettysburg
! look with pride upon the eloquent aud ever,
increasing memorials thatare making this iell
a Mecca for patriotic pilgrims
WITH HAPPINESS AND GRATITUDE
] sec rise one by one the beautiful monuments
/ that So touchingly symbolic at once the en-
during love of Union soldiers for their slain
comrades, aud their uudying devotion TO the
everything cause in which the heroes died.
| But with a soldiers inherent love Of fair play
my pleasure is blended with poignant sorrow
| as j look upon these carved dhd costly stones
aud think of the pathetic graves unmarked
with even our old-time cracker box legends on
the countless hattloliclds of the South. Though
1 they lie on fields and amid iunges less attract
| i've and accessible to Northern tourists, and far
| from the homes where they left sObbing wives,
tender mothers and blooming babes at the
gate, they are also our comrades aud their
| deeds aud sacrifices should keep them forever
near TO the hearts Of our people, and assuredly
near enough 10 our living veterans 10 have
their resting places marked by simple memo
| rial stones, by an occasional visit and a rose.
A poets few lines once gave fame 10 the I'M
marked grave Of q soldier. and brought 10 that
mound, among strangers aud foes, the venera-
| ton and tears Of millions Of every race and
cline who. but for the poets tender touch OF
! lives the name Of Sir John Moore.
! Would that / could borrow that poets wand,
that might weave spell for as exalted pur-
/ pose
To worth would give honor, I'd dry the MOURN
er's tears;
And TO the pailid lip recall the smile Of happier
years,
Ny soldier pride in Gettysburg aud in this
rich country too, will be immeasnrably aug
] a1 1tuIa 4 Fos "A nff ha f4vnra
now being showered on Gettysburg lovingly
sprnkled over the swamps Of tho Peninsula,
the Jungics OF the Wilderness aud the Caro-
liuas; over Chickamauga, Shiloh Stone River,
and
"FROM ATLANTA TO THE SEA"
My cup Of happiness as a soldier will rise TO
grateful overflow when ! see a memorial worthy
Of this Republic rise in its Capital, to tell TO our
descendants that thrilling and pathetic story
OF tho unarmed army Of G0O9O martyrs who
died amid uuspeakable suficrings on the mute
ana tragic battlcfelds OF Andorsonviile, Sails
bury, Libby, aud Belle ISLE These were heroes
who, though apparently abandoned by the Gov
emmeut they served, in obedience TO a dire and
stern military necessity (as attestcd by Gen.
Grant, fought death in forms more frightlul
than the battlefield ever presented.
These were soldiers who for months that
were like ages In hades, faced pcsiiience and
tica suns aud on burning sands, unshaded by
leaf or blade Of grass. More men died in tho
AndersOnyile prison than were killed in Hattie
and died Of wounds in the whole Mexican war.
These were the patriots who could say 81 No 4"
TO the tempting bribe OF guilty freedom, with
libertys waving groves aud cool sweet springs
In sight across the dead-iiue. They appealed
az last to plying Heaven for release, aud died
kissing the creed Of the Union.
They are indeed worthy Of this Reuulkl ic' !
memory as its dead, even though IL could for
get them while living. aud the glory Of their
last mute and pathetic battle does not pale even
beside the fadeless fame OF Gettysburg.
an among those who think that there is
such thing as OVERRIDING mortuaTy memorials
on this field 30 the unjust exclusion Of moro
remote but not les glorious battiefelds.
1t snot in gaudy monuments that real glory
and fame are perpe uated, and the Royal
Egyptian mummies in our dime museums are
gTlm witnesses 10 the fact that time is an in
eZorabe loveler and the grave a station whero
the sccpter Of the prince and the staG Of the
beFgar are al last laid side b. side.
Scarcely sentence in the superb address Of
the scholarly Everett over our dsrd at Gettys-
burg Is now remembered IN our county, while
il is not improbable that the
FEW WORDS OF LIScoLg,
spoken at the same time and place, will be re-
pcatcd in fall by remote posteriiy when tho
monuments Of the battlefield have mingled
with the vcnerctcd dust they now cOmmem-
crate.
One OF the first objects that meets the Wis.
itor's eye on entering the gate Of the National
Cemetery is the handsome obc.isk Of the 10Th
Pa. Docs this stone mark the spot where It's
brave Germans fell in the hRtigqunRy no
means That regiment fought, and brayely
too, mile away from there.
Hf..v. H.. Ii ia
didn't tie survivors put the monument
where their comrades fought and diedy'
Tie answer u.s. SHOW. gentle pilgrim" And
tie love aud worldly profit Of show is doing
more than that just now 10 defaco the heroic
annals Of Gettysburg, aud bring rcproach up0n
the brave veterans themselves; and finally,
alas! IL is turning the stream u patriotic
memory away from those sacred Southern
graves Of ours. Shall 1t be so2 Forbid II,
comrades all.
The men who fcIl on bloody fields Of defeat
as well as Of victory arc equally worthy 0i
marked and visited graves. Liout Tom
Denen, of my regiment. who sleeps in an
/ unmarked grave, and unyisited under the
lonesome pines Of Chauccilorsvile was the
twin Of my tcntmatc, George, who resis in 30
/ fair bed among friends under the emerald
robe Of Cemetery Hin at Gettysburg.
Even the fair goddess who from her marble
+ throne there looks down 50 lovingly on the
I graves Of her sleeping SONS beneath her, seems
to be saying 10 the army and the Hation,
Bring them all here
Would that the appeal could be obeycd. for
! they who now lie ia unmarked graves along
/ the Eaupahann0ck aud the dark Chickamauga
are well worthy Of so fair a resting place la tho
sheltering hosom Of Pennsylvania. They bore
the same lag through smoking fields Of vic.
! tory aud defeat. Their cause and their sacri.
! fees were the same. and so should be their
I glory aud reward; for the "red dew Of one
/ baptism is over them all :"