The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1892-06-02

LOUISVILLE, K: NEW YORK, M.
Came ansa as the leaves come when forests are
Came as the waves come when navies art
| stranded"
came from the church and the college, from
the factory and the farm, from the Office anc
the store, from the mine and the lumbe
camp, from the lonely fire side Of the widow
from The bride of yeste, day, from the busy
marts of trade and from the happy homes o
childhood. Tell them how marching in oul
regiments under the starry flag came the
young and the middle aged, the slender pale
| faced boy and the bronzed and weather
| beaten man. Tell them of the sundering o.
the sweet ties which gave to this life the
simlitude of Heaven, and of the wan, white
faces everywhere among us. Tell them that
over 2, 900, 900 men, drawn from every avo-
cation, forsaking home and kindred, throw,
! ing away as if baubles not worth the keep
ing, the ambitions and opportunities of life,
mustered under our flag and went down to
| battle. Tell them of the watching and the
| waiting through the months and years,
which went SO slow, of camp and march, OF
| siege and battle, of the prison pen, of dan
! ger and death, of hope and despair, of vic
| tory and defeat Tell them that amid all
| the savagery and cruelty and blood and pas
| sion of those years, there bloomed in the
| hearts of our people everywhere, brighter
| than these flowers of May, fadeless alike in
| summer and autum and winter, the sweet
| flowers of helpful tender sympathy. Tell
| them of the day that the dark cloud parted,
| and we saw coming from the blue SKY be
| yond the white-winged angel of peace
how the air grew still about us, and the can
IL,
| rattle-how in the distance we heard again
the roll Of drums, and listened again to the
| Shrill notes of the fife, and saw home coming
| at last, with thinned ranks, IN stained and
dusty blue, with flags all tattered and torn,
| the great army of the Unou-how we saw
| them 60 into bivouac in the evening, heard
| the drums beat the tattoo and 'lights out,
| and that when we looked for soldicry in the
| morning they were gone, as the dews of the
| night had gone, mustered out; citizens again
| in their old, accustomed places. Tell them
| that 800, coo came not back at the summons
| of peace, and when they ask you why they
came not, tell them that to thousands life
| withcred away IN the hot breath of battle,
! that they died on the land and on the sea,
at Donaldson add Shiloh, in the trenches
before Vicksburg, on the bloody fields of
Chlckamauga and Antietam, up close to the
sky on Lookout Mountain, in the fearful
| charge at Cold Harbor, along the banks OF
the smooth flowing Rappahannock, in the
great battles Of the Wilderness, and in the
| crucial struggl lie at Gettysburg everywhere
| that cannon roared and battle ragged; that
many dropped out on the wearisome march
| that hers, haunted by dreams of home and
kindred, dropped TO death in the hospi-
tai tent, that many were shot on the picket
line, that many fell as they paced along the
sentinel's beat, that many, gaunt and weak
with famine, died in the prison pen.
They will ask YOU where they lie buried
Tell them everywhere; that some are buried
among their loved ones, and near The homes
which they defended that others are gath
cred into cemeteries provided by a grateful
people, but that most of them lay buried
where the comrades laid them, or Oh the
fields where they fell, in graves unmarked
and unknown. But fail not to tell them, for
there is comfort in the thought, that He who
notes the sparrow's fall saw them when they
died, and knows where they lie buried
that their graves too are decorated by the
beautiful green of the spring time, and that,
while human hands cannot find them or
adorn them, the violet and the lily do not
forget them, and the buttercup and the
daisy grow above them. And when they
ask you what these men fought for, and
what these Men all died for, tell them they
died for you and for me, and for them, and
fer all the generations yet to come. Tell
them that they died for the preservation of
the union, and that-all men might be freq
who live among us--free to labor, free to
love, free to think, free to hope, free TO wor-
ship. Tell them they fought to redeem the
republic, and to make it forever and forever
.alfc 1.
and law and order upon the earth. Tell
them what they owe to the patriotism and
courage and devotion of the soldiers of the
Army of the Republic. Tell them the whole
sweet, sad, glowing story, not on this day
simply, but tell it TO them, fathers and
mothers, IS they gather around you in the
twilight of summer and by the blazing fire
OF the winter. | conJure you to remember
that with them this is the receptive time of
life, and that the lessons af history that fall
from your lips will live longest and thrive
best. And the story as they tell it in the
years to come to the children who shall
gather around them, will be hallowed by
The tender memories of childhood, and set
TO the sweet, sad music of voices that are
gone.
1t were far better that this day passed un-
noted if we carry not from this Silent spot
back with Us INTO the rush and whrl of life
tenderer and more grateful thought for
those yet in our midst who bore the burden
of the battle, and for their widows and their
orphans, loitier aspirations and a keenes
sense of duty as citizens of our beloved coua-
try. Among the surviving soldiers of the
Union there are to be found in every hamlet
and town and city some who walk with un-
steady steps and who have a right sometimes,
perhaps, to feel that the sacrifice of their
younger manhood is not well remembered.
The wonder is not that there are so many.
but that there are not more. 1t is matter
for amazement that of all that great host
there were so few upon whose habits and
upon whose mental and physical organiza
ton the vicissitudes and hardships and de- |
moralization OF war left little or no impress. |
II would be strange II there were not some |
who have not been able to find again the |
threads of life and hope and ambition,
which so oheerily they threw away in the /
now distant past. OF such we should be /
generous in our judgment, and considerate /
in our attention. There are many among |
them who have the will and impulse to plan |
and labor for themselves and those who love |
them, but who have no; been able TO WOO ,
success in the sphere of business as they won |
victory on the field of battle We know
very little of the inner life and struggle and |
weakness even of those whom we best know.
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