Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-01

~ a .Aua ssOrm OF the Re beIllOn. The
o on. nsg On sumter is fred upon and through
~. va' 'ne great North there 10 an up ri.ipg Of
.ue people. Regiment after regiment rours
sIu.nwsfd 70 protect the nations capital
wnlcn the rebel conspirators had determined
woold De theirs within few weeks. 1t is
ume OF partings. The young man and
Tue !ather leave the desk, the plough, and
.ns 1orge' with one grand inspiration to up
no'd the honor of their country. We see
tnem tearing themselves away from home,
yves, cniidren, aud sweethearts-all that
eaitn holds most dear-to Join the swelling
regions. Tears there are and heart break
lngs. But what of that? 1.-The citizen is
~ pest TOR today while the commonwealth
Tor all time" And these men, young
ana OLD, are pressing forward with hearts
a. luli OF fervor. a. did ever belted knights
OF old in holy crusade.
we follow them to the camps around
Warrington and see this mass formed into
tne organism Of great army. We are with
tnem again on the hot and dusty
virginia roads under the July sun,
we see them at Bull Run and
witness for the first time the horrid hell of
war. Its slaughter and its rout.
For the first time we see women and
maidens clad in black, mourning the deaths
OF those who but anon left their sides, now
never to return. The family is broken, the
chair vacant, never again to be filled. In
memory we follow them through the long
dreary marches, the bivouacs in mud,
through seiges, through battle in the nidst
OF wars shrieking shot and bursting shell,
in fearful slaughter, in hospitals, in prisons
OF whose cruelties history shows no coun-
terpart. We see the wounded and the
manned returning, we see thousands buried
under Southern soil, beneath the Southern
stars.
We follow our grand old flag through re-
verses and victories. month after month,
year after year. At times our hearts are
heavy and there seems no hope; but that
patient, unmoved leader, whose equal never
lived, holds firm and never falters in the
trust the people have reposed in him, and
our people, ever upheld by his simple yet
sublime faith, uphold bis hands. Through
sunshine and storm; through disaster to vic
tory this grand, rugged man prayerfully and
faithfully leads nation to ultm ate triumph
On, those memories. We follow those
boys through the labor of the seige, through
the deep miry clay of the forced march on
the peninsular; through disaster and defeat
after Bull Run. We are with him as he
watches the destruction of the proudest
navy in the world at Hampton roads by an
iron-covered monster which has risen on
the sunken hull of our frigate Merrimac.
We see the next day this triumphant mon
ster met by the product of Yankee inge-
nuity-and as you have seen the minute
bing-bird pursue the black-hawk-so this
- tho ;nko klr<
ignoble hiding from whence she never re-
turns.
We are with our boys again and again.
In camp and in battle. We see the terrible
struggle on the banks of the peaceful An
tietam, that fatal charge on the rolling hills
Of Fredericksburg; the slaughter and vic
tory of Shiloh; the magnificent overwhelm-
ing of Henry and Donnelson. Surely dis
aster in the East is met with triumph in the
West. Not only do we follow him on land
but on sea. From the capes to the gulf we
watch the forging of the iron chain of
blockade, which, for the first time in the
whole history of mankind, proves effective
over an extended coast.
Great as are the services of the Blue
water Sailor, the inland furnishes theater
for naval action, and on the father Of
waters, ferry boats converted into iron -clads,
perform deeds of valor and bravery equal
to any that have glorifed our navy in the
past. New Orleans and Port Royal. and Mo-
bile in turn show that American sailors are
worthy descendants of the heroes of 1912.
l speak advisedly when say that the naval
victories of that war, glorious as they were,
sink into comparative insignifcance before
that mighty battle on that August morning
in Mobile bay.
At last the cannon crowned heights of
Gettysburg after three days of sullen storm,
see Lees defeated host, mangled and broken,
crawl ling away toward Virginia; and on the
same day, in the far West, Grant with
mailed hand has crushed the army of Penn
berton at Vicksburg. Double victory that
sweeps away the languor of the North and
arouses it to unwonted action. From that
day ultimate victory and preserved Union
are certain. But the remainder is no holi-
day. We have yet to witness the agony of
the Wilderness, of Spottsylvania, and those
other places which formed the theater of
the most terrible seven days fighting which
ever occurred in the annals of war. But
onward ever. every soldier determined,
slowly but surely, the army Of Northern
Virginia gives way before the army of the
Potomac and the indomitable will of Ulysses
S. GAnt-and Petersburg is invested.
Meantime the Western army is not idle
and after a succession of battles day after
day, from fighting in tie clouds at
Lookout down to New Hope church,
Atlanta has fallen before Sherman,
and that grand old hero, defying all rules
of the art of war. confounds every theory
by cutting loose from his base and swing
ing through Georgia and the Carolinas. cut
ting a swath of freedom, "sixty miles in
latitude, three hundred to the sea-" living
on the country as he goes, feeding his own
army and the innumerable company of con-
trabands that attach themselves to him. I'M
Ill at Durham Station Johnston surrenders
to him his sword and what is left of his
struggling army.
Before Sherman wins the last great
triumph, the artillery Of the North has
pealed forth its thunders in every city and
hamlet, and every belfry has rocked with
the clang of Joy bells over Lees surrender
at Appomattox. Thus ends the most cause
less ar that was ever fought. Not one of
the seeding states had ever experienced
anything but blessings from the general
government, and because they could no
longer dictate they plunged this great land
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