The Red Cloud chief., 1891-06-12

you have had your own Malvern HIN
and your own South Mountain, and
your Gettysburg al along these
twenty years Come! And II ! cannot
spare . whole garland for your brow, I
will twist In your locks 1t least two
hower4 one crimson and one white,
the crimson for the struggle Of your
life which has almost amounted 70
carnage, and the white for the victory
you have gained
Before ] put the two garlands I Nm
twisting upon the northern and south
ern tombs. detain the E.rlands . little
while that / may put them upon the
brow Of the living soldiers and sailors
Of the north and south, who though in
variance for q long while, are now ut
peace and in hearty loyalty TO the
United States government and ready,
II need be, 70 march shoulder 70 shout
der against any foreign foe.
The twenty-six winters that have
passed since the war. ! think, have suf-
8ciently cooled the hatreds that once
burned northward and southwark TO al
low the remark that they who fought
in that conflict were honest on both
sides The chaplains Of both armies
were honest In their prayers The
faces that went into baltic, whether
they marched toward the Gulf Of Mex
leo or marched toward the north star.
were honest faces II Is too much to ask
either side to believe that those who
came out from their homes, forsaking
father and mother and wife and child,
many Of them never TO return, were not
In earnest when they put their life into
awful exigency. Witness the last scene
at family prayers up among the Green
mountains or down by the fields OF cot
ton and sugar cane Men do not sacri-
fee them all for fun Men do not eat
moldy bread Dr. 60 without bread at all
for fun. Men do not sleep unsheltered
In equinoctial 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 revenge, and thirst for
human blood. but such cases were SO
rare many of you who were in the wal
four years never confronted such An in
stance Of depravity.
As chaplain Of a Pennsylvania regi-
ment and as a representative of the
United States Christian commission, /
for a while At the front and in
those hospitals at Hagerstown and
Williamsburg and up and down the
Potomac, where all the churches and
farm houses were filled with wounded
and dying Federals and C~onfederates.
! forgot amid the horrors 10 ask on
which side they fought, when with
what little aid ! could take them for
the suffering bodies and the mighticr
aid ] could for their souls passed the
and months amid scenes that in
my memory seem like a ghsstly dream
than possible reality. When a
New Orleans boy, unable TO answer my
question AS to where he was hurt took
out from the folds Of the only garment
that had not beer orr of him in the
battle q New Testament marked
with his own life blood, and i
the leaf turned down at the
passage: my peace / give unto
you, not as the world giveth give ]
unto you" it read just n though it had
been a northern New Testament And
when ! sat down and took from q South
dying In a barn at BOones-
vile his last message TO his wife and
and child, il sounded just like q
message that a northern man dying far
from home would send 10 his wife and
and child And when I picked
up from the battlefield Of Antietam the
of a letter which l have some
yet for the name and the ad-
dress were torn off, ] saw 1t was the
words Of a wife TO her husband telling
how the little child prayed for
their father every night that he might
get hurt in the battle and might
come home well, but that il anything |
happened to them they might all meet
again in the world where there are no
partings, it read just rs a northern wife
write to a husband away from
and in peril conveying the mes
sages of little children. O. yes, they |
honest on both sides. And those
who lived 10 get home and are living |
yet were just rs honest, and ought they |
for the suffering they endured have
a coronal of some kind?
Yes, there VAS courage on both sides |
They who were ut the front know that.
When the war opened the south called
the northern men ''mudsills." and the |
north called the southern men ''brag-
CARTS" and ''pompous nothings," but
after a few battles nothing more was
said about northern 'mudsills" and
southern ''bruggarts" II was an army
Of lions against an army of lions II
IA a flock of eagles mid-sky with iron
bcak against another flock of eagles
ron beakcd. IL was thundcrbolt
thunderbolt 1t was archangcl
II wrath against archangel of wrath.
Il was Hancock against Longstrect
IL was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hamp
on II was Slocum against Hill. 1t
vas O. o. Howard against Hood IL
Sherman against Stonewall Jack
,on. II was Grant against Lee. And
men who were under them were
|ast rs gallant, ana nome OF them are
mere, and detain the two garlands that
lav twisted FOR the departed and in
of honesty and prowess
,ut the ~coronals upon those living Fed
and Confedcrates North and
south, we make q great fuss about
hem when they are dead. There will
lot be roo IN their tom bstones to tell
low much we appreciate them. We
hall call out the military and explode
hree volleys over their graves, making
III the cemetery ring under our com.
nand of Fire. We will have long
obituary in newspapers telling in what
they fought, what sacrifices
hey endured. what flags they captured.
n what prisons they suffered. but all