The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-04-05
Gen. Grosrenor TO the Front.

Gen. Grosvenor speaking on pensions
in Congress, referring to General Blacks
description Of the desperate charge made
by the regiment to which Commissioner
of Pensions, Lochren, belonged, said
Mr.. Chairman, l cannot undertake to
compete with the distinguished gentle.
man from Illinois Mr.. Black in any
description of the battle of Gettysburg.
He spoke of the wonderful discharge of
duty by the distinguished Commissioner
of Pensions, in resisting the charge that
shattered the famous corps of Sickles,
and thought There is little adden.
dunn that ought to be put to that des.
cription, and another man whom | hap
pen to know ought to figure in that pic.
ture." / thought of this Commissioners
order. | thought of one of the unfortu.
nate two thousand in my state, and my
mind was carried back to Gettysburg,
and the terrible assault upon the second
day, and / remembered a man, who in
one of the Ohio regiments, in Howard's
command, stood on Cemetery Hill
brave young Ohioan, flushed with pat.
riotism, proud of the fact that he was
standing there defending the flag of his
country, happy that his country had
called to him, and how, when the dead.
ly assault came, with blanched face
but flashing eye, he charged with his
musket, not as second lieutenant, not
as file closer, but to the very jaws of
death, and on the last day of that dread
full battle, remember that soldier had
the record of dashing within a very few
yards of the fatal place where the gal.
liant Armistead, of Virginia, marked with
his lifes blood the "high water mark of
the rebellion" on that fatal field.
81 RENT mbered how that young SOL
dier came home proud of his achieve
ments, honored by his fellows, and how
for years he lived and struggled against
disease and poverty, down until the law
OF 1890 was passed, and how he made
application and was easily placed upon
the pension roll at SIP month. l re-
member in the bright days of last Aug
ust, just before l came to the extra ses-
sion of Congress, that he came to me
with an order from the Pension Office,
signed by his comrade of Gettysburg,
signed by the man who won fame as he
did, charging him with being improper.
ly on the pension roll, and suspendlng
him from the benefits of that institution.
remember how he followed me about
the town and said to me, 81 do not care
for the money, but do not want my
wife and children, when l am dead, to
be told that robbed the treasury of my
| country that fought for"
T remember, Mr.. Chairman, that
later on l read that he had been sent to
the asylum, insane because of this afflic.
ton; and few days ago rode past a
little country graveyard, and saw little
mound of earth, and upon it the Amer
lean flag, that marked the remains of
the gallant soldier who fought at Gettys.
burg, and who died smarting under the
stigma of the document given under the
hand and seal of William Lochren Ap.
plause on the Republican side
"The scope of this order will never be
fully understood until in the day of
| judgment we can tell how many sol.
diers have gone to the fate of my friend
and comrade, how many-men of all this
great army that were suspended, eight.
cen or twenty or thirty thousand of
them, have suffered the agony of mental
sorrow and mental distress, how many
of their children have gone without
bread, how many of their wives have
hung their heads in shame, when it has
been said of their husband and father
che was fraud on the pension roll"