Connecticut western news., 1894-06-07

1894.
 Upon this day throughout the length and breadth of this land loyal men, women and children are showing allegiance to their country, and honor for the patriot dead who in the great struggle for the preservation of this Union of States fell upon the battle field, died in hospital or returning from their service in the field wounded and scared, with the germs of disease with in their systems, have gone the way cf all the earth and answered to the final roll call upon the other side. Upon the hill tops and within the valleys, in the streets of large cities and upon the dusty roads of country towns, men are marching to the music of the drum and fife, or of cornet, trombone, horn and cymbal because they honor the soldier dead. In this they are accompanied by patriotic children, bearing wreaths and punches of flowers fashioned by the willing hands of loving, loyal wom- en. Polling bells and muffied drums are sounding the requiems of those who have died that the nation might live. The little flags waving in the breezes above the mounds of earth ia National and other cemeteries eloquently tell the story of the affection and loving re- membrance which living veterans bear for their deceased comrades. This Is the spirit which governs the loyal citi- Zen and soldier of our great and below ed republic. and it is a lesson which shall be handed down through the gen. erations to come so long as the old flag, the stars and stripes, shall wave over a free and united government of the peo- pie of these states of America.
 From this lesson let us hope that our children and our children's children may learn at what price our Union, which was handed down to us by the fathers of the Revolution, after their great struggle for it's establishment. has been preserved by the armies of men who fought the bloody battles from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, from 1861 to 1865. In this struggle 360, 222 lives were directly sacrificed, and over half a million more have since died; 315. 900 Union soldiers lie in the Nation al cemeteries of the country, of whom 14S, 833 are unknown dead," shot, mangled, battered past recognition, buried in heaps in trenches, or on the fields where they fell, but though un- known still honored by grateful na- tion. In every cemetery in the loyal states slerp veteran band, and their number grows larger year by year. Tabulated estimates place the average life of the returned veteran of the late war at 56, instead of 70 years.
 The American soldier Is not seen at his best upon the parade, with arms umns of companies, with arms at shoulder, marching with steady tread to the time of inspiring martial music. There, to be sure. he draws forth the plaudits of admiring crowds and shows the majesty of physical manhood. But upon the field, the hot dusty field, ,after the battle of the day, when fatigue, hunger, wounds and suffering tell oi the struggle past and foretell the one to come, where no comforting words are heard and no loving hands can minister, there lying and waiting for the reliei which does not come. In sun or rain. with no word issuing from his lips but the cheerful acquiescence that ''it WAS all for the old flag" the soldier rose to the noblest heights of heroism. In hospital where the surgeons knife and saw are remorsely cutting and severine that the faint chance of life may be in. creased. In these scenes may be heard the words of one sufferer to another, oI the last missions of affection to the lov. ed ones at home, and the rejoicing that 1t Is all for country and the Union. On in ho mt scanty food, wretched raiment and nc shelter, where disease and vermin and filth are needlessly allowed to germi nate and increase, where death is vel come and starvation the common lot patriotism shines out and the love oi country IS ever manifest, where loyal ty Is ever paramount-theret the Amer. ican soldier was seen at his best.
 Not in recorded history has any coun try ever required so much of her sons nor is there in human annals such { record of devotion, even unto death, o the sons of any country. From tota of 10000, 900 people over 2,000, 00t fighting men went forth to battle foul long, bloody, years for their country, salvation. That was one stalwart war rior for every 10 people. As five of thi, group of population were women, i | follows that out of every five males II the loyal states, including old men cripples, decrepit and infrm, childreI and boys, and the cowardly and selfisl | able bodied, there went one good, gal lant, soldier. What a splendid exhibi | ton of the universal manliness of Amer ican men. Such 0 ratio of fighting men to the population is unprecedented in history.
 Then, how determinedly they fought The time between the firing of the frs hostile gun at Fort Sumter and the surrender in Texas of the last armed rebel was four years and 45 days-1, 50; exciting, anxious, thrilling days. II that time those 1000, 900 men tough the unparalleld number of 2,260 battle. and skirmishes, many of them the mos sanguinary engagements in the histor, of war. Before those 1,505 eventfu days were numbered, more than half { million of those patriotic men wer, dead. Out of every four who had hur ried to the defense of the country, on, had perished at the post where dut, called him. More fighting men thai there were in the whole country at tn, time of the Revolution-more thar formed the greatest armies the world had seen up to that time-had beer swept out of existence. Over 1O0,O0
 had been stricken dead by shot ant shell upon the 2,260 battle fields n, ,OO
 had been starved and tortured to deatl
 in rebel prisons; over 200, 900 had die,
 in hospitals; and 225, ,000 had been &
 severely hurt as to cause their dis
 charge, half of them dying at thei
 homes or before they reached there. I
 has been said that the death rate at Sal
 isbury prison was 13 per cent per mont
 and 12 per cent per month at Florenc
 while 13,000 died at Andersonville
 That in the "A, 900 deaths in rebel pris
 ons 66, 600 were the victims of inhuma
 treatment. At Andersonville, mechan
 ics of the different trades were offere
 good food, clothes, and liberal compen
 sation in green backs, if they woul
 work for the Confederacy. Those wh
 brought this proposition were actuall | A~ A