The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-29

cries were awakened by It? Shortly be-
fore he thus saw his old home he had
visited the Confederate cemetery in Rich
mond, and he spoke touchingl y of the con-
trast. OF course, the cemeteries contain
ing the Confederate dead can receive no
national aid for their maintenance, and q
few years ago the great cemetery at Rich
mond was of itself a most pathetic re-
minder Of the coil apse of the attempt to
establish new government in the South.
Plain pine boards, many Of them rotted,
marked thousands of graves, and instead of
well-kept mounds the graves were sunken
as though there had been speedy burial
beneath, and yet the tender remenbrances
and love of those who had dear ones buried
there were made manifest because scat
tered here and there oyer these sunken
graves were flowers, some withered and
some fresh. And it was said to the writer
on the accession of his visit to that ceme-
terry that Union men, some of whom had
fought in the Union armies, felt it pleas
ure to 30 occasionally TO this cemetery
and scatter flowers here and there that
they might thus bestow their tribute of re-
spect for the heroism displayed by these
men who fought for what proved to be
losing cause.
1t was reported 10 one OF the congress-
ional committees few years ago that the
number of visitors TO these national ceme-
teries constantly increases, and that the
most pathetic sight witnessed by those
who have charge OF them is when some
persons now advanced in years come to
the cemetery, wander around among the
nameless graves, frequently with the tears
rolling down their cheeks, because they
know that beneath some one of these
solemn mounds rest the remains of some
one who was dear to them, and who per-
ished on the field of battle near by, but
was buried among the unrecognized. And
another pathetic sight is when man with
streaks of gray in his hair and beard comes
to the cemetery with his children and
tells them that those who lie buried there
were comrades of his who fell in the battle
near by in which he was spared.
When General Arthur was president he
used occasionally to drive out to the little
cemetery at the north of Washington City
and chat with its keeper, a veteran, who
witnessed the skirmish which took place
on those plains on that hot July morning
in 1864, when General Early's army APP
peared of q sudden in the woods back of
Montgomery Biair's country home;
and the veteran delighted to tell the
president of the exciting adventures
of that day, how the sharp-shooters
were in the trees or bushes yonder and
picked out men on the Union skirmish
line. 1.-TWO are buried in those two
graves" he once told the president, and
then he narrated how, standing on the
ramparts of the fort. wearing long linen
buster which made him conspicuous,
President Lincoln exposed himself to the
sharpshooters, and how he only was pre-
vailed upon to step down from that place
OF danger when the officer in command of
the fort peremptorily ordered him TO quit
it. And after General Badly Smiths
Sixth corps came on the double-quck,
raising tremendous cloud of dust along
the highway, the soldiers OF Early retired
and then disappeared. A detachment
went out and gathered up the dead-not
more that two score of them--and hastily
buried them in the plot which afterwards
became this little national cemetery.
President Arthur seemed not to tire
to hear these incidents. He was shown
a shell and solid cannon balls which had
been dug up on the field when they were
preparing it for a burial place, and
although the cemetery is possibly the
smallest which the government now MAIN
tains, President Arthur once said to the
writer that he thought in some respects it
was the most pathetically suggestive of
all of them. 1t is in sight Of the capitol,
half hours drive from the White House,
and it Is upon the field where occurred the
only skirmish which President Lincoln
ever saw, and where he narrowly escaped
the aim of a sharp-shooter.
On Decoration day of 1882 the president.
without the knowledge of any one but him.
self and the gardener, caused to be sent to
this little cemetery probably the most
beautiful tribute OF flowers ever strewn
upon soldiers graves. and the next day
when persons driving by or visiting the
cemetery saw these graves covered with
most beautiful and expensive plants, they
asked who could have done il and why.
and no one was able to give them any ex-
PLANTATION.
DECORATION DAY SPEECHES.
OF course the Decoration day speech
which is historic was that one delivered by
Colonel Ingersoll in indianapolis. 1t fol-
lowed so soon after the splendid and in
Simultaneous fame which he gained as an
orator by the speech which he made plac-
Ing Mr.. Blaine in nomination that it
added greatly to that oratorical repute.
Colonel Ingersoll said to the writer some
years later that it was not true-as had
been reported-that this address was
impromptu. The writing OF it had
taken but few moments, compare
lively, but the composition of it had
been a matter of years. After his ser
vice In the army was ended Colonel
lngersoll used to recall, with poetic en-
thusiasm. scenes which when they oc-
Cured had seemingly not made much
impression upon his mind. He remem-
bered his comrades who had fallen and
recalled some pathetic incident of their
army lives. The magnificent patriotism