The Washington times., 1895-05-26

general public in this wOrkaday age, butthey
are of particular and pertinent interest just
at this Decoration Day season, when all OF
them, as We'll as countless private cemetarl IS,
will receive special attention in the annual
decoration of the Union soldiers graves
therein.
There are eighty OF these Nat
ional Cemeteries in all. containing $50 700
honored dead, and upon them the Federal
Government has expended up TO the present
time the sum Of 50 coo 600. All of them
are handsomely laid out and maintained in
superb condition. Most OF them were es-
tabished on battlefields of the war, and
are situated on hillsides or ronuueveng aground,
where the best landscape effects are pro-
duced In all OF them the graves are
ranged in mathematical rows, circular or
rectangular.
F%rery individual grave is marked by a
tone tablet Of granite or marble, and on
Thursday next every ore OF them viii be
decked anew with its little flag and bloom
ing wreath. The mounds are smoothly
sOdded and kept trim and neat. Thegrassy
lawns between are carefully cut the walks
and paths are rolled and graveled, and
shade trees, with here and there rustic
seat between them, besides flowers and
ornamental shrubbery, are pla auted through
out The grounds.
The Enclosures, as q rule, are walled in
Tith granite or other enduring masonry.
All are provided with handsome admins
tration buildings, aud many contain impos-
ing monuments, both 10 individuals and
10 the dead soldiers collectively. The treas
ure that has been spent upon them has rem
dered them what they should be-the
simplest and yet the grandest and loveliest
God's-Acres in the world, lavishly adorned
by nature, perfected by art and guarded
the whole year round by the stars and
stripes. There the sun shines sOftest, the
grass is made to grow greenest, the flow
eTs TO bloom brightest and the trees 10
flourish most luxuriantly; for there rests
exclusively the heroes slain in the war fol
freedom.
no DISTINCTION SHOWN.
In establishing and keeping UP this vas
system of national cemeteries our govern
ment has accomplished what no othel
government has ever attempted. II hai
shown, first OF all, modern government
that it knows how TO reciproeate the
sentiment Of patriotism by 1nterring anC
watching over the dust OF its soldiers
and. further, that it appreciates the prov
ess and honors the achievements of al
its dead, including, in a measure, those
who fought against the national bannel
with those who fought Loyalty under it
and making no distinction as 10 whether
death came in actual battle or resulted
from wounds, disease, hardship, or con
sinement
The establishment of this system wal
begun in the second year OF the war, wheI
brders were issued to the army requiring
accurate and permanent records to bC
kept Of all deceased soldiers and thei
places of burial, and President Lincoln wa,
authorized by Congress to purchase ground
and have them prepared for use as GENE
teries for soldiers dying In defense of th'
country.
On the battlefields where the Unior
armies won, the interments were so con
scientiously made that over so per cent
Of the dead were afterward identified
When ime permitted the Confederate
dead were also scrupulously buried and
their graves marked. IN most of the South
ern prisons the Union dead were buried anC
their names recorded by their living com
rades, often under adverse and trying
circumstances, and in Northern prisons
as at Camp Douglass, Chicago, at Elmira
n Y. and at johnson Island, Ohio, in
terments of deceased Confederates wer
carefully made, and the graves noted TO
future Identification.
IN the year 1868 the first National ceme
teries were established at Chattanooga
Stone River and Gettysburg, and the one a
Arlington was founded in 1864, and the on
st Antietam in 1865. Then with the clos
Of the war general orders were issued iron
Tie QuaTtermaster generals department
Tor information respecting all soldiers
kraveyards. with a view 10 establishing th
cemeteries on an organized plan and sys
sem. and upon receipt Of this preliminar