The herald., 1898-09-20
GREAT BATTLEFIELDS
Large Audience Attends DR.. W. A..
Spencer's Lecture

SpeuCer'S Lecture
DR.. W. A. Spencer preceded his lecture
on Great Battlefields" last evening in the
First M. e. church with a song, 1.-The Bat
tie Hymn of the Republic" and invited the
audience to join in the chorus. Like his
predecessor in Methodist church extension
work, Chaplain McCabe, DR.. Spencer was
one of the singing chaplains of the Civil
war. and still keepI up his musical habits
with true Methodist fervor and accompa-
nies himself on the organ.
The church was filed both In the gallery
and lower floor. The Grand Army posts
and corps were guests of honor and occu
pied the center of the audience room. The
speaker was introduced by Ex-Governor
Beveridge in highly complimentary terms,
the former having served under the gov
ernor as chaplain of the Eighth Illinois
regiment DR.. Spencer sang 1--WE Were
Boys When We Enlisted" as he explained
to cover his confusion and restore his equi-
librium.
DR.. Spencer said he enlisted in that
branch of the service In which men were
not expected to get killed, the cavalry. No
sensible cavalryman got killed If he did not
have to. The cavalrymen were the eyes
and hands of the generals. They were ex-
pected to go ahead and feel Of the enemy,
and decide whether 1t was better to hold
on or let go. The great cavalry battle of
the war was Beverly ford, which the speak
er described, and related several incidents,
some of a personal nature. 1t was the pc
culiar privilege of the chaplain in the Civil
war to be lied about. Any soldier who
did not lie about his chaplain was invited
to stand up, but to the amusement of the
audience, no one accepted the invitation
Great battles are the history Of all ma
tions. The nation that will not try to kill
the mad dog that threatens the life of its
own or another people is not worthy the
name of nation. Thus far in the history
Of the world there were no great battles in
ancient times and no great battles have
been fought on Asiatic soil. Many So
called battles were mere panics on one
side and skirmishes on the other. The
speaker reviewed Crecy's list of fifteen
decisive battles Of the world, the numbers
engaged and losses in killed and wounded
He then compared them with Napoleon's
battles, notablyMoscow, and then the most
disastrous engagements Of the Civil war
The battle of Moscow began at Z a. m.
and lasted until 8 p m. and 95, 900 men
went down i1 that awful struggle. For
eight hours 25000 men fought desperately,
and three men went down for every heart
beat in that time. We had patches like that
in the Civil war, but none where the loss
vas so great in the same length Of time.
At Fredericksburg 1900 men scaled the
eights. and in thirty minutes but 1000
came down again. This was in the Army
Of the Potomac, the army which paid the
highest price in blood for the fewest bat
ties. The speaker described Pickett's fa-
nous charge at Gettysburg. where Long
street protested against Lees sending so
many men to certain DEATH 444S Confed-
crate soldiers went In and 228S never camc
out. On that famous battlefield there
stands monument to the First Minnesota
with this inscription: mot One Missing"
Every man in 1t sttod up to die for his
country
Chickamauga, Charlottesville and other
battles were described, where the loss in
killed. and wounded was extreme. DR..
Spencer Is fluent speaker, with good de.
scriptive ability. He moves his audience
from smiles to tears and then to smiles
again, as he portrays the pathetic and hu-
morous scenes of that greatest of all con-
1icts in the worlds history.