The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-05-31

ENTRANCE TO ARLINGTON HEIGHTS GENE
Terry.
the war; In September, 1861, the secretary
of war issued an order to the effect that
accurate and permanent records be kept as
to all deceased Union soldiers, and this or
der was at once followed by the issuing of
blank forms through the quartermaster's
department to hospital surgeons and all
others who could use them. On the battle
fields when the Federal troops were victo-
rious great care was taken to bury the dead
in such a way that each grave could be
marked, and headboards provided by the
general quartermaster were set up. Only
on fields where the Confederates won were
the dead buried without marking the
graves. Soldiers who survived the south
ern prisons in many instances marked the
graves of their comrades who died, and
records were kept everywhere it was posi-
BILE to do so, so that the mortuary records
of the great civil contest exceed anything
else of the same nature in the world
1t was in the second year of the war that
congress authorized the president to pur-
chase grounds and have them prepared for
soldiers cemeteries. The next year such
graveyards were dedicated at Chattanooga,
Stone River and Gettysburg 1t was at the
dedication of the last named of these three
that President Lincoln delivered that ad-
dress which, spoken modestly as it was, did
not then attract the attention of it's hear
ers as anything greatly out of the ordinary,
but which, when it was telegraphed over
the land and read in the newspapers, speed
lily took high rank among notable spoken
passages and has since been accorded q
place among classic orations. The national
cemetery at Arlington was laid out in 1854,
that at Antietam in 1865.
In pursuance of the general plan of 1865,
II cemeteries were established in Virginia,
2 in Tennessee, 6 in Kentucky, in North
Carolina, 4 in Louisiana, 8 in Mississippi, 8
in Maryland, 2 in South Carolina, 2 in
Georgia and 2 in the District of Columbia.
In the north and west were established in
Illinois, 8 in Missouri, Q in Indiana, l in
Iowa, in Pennsylvania, 2 in New York
and 2 in New Jersey. In many places be-
sides these the government has purchased
small plots of ground where few soldiers
lie, and several cemeteries contain govern
ment plots wherein the bodies of Confed-
crates who died in Federal prisons are
buried. Less than one-fifth of the entire
number whose graves are now marked and
tenderly cared for lie where they were first
inferred.
Five of the national cemeteries contain
the bodies of United States soldiers who
fell in other wars than the struggle for the
Union. One of the most notable is near the
City of Mexico. Another is in Montana In
the latter lie the bodies of 918 regulars, in
Guiding the 800 brave men who were massa-
cred with Custer by the redskins.
1t is thing that every American may be
proud of that all these cemeteries are kept
in superb condition. The cemetery at Ar
lington heights, near Washington, is the
most beautiful and contains the largest
number of graves Of identified dead. The
total number of interments there is 16, 535, of
which but f. 49 are of unidentified soldiers.
The first soldier buried there was Con-
federate, on May 10, 1864.
The grave of Sheridan is striking fea-
ture of the Arlington cemetery. where have
also been gathered the bodies of most of
those who fell at Bull Run, Chantilly and
other battlefelds in the vicinity. A massive
monument of sarcophagus form, marking
the bodies of ALL unknown soldiers, at
tracts much attention, as does also the Tenn