Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-06-05

H Homu uoMh AMID the dead host? Come
ssouhs men and women, who by such
uisaseer have had to make your own
way IN lie, and will put the garland
VI your young and unwrinkled brow
I uuS' you nave had your own Malvern
, ,alll, ana your own South Mountain, and
your own Gettysburg all along these
twenty years. Come! And if / cannot
spare ,,i;a a whole garland for your brow I
~" "lll TWIST In your locks at least two
MOVERS one crimson aud one white. the
e vi. 1or the struggle of Your life
when mas almost amounted to carnage
gained. ~" n"No
Before put the two garlands I am
eMlSting upon the Northern and South
elli eomns detain the garlands a little
WINE that may put them upon the brow
VI 1i'e llVlhs soldiers and sailors of the
Nofth and South, who though in yari-
ahse lor long while are now at peace
ana IN hearty loyalty to the United
states government, and ready if need be
W 'iistrch shoulder to shoulder against
any foreign foe. The twenty-six winters
.ilau nave passed since the war, think,
nave sullclcntly cooled the hatreds that
once burned northward and southwark
10 allow the remark that they who
fought III that conflict were honest on
polh sues. The chaplains of both armies
were honest in their prayers. The
faces that went into battle. whether
they marched toward the Gulf of Mexico
or marched toward the north star.
were honest faces.
as chaplain of d Pennsylvania rcgi-
ment and as representative of the
United States Christian Commission /
was for a while at the front. and in
those hospitals it Hagerstown and Will
lamsburg. and up and down the poto-
mae. where all the churches and farm
houses We're filed with wounded and
dying Federal and Confederates, for
got amid the horrors to ask on which
side they fought, when, with what little
aid could take them for their suffering
bodies and the mightier aid l could pray
Tor their souls, l passed the days and
months amid scenes that in my memory
seem like ghostly dream rather than
possible reality.
When New Orleans boy, unable to
answer my question as to where he was
hurt, took out from the folds of the old
garment that had not been torn off him
in the battle New Testament marked
with his own life blood, and l saw the
leaf turned down at the passage, '.My
peace give unto you, not as the world
giveth, give l unto you," it read just us
though it had been Northern New les
lament. Ard when | sat down and took
from a South Carolinian dying in barn
at Bonneville his last message to his
wife and mother and child. it sounded
just like q message that. a Northern man
dying far from home would send to his
wife and mother and child.
And when picked up from the battle
field of Antietam the fragment of letter
which l have somewhere yet, for the
name and address were torn Off, / saw it
was the words of a 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 meet again in the world
where there are no partings. 1t read
just as a Northern wife would write to a
husband away from home and in peril,
conveying the messages of little Children.
Oh, yes; they were honest on both sides,
and those who lived to get home and are
living yet We're just as honest, and ought
they not for the suffering they endured
have a coronal of some kind?
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 ''brag.
garts'' and ''pompous nothings," but
after few battles nothing more was
said about Northern ''mudsills'' and
! Southern "braggarts.' 1t was an army
of lions against an army of lions. Ii
was a flock of eagles mid-sky with iron
beall against another flock of eagles iron
beaked. 1t was thunderbolt against
! thunderbolt. 1t was archangle of wrath
! against archangel of wrath. 1t was
Hancock against Longstreet. 1t was
! Fitzpatrick against Wade Hampton. II
was Slocum against Hill. 1t was o. O.
Howard against Hood. 1t was Sherman
against Stonewall jackson. 1t was
Grant against Lee. And the men who
were under them were just as gallant
and some of them are here, and l detai1
the two garlands that have twisted fol
the departed, and in recognition of hon
esty and prowess put the coronals upon
these living Federals and Confederates.
North and South, we will make a great
fuss about them when they are dead.
! lncrc VIII nOt Ut fOOIH Oll tIlclf tOLuU
stones to tell how much we appreciate
them. We shall call out the military
and explode three volleys over theil
graves, making all the cemetery rims
under our command of ''Fire!' We will
have long obituaries in newspapers tell
ing in what battles they fought, wha
sacrifices they endured, what flags the!
captured, in what prisons they suffered
but all that will come too late. On
word in the living ear of praise for thei
honesty and courage will be worth t.
them more than military funeral twt
miles long, or a pile of flowers half ;
mile high, and ten bands of music play
ing over the grave "Star Spangled Ban
ner'' or SWAY Down South in Dixie"
| Now, while they are in their declining
years, and their right knees refuses tt
work because of the rheumatism the.
got sleeping on the wet ground on tn
banks of the Chickamauga, or their di
gestive organs are off OH furlough be
cause of the six months OF prison life, il
which their rations were big slices o
nothing, and their ears have never beef
alert since the cannonade in which the!
heard SO much that they have been abb.
IN ,a,r hut little sipce-in these cases