Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-06-06
to DEATH
sYMpApnY ron rHR pEnnAvxp.

these tWo garands tint am twisting
for little while that may with them
sooths the brow Of the living. Over
the fallen the people said Poor fell
lowl What pity that he should have
been struck down." We did not, how
ever, often enough say: Poor father
Poor mother Poor wifel Poor child p
and SO I say now. Have you realized
that by that wholesale massacre hun
dreds OF thousands of young people at
the.north and the south have never had
any cfancei we who are fathers
stand Between our children end the
World We fight tlieir battles, VIC plan
for their welfare, we achieve their i've
lihood, we give them the advice OF our
superior years Among the richest
blessings OF my life thank God that
my father lived to lght my battles un.
til was old enough to fight for MY
self.
Have you realized the fact that our
civil war pitched out upon the farm
fields OF the north aud the plantations
OF the south q inultitude that no snlarl
Gun number chill dren without fatiterly
help mud protection & Undsr. llsthead
vaiitages which wesaIad OF fatiieiiJ
guidance, What q struggle life has been
to the most OF usi But What ofthe
children. two and We and ten years Of
age who stood 1T their mothers lap
with great, round. ndering eyes hear,
ing herread of those WHO persisted in tl,e
Battle Of the Wilderness, their father
gone down amid the dead host3 C0uie,
young men and women, who BY such
disaster have had to make your own
way in life, and will put the garland
ON your young and unwrinkled brow.
Yes; you have had your own Malvern
Hill, and your own South Mountain,
and your own Gettysburg all along
these twenty years Comet And It |
cannot sp,ue whole garland for your
brow will twist in your locks ct least
: two flowers one crimson and one
white, the crimson for the struggle OF
your life which has almost amounted
to carnage. and the white for the VIC
tory you have gained.
FLOWERS Ron TIKI SURVIVORS.
Before put the two garian.ls am
twisting upon the northern md south
ern to.nbs detain the garlands 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 long while, are now at
peace and in hearty loyalty to the
United States government, and ready
if need he to ,narcl, shoulder to shoil-
der against any foreign foe. The
twenty-si1 winters that have passed
since the war, think, have sufficient
~ cooled the hatreds that once burned
nortl,ward and southwark to allow the
remark that they who fought in that
conflict were honest on both sides.
The ctlaplains Of both armies were hon.
est in their prayers Tie faces that
wcntinto battle, whether they marched
toward tho Gulf of Mexico or marched
toward the north star, werY honest
facee.
1t IL toomuch to ask either side to
believe that those who came ous from
their homes, foysaking father and
mother and wife and child, many Of
them never to return, were not in earn
est when they put their life into awful
exigeney. Witness the last scene at
family prayers up among the Green
mountains, or down by the fields OF
cotton and sugar cane. Men do not
sacrifice their all for fun. Men do not
eat inoidy bread. OF go without breed
at all, for fun bien do not sleep I'M
sheltered In equinoctid storms for fun.
There we're some, no doubt, on, both
sides who enlisted for soldiers pay, or
expecting opportunity for violence and
pillase, or burning with revenge and
thirst for human blood, bat such cases
wero 30 rare. many OF you who were
in the war four years never confronted
such an instance of depravity.
AS chaplain of Pennsylvania regi-
meut and IS representative Of the
United STATES Christian commission
was for a while at the front, and In
tt1oae hospitals at Haserytovn and Will
iamsourg. and up and down tie Poto-
mac, where all the churches and farm
houses were flied with wounded and
dying Federal and ConfederateS for
got amid the horrors to ask on which
side they fought, when, will, what lit
tie aid conld take them for their
suffering bodies and the niigilticr aid l
could pray for their souls. passed the
days and months amid scenes tlsas In
my memory seem Like giiast!y dream
rather than possible reality.
When IA New Orleans boy, unable 70
answer my question as to where he WAS
hurt, took out from the folds OF the
only garment that had nos been torn
OF him In the battle New Tessa1sent
marked Will, bis own life blood, and l
say the leaf turned down at the pes
sage. my peace give unto you, not
as the world giveth give unto you" it
read Just as though it had been anorth-
ern New Testament And when sat
down and took from South Carohnian
dying in barn ct Bonneville his last
message to his wife and mother and
child. it sounded Jus. ike a message
that northern man dying far from
home wu,lId send to his vile and moth
er end child.
And when I picked up from the bat
tie field OF Ant!eteIn the fragment Of q
letter which have somewhere YET, for
the name and tho address were torn OF,
Isaw 1t was the words Of wife to her
linsbaa,d, telling him how the little child
prayed for their fntIier every night
that lie might NOT get hurt in the bat
Al a,1 ,v,ix1,t T./,r,,n ho,nA c<,t1rd md