The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-06-11

voices OF command; voices silent since
i we SSAard them on the beleaguered line
of Petersburg: or in the bloody angle
of Spotsylvania; vorc1- which startled
the doting memory, and rsscde the
old heart leap, if but for one throb,
with the pulse ofa long dead youth.
saw and heard them all. Just as
we knew them. Your brothers and
ours. Your old generals and ours.
No longer arrayed in opposing ranks,
but side by side, as brethren.
Once again l heard the steady tramp
and saw the wheel and flash of march
ing thousands, at a grand review.
On sunny slope, in most pellucid
air, beneath a streaming standard
famed by supernal breeezes l saw
assembled the field and staff of the
army OF peace.
There sat Grant on Egypt, and by
his side was Lee on Traveller, the same
Grant and Lee we knew of old, save
that the lines of strife and care were
smoothed away. Clustered around
them in fraternal groops were all our
early loved and lost.
There were Sedgwick, and Reynolds,
and Wadsworth-Albert Sydney John
ston, Stonewall Jackson and Pat Gle
burne.
There were Mcpherson and Phil
Kearney. There were Garnett and
Armistead with their Gettysburg smile
there were the Pegrams, standing
near to Meade.
Hancock and Beckenridge were
side by side-Bragg and Mcclellan
Thomas and Hood-Stuart and Sher-
idan. Thus were they mingling in
indiscriminate fraternity.
From the willowy ferry, where the
river of time is crossed; where, SO long
ago, Stonewall Jackson crossed over
and rested beneath the shadow of the
trees; saw an escort advancing-up
the lines it came, surrounding two
aged warriors, walking arm in arm.
From right to left, swelling and rolling
and dying away along the lines, with
the thrill of the olden days came the
wild cheering, as Sherman and John
ston passed on to rejoin their long
lost hosts.
Then there was massing of men,
and hushed expectant stiffness, as the
Great silent Spoke-thus:
Soldiers of the army of the hero
dead.
This day let all rejoice.
BY the clearer light of truth and
broader view which we possess, we have
been brethren, since long ago in this
land ofeternal peace.
! Yet hath our happiness been ever
tempered by regret at thought of our
earthly brethren-still divided in
fratercidal strife.
This day dispels that gloom.
Arm in arm; no longer foes, but
brethren in reunited land: Sherman
and Johnston, this day rejoin us, with
these glad tidings of great joy, more
priced by us than any earthly treasure.
1t was l who first proclaimed it.
1t was Lee who counselled it.
1t is the morning and the evening
prayer in the camp of the hero dead.
"Let us have peace"
At last the boon is granted to our
brethren in the land for which we died.
AS joy unutterable lit the counte-
nances of the throng-as the heavens
were shaken with laundering salvos
mingled with mighty cheering-the
vision passed away.
1 awoke, an old man on the spot
where I had been young; alone, on
highway which had been thronged-
yet filled with the joy of that vision,
and the task of its Interpretation.
May it linger with the old soldiers
of the north and south till they realize
its true significance.
May its contemplation fill their
hearts with Hope, Faith and Charity
s'and the greatest of these is Charity" :"