The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1896-05-03

are here assembled today. OF
course / cannot speak with the en-
thusiasm and the authority of act
ual experience and personal obser-
walton of these matters-I was not
old enough to take part in that most
unfortunate and bloodiest of con-
flicts. But I had a representative
there, if / may be permitted the
personal reference, who gave four
of the best years of his honorable
life to it. And even when a child,
sitting upon his knee by the fire.
side, in our little country home, I
always listened with hungry ears to
his stories of the war.
The dashing, daring and heroic
deeds-the sad and sickening trag-
edies of the battle field-camp
scenes-the storm and sunshine
and all the array and panoply of
cruel warfare, so impressed my
youthful mind, that in my imagina-
ton I heard and felt it ALL heard
the complainings of a dissatisfied
people beyond the 60s-I saw the
signs Of disintegration-the rend-
ing of a great nation-the war cloud
had arisen above the northern hor-
lion and its lightning flashes had
inflamed the southern heart. Its
shadows spread heard the shrill
note of the bugle call to arms-the
rustic of universal preparation was
heard upon every breeze. With
defiance written upon their heroic
faces and with intrepid tread, / saw
them as they left the Workshop,
the desk, the mine, the field and the
factory,-I saw them as they dom
ned the regulation gray-shoulder-
ed the musket and joined the army
of constitutional Right.
The saddest scene in this vision
had come. With bosoms billowed
wish emotions and beats keep
ing the time to The "wild, wierd
music of war, ! saw the loyal and
loving husband bid farewell to the
heroic, patient and trusting wife
and with words breathing with pa
triotism-full of hope-he sought to
drive away the ghost of fear, and
after imploring the benedictions of
Almighty God upon the loved ones
at home, he babe them trustingly
to wait and watch his triumphant
return. saw the young man
flushed with hope, confident of vic
tory, his proud, brave, patient and
loving mother, God bless her, as
she pressed him to her bosom, ut
tering an inaudlble prayer to AL
mighty God to protect her boy,
then babe him 60, as her choicest
sacrifice upon the altar of her
country's freedom. / saw the low
ing sister, with eyes suffused with
tears-the First deep shadow
upon her young heart, as she i'm
pressed the pure kiss of an unsul-
lied love upon his manly brow and
bade her loving brother go, and do,
and if need be to die, for his coun-
try's honor. I saw the old father,
stopped with age-the shadows
lengthening towards the east-con-
scious Of the magnitude of the i'm
pending crisis, yet willing for the
sacrifice. I heard his heroic coun-
sci to his soldier boy, and after in
voking the blessings Of Providence
upon him, told him to go, and not
to return as long as his country
needed a defender.
J saw them as they marched proudly away
TO the time o. grand music-a column of
Gray,
deld and the street,
Each heart beating darcely the enemy to
meet
They thought not OF onsequences-they
cared not Of Might,
| Their hearts were ahre with an outraged
Right.
I was with them on the CORY field
felt the pangs Of shattered nerves,
wrought by bursting shell
and piercing bullet
saw the hero fall, and from the
gaping wound gushed forth the
rudy current and trickled down the
hillside. My countrymeA, in my