Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1894-06-01
The National Cemeteries Show the
Republics Gratitude-History
of Their Establishment
and Maintenance

or brambles or thistles are suffered to
enter in. The very atmosphere around
them is sacred, and the sympathetic
visitor may fancy halo lowering over
them, for there rests exclusively the
heroes who died in the cause of free
dom.
In all this the American republic
sets an example altogether unap-
preached by any other nation under
the sun. All civilized nations have
taken pains to inter the bones of their
military leaders and high officers, but
have been content to allot only the
hasty ditch or trench to the remains
of the common soldiers. The ancient
republic of Athens, it is true, decreed
by law that the obsequies of all it's
citizens who fell in battle should be
performed Mt the public expense. But
first of all modern Governments the
United States Government has shown
during and since the Civil War that it
knows how to reciprocate the senti-
ment of patriotism by interring the
remains of its soldiers and sailors, and
further, unlike any other Government,
ancient or modern, by securing and
watching over those remains ever
afterward, regardless of whether death
came in actual battle or from the re-
suit of hardship, wounds, disease or
confinement.
This showing was only rendered
possible by the exercise of wise fore
thought almost from the very outset
Of the war. In September, 1861, the
Secretary of War by a general order
directed that accurate and permanent
records be kept of deceased soldiers
and their places of burial. To this
end the Qusrtermaster-G Generals de-
partment, which previously had charge
of burials in general way, was re-
luired to print and place in every
hospital blank books and forms, very
minute and specific, for the purpose
Of classifying end preserving these
records; and in order to guard against
their loss or destruction, the hospitals
we're required to transmit copies at
once to the Adjutant-Generals office
in Washington for filing. In addition
the Quartermaster-G Generals depart
ment was charged with the duty of
providing means for registered head
board, to be placed over each soldier s
grave for future Identification. These
orders were afterward embodied in the
permanent regulations of the Army.
in obedience thereto surgeons of regi-
ments and hospitals Immediately be-
gan to take pride in keeping a perfect
record.
On the battlefields where the Union
armies We're victorious the interments
were so conscientiously made that over
ninety per cent. of the dead were
afterward identified. Where time
permitted the Confederate dead were
also religiously buried and their
graves marked rs carefully as those of
their Federal antagonists. On the
fields where the Union armies were
defeated and driven off the enemy
cared little for the fallen except to
get them out of the way and under
ground with the least expenditure of
time and trouble. In most of the
Southern prisons the Union dead were
buried and their graves marked by
their living comrades, often under the
most adverse and trying circum-
stances. The result of that admirable
system has been that the mortuary
record of the Union armies in the
War of the Rebellion excels in com.
pleteness, by long odds, all similar
records ever before known.
Many thousands OF bodies were re-
mON el from the places of their first
intermont and brought together in the
new cemeteries. In most cases some
part of n battlefield was chosen as a
cemetery site. Such bodies rs hat
been buried In the near vicinity were
inferred there first aud then those
collected from the noighboring terri
tory, within "a radius OF from twenty
O. forty miles. Removals were also
made Ia great numbers from the hoe
pitll burial grounls ia noar-by cities
ani towns, $50 that the bodies could be
better cared tor nt tho oontral estab-
iishei points. Owing o. the vast area
over which tho operations ot the
Union afmirs hal aproad the eollec
uou and removal of h0liea we're foun /
o. be exceedingly lAhorlous. fre-
queHtly bodies wrro carried many
milas be- wagons over runah c0untrY
rna.ls and Che search iar lost remains
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