The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-05-30

enough to disprove, at least in
measure, the old time saying that
"republics are ungrateful." But the
money that has been expended to pro-
perly mark and adorn the resting places
of the brave men who died that the
nation might live, is not and has not
been expended grudgingly. 1t has
been paid out freely as the last and
only possible tribute to the memory of
men as brave as ever lived, and who
fought for home and liberty. In thus
commemorating the deeds of her COM
mon soldiers, the United states is quite
unrivaled by any other nation, ancient
or modern.
This noble work could not have been
accomplished but for the wise and pa
triotic foresight exercised almost at
the beginning of the war. In Septem-
Der, 1861, the secretary of war issued
an order that accurate and permanent
records be kept as to all deceased
Union soldiers, and this order was at
once followed by the issuing of blank
forms through the quartermaster's de-
partment to the hospital surgeons and
all others who could use them. On the
battle-fi fields where the Federal troops
were victorious, great care was taken
to bury the dead, in such way, that
each grave could be marked and head
boards, provided by the quartermaster,
were set up Only on fields where the
Confederates won, were the dead buried
without marking the graves. Soldiers
who survived the Southern prisons, in
many instances, marked the graves of
their comrads who had died, and re-
cords were kept everywhere it was pos
sible to do so, so that the mortuary
records of the great civil contest exceed
} any thing else of the same nature in
the world
1t was in the second year of the war
that congress authorized the president
to purchase grounds and have them
prepared for soldiers cemeteries. The
!; next year such grave yards were dedi-
Gated at Chattanooga, Stone River and
Gettysburg. 1t was at the dedication
:, of the last named of these three that
President Lincoln delivered that ad
dress which, spoken modestly as it was
did not then attract the attention of its
hearers as anything greatly out of the
| Nd; b,,f ioh fol0
n graphed over the land and read in thu
e newspapers, speedily took high ranl
); among notable spoken passages, an(
Is has since been accorded place amons
classic Orations. The national GENE
terry at Arlington was laid out in 1864
IT that at Antietam, in 1865.
d In pursuance of the general plan 0
'' 1865, seventeen cemeteries were es
IS tablished in Virginia, seven in Tennes
see six in Kentucky, four in Mort
ID Carolina, four in Louisiana, three i
il, Mississippi three in Maryland, two i
South Carolina, two in Georgia, an
IN two in the District of Columbia |
the North and West, four were e:
We tablished in illinois, three in Missouri
re two in Indiana, one in Iowa. two
., PENNSYLVANIA, two in New Y York, an
two in New Jersey. In many place
"' beside these the government hs
ul purchased small plots of ground whel
er few soldiers lie, and several GEM
he teries contain government plots wher
u, in the bodies of COnfederates, who die
in Federal prisons, are buried. Lee
''o than one fifth of the entire numb
all whose graves are now marked ar
tenderly cared for, lie where thu
!. were first inferred
" Five of the National Cemeteries CO.
~ tain the bodies of United States soldie
who fell in other wars than the strugg
for the Union. One of the most not
BILE is near the City of Mexio
es, Another is in Montana. In the latt
ng lie the bodies of 91S regulars includil
lb- the 300 brave men who we're massacr
he with Custer, by the redskins.
of 1t is thing of which every Anne
nd can may we'll be proud that all the
as cemeteries are kept in superb conditic
we The cemetery at Arlington Heigh
'ge Virginia, near Washington, is t