Connecticut western news., 1897-05-27
WRITERSIN THE WAR
HEIR MEMORIAL AT CHAMPIONS
 GAP AND ITS RECORDS.
rhe Surviving War Correspondents and What Some of Them Are Doing-Their Valuable but Unappreciated Service. Only One Who Has Made a Fortune.

rhe Surviving War Correspondents and
 What Some of Them Are Doing-Their
 Valuable but Unappreciated Service.
 Only One Who Has Made a Fortune.
 [Copyright, 1897, by the Author
 Not many Americans of the present gen ration-counting generation ct 10 years know anything personally of war corre- spondents. Our great civil war began 36 years ago. It Is 32 since it closed. The majority of the correspondents in the field are now dead. Of about 150, or more, who described the events of the struggle with pen and pencil, only 80 or 40 arc alive This shows how active death ever Is among all classes at all ages. Not even. so many would have survived had not nearly all of them embraced the calling while they were in the early twenties- little more than boys indeed. The war for the preservation of the Union was fought by very young men. They were styled ! veterans at its termination, though many were not then 30.
 The average duration of human life aft CT maturity is much shorter than is com monly believed. Almost any one of good 
 thought, on reaching 21 continue until 60, or beyond. But 1t Is not so. Accidents and acute diseases, which are not and can not be taken into account beforehand, add greatly to the average mortality. We do not, it Is generally held, begin to miss va cancies in the ranks with which we set out on our world march until we have passed our sixth decade at least. But the vacan- cies are really forced on our attention be- fore 50, often even before 70. Let any man of 40 or thereabout recall, if he can, how many'of the associates of his early boy hood arc still among his contemporaries, and he will realize the truth of what has been said.
 The correspondents north and south of the war, most of whom wero almost for gotten by the multitude, have recently been commemorated. A memorial was completed and dedicated to them last au tumn at Gapland, or Crampton's Gap, pass in the South Mountain range near Burkittsville, Frederick county, Md. The scene of the battle of South Mountain, which occurred Sept. II, 1862, 1t is on branch of the Baltimore and Ohio rail- road. It is also in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, Cedar Creek, Antietam, Gettysburg and other fields famous in the four years contest between the north and south. It has heen to people at large an obscure place. The erection, however, of the me morial--a double feudal, picturesque gate way, mainly of granite and rubble stone, some 00 feet high, having large arch at the base, three smaller arches above and solid, pictorial, striking tower on ono side ! tends to make the Gap noted and keep the memory of the correspondents green.
 The names of about 130 of them are en- grayed on tablets inserted in the memorial. Some of the names, as those of Henry M. Stanley, Henry J. Raymond, John A. Cockerill, David B. Strother (Porte Cray on) and the Comte de Paris, are not those of the war correspondents. They were in- scribcd on the memorial for causes indirect ly connected with the struggle. Not few of the men recorded gained little rromi- hence; others may not deserve to be there; others, again, who were conspicuous in the field have been omitted in the list. George Alfred Townsend, who originated the idea of the monument, who collected the money for its building, about S6,000, and who supervised the entire work, did his utmost to select the proper names, but naturally had great difficulty in deciding among the conflicting claims He certainly did what he undertook to do very well, did it eco- nomically conscientiously, wholly without personal recompense. But for him the memorial would not in all probability have been erected at all.
 The northern war correspondents surely merit remem brance by the republic. They endured, they suffered much in Its behalf and had no recognition either from their country or the community. They were in the army, but not of it. They shared all its discomforts and dangers and none of its re- wards They were imprisoned, some of them sent up for one and two years; they were wounded, even killed, but none of the glory so bountifully extended to the regular soldiers was theirs. Many of their deeds brilliant daring in the extreme,