The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-05-29

over the continent OF Europe, in Africa
in India, in the isles of the sea and II
the coral caves of the deep.
All civilized nations have taken pains
to inter the bones of their military
chiefs and high officers, but to the re-
mains of the common soldiers they have
been content to allot only the hasty
ditch or trench. The ancient republic
republic of Athens, it is true, decreed
by law that the obsequies Of all it's citi-
zens who fell in battle should be per-
formed at the public expense. But first
of all modern government, the United
States government has shown during
and since the civil war that it knows
how to reciprocate the sentiment of
patriotism by interring the remains of
all its soldiers and sailors, and further,
unlike any other government, ancient
or modern, by securing and watching
over those remains ever afterward, re-
CARELESS of whether death came in act
ual battle or resulted from hardships,
wounds disease or confinement.
On the battlefelds where the Union
armies won the 1nterments were so con-
scientlously made that over ninety per
cent. Of the dead were afterwards iden-
titled
Where time permitted, the Confeder-
ate dead were also religiously buried,
and their graves marked as 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 underground
with the least expenditure Of time and
trouble. In the second year Of the war
the president was authorized by con-
gress to purchase cemetery grounds and
have them prepared for use as national
cemeteries for soldiers who had died in
defense of the country. The following
year national cemeteries were establish
ed at Chattanooga, Stone River and
Gettysburg. Others established since
then are the one at Arlington Heights.
near Washington, which is considered
the most beautiful among the many; at
Antietam and numerous others situat-
ed on the site of many hard fought
field of battle throughout the north,
east, south and west
Many thousands Of bodies were re-
moved from the places of their original
interment and brought together in the
new cemeteries. Owing to the vast
area over which the operations of the
Union armies had spread, the collection
and removal of bodies were found to be
exceedingly laborious. In the progress
of the work were found many a deep
ravine and valley full Of dry bones
very many that were very dry and
again very many that We're not dry.
But the faithful men to whom the Work
was entrusted did not finch from their
ghastly and gruesome task. Pains We're
taken to preserve all the memorials or
identity found on the remains, from the
SCRAP of letter hastily pinned on the
breast or buried in can or bottle be-
side the remains, to the rudely inscribed
hand-board set up by the wayside. But
in thousands of cases there was not
vestige or mark or anything by which
could be effected.
In all these cemeteries one is struck
bv the peculiar fitness and aptness of
the KentuekiaH O'Harra's inspired ele-
giac lines, inscribed repeatedly on gate
ways and tonlbs:
son Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead"
Mother earth has been kind and God |
1as thrown a mantle Of smiling beauty |
1ver these past scenes of carnage; and
.hough the sad story Of the civil war Us
there in distinct outline, one
IAN yet muse and mediate in those
places without bitterness.
MINNIE G. LEARY.