The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-03-13
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
Breyet War widows.

deed, il l should live to be eighty, l
think the departure of the soldiers for
the front in the summer of 1861 must
ever remain among my most vivid rec
objections. Such scenes became very
familiar as the years of carnage went
on, but this particular occasion i'm
pressed me, because it was the last
time l ever saw my father. l recall
him as tall man of thirty-6ve, looking
particularly handsome in his blue and
gold captains uniform. There we're
tears in his eyes when he kissed me
goodbye, and when he held my young
mother and my baby sister in his arms,
with his bearded face between theirs,
the scene swan before my trimming
eyes, and my lips we're hot and my
throat 80 lumpy and dry that l could
not cry out, as much wanted to do.
And there was Jennie Somers, my
mothers pretty cousin-I think her
pretty still, though the sweet face has
pain lines in it., and the wavy brown
hair has changed to pray-Cousin Jen.
ME was engaged to Frank Edwards,
sergeant in fathers company, and | re-
member seeing the two with their
hands interlocked, while cheering troops
were pouring into the waiting cars that
were to hurry them to the red field of
death in the South.
My father fell before Richmond, and
his is one of the unknown and I'M
marked graves. Frank Edwards sue
ceeded TO the command, and he, too,
died with the cheers of his men ring
ing in his ears from the captured cres
of Lookout Mountain.
From the hour when the bullet that
slew my father at Seven Pines flew
over rivers and hills till it reached our
home in Montgomery county and
found its final resting place in my
mothers heart, she wore black till
year ago, when she changed the widows
weeds for the white robes of immor.
tality. And Jennie Somers, she is sim
gle still; people do not speak of her as
''the widow of gallant soldier" as
they did of my mother; yet she is as
much one as if she had been Frank
Edwards wife. Only few weeks ago
passed her window. saw her looking
at the picture of handsome young SOL
der, and | raised my hat without her
st eiDg me, for l knew as we'll as her
self the change that would have come
to her life had the original of that pic
ture lived.
Years and years ago the case of Jen-
ME Somers, not an unc Jmmon one in
the North and South, set me thinking,
aid in my travels | was surprised at
the number of unmarried women of her
age that l met These are won en-
who would have married had not the
war killed off on both sides about five
hundred thousand single men.
Look over the last census report and
you will be surprised to see that the
number of unmarried women between
the ages of forty-five and fifty-fve cor
responds very nearly with the number
of unmarried men who fell in the war.
These women were either engaged to
the men who never came back, or in
the usual course of events they would
have been engaged, aud 80 have come
to call them-and think the name a
good one-"Brevet War Widows"
Far be it from me to underestimate
the valor and the heroic sufferings of
the American soldier in that long and
bloody contest, but think that in con.
templating what was done and endured
on battlefield and in prison pen by the
men, we are apt to overlook the heroic
patience and the ceaseless heart tor
ture of the mothers, the wives, and the
sweethearts, whose dear ones had gone
to the war, and of the long subsequent
suffering of wido ws-real and brevet.
When a great battle was over the
roll-call accounted for the present and
the absent, but there were no morning
and evening roll-calls for the women OF
the land. They heard of fierce battles,
and the dread that was never absent
deepened into feeling of horror
They did not dare to read the list OF
the killed and wounded, fearing that
the loved name would meet their gaze.
They feared to meet the neighbors who
had read the papers, lest an expression
of sympathy might reveal the dreaded
truth. Oh, the horror of the days OF
waiting when every mail was watched
and relief came only with the sight OF
the familiar writing Of the dear hand.
And then, worse than the direct news
OF death was the awful uncertainty
contained in that one word " missing
The loved one might be dead, buried
in the long trenches among the many
uncOffined and unknown, or, what was
equally horrible, he might be prisoner
wounded, perhaps, and suffering in
those bells OF agony, a roofess, food
less, prison pen.
No, the men never suffered as die
the women, for the wound must ceas,
come time to torture; but the awful
anxiety of the mothers, wives an(
sweethearts had no cessation, but con
tinued till the worst was learned, or re
lief came with the firing of the last gun
And 30 honor in my heart the ole
maids, brevet war widows of the land
Each one suggests to me gallant sol
der dead, each one brings wildly t
mind noble sacrifice made withou
ostentation, and loveless life endured
without complaint.
There are ten of thousands of un
worthy men drawing pensions to-day
but If congress, when it decided to in
crease the number of the government
worthy dependents, had included tn,
brevet war widows, less injustice woult
have been done than in the presen
case, and the pension rolls would hay